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**Guest** · January 8, 2013, 08:33 AM

And my seat belt in my 2000 F250 is frayed. It only has 158,000 miles on it and "I WANT A NEW TRUCK" How do we say "IDIOTS"
This is my opinion and does not reflect the opinion of "Squarebirds.org" or its members!
Richard D. Hord

**DKheld** · January 8, 2013, 11:36 AM

Well......sort of does for me.

NOT A FORD but years back I bought a Chevy Astro Conversion van to adapt for wheelchair accessibility for my son.

Beautiful - loved it - ran great - right size etc. We honestly tried an E150 conversion van first but it was just too big.

At 2500 miles the valve covers started leaking bad (probably from the beginning just didn't notice until enough oil had made it to the manifolds). Smoke was pretty bad coming out from the hood.
Took it to the selling dealer who diagnosed the valve cover gasket problem. When they were replacing the valve cover gaskets they dropped a bolt down in the engine. Long story short - after cranking the engine and stuff making a bunch of clanking sounds - they had to replace the engine. While in the shop to replace the engine (for over 4 weeks) - the doors were left open and mice got into the van chewing holes in a few places in the interior. After it was finished cleaned and repaired - the shop guy ran into the back of someone while he was test driving it - not bad - air bags didn't deploy but enough to have to repaint the bumper.

The dealer said they didn't "think" it did any other damage. I asked to have an extended warranty on the van to cover the "don't thinks" that might pop up. They refused so I decided I no longer wanted the van. Went to a lawyer about the Lemon Law. He said it qualified without a doubt but didn't want to take the case because he said so few results ever were in favor of the client and those that were took lots of time and money.

I chose arbitration with GM. All I wanted was my original purchase price and what they had given me for my trade in - basically back to where I started - no exorbitant monetary gains or being taken care of for the rest of my life due to pain and suffering, no rental fees for the wheelchair van we had to rent when ours was in the shop etc - just give me my dang money back. The final blow was the rep. from GM telling me that they couldn't give me all my money back for my trade because they had given me too much for it.

Fortunately at the time my son was the MDA ambassador for our state. I called a good friend at a local TV station and asked if they would call GM for an interview. Next day I had my full refund. If I hadn't had that connection I would have been out a bunch of money that I needed for a new van.

My point here is that when you buy something in good faith there really needs to be some type of protection when that transaction goes wrong or the product is faulty (granted there are unreasonable folks that try to take advantage of every situation). I feel like the Lemon Law doesn't even have enough teeth when it comes to consumer protection. It's very hard for and individual to fight a big corporation and their money and they know it.

I do think these folks are being a little unreasonable about the color but the judge has a good point - I sure wouldn't want a pink truck to replace my current silver one. Seems like as big a company as Ford is they could find the folks a vehicle they cold all agree on then move on.

Now on the other hand we have a 2008 Escape and have only had the transmission cooler line recall and an A/C door actuator problem @ 50K miles - love it.

JMHO
Eric

**Yadkin** · January 9, 2013, 12:56 PM

What, Ford can't give them a red one?

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Couple sues Ford because Escape lemon replacement is wrong color [w/poll]

Couple sues Ford because Escape lemon replacement is wrong color [w/poll]

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