Dealer Woes

[glanga]

alright, my 03 ls v8 prem sport, its a beautiful car but my god its plauged. i bought the car this past september from a ford dealer in philadelphia, the car is loaded since it was bought originally for owner of the dealership. long story short i bought the car literally right after it was traded in so the dealer didnt prep it before selling it. they wrote an IOU for 1. a missing passenger side front floor mat up to $20 2. the rear bumper was scratched nice and deep (dont get how since it has the backup sensors unles prev owner was an idiot) so they would pay for that to be painted 3. a squeaking belt i beleive when the engine is cold or when its humid or is raining out.

after a few weeks i noticed more stuff

the passenger side a pillar leaked when raining
nasty vibration in rear speaker deck
nasty lurch when going uphil and car downshifts from 5th to 4th

after 3 weeks of fighting and the salesman blowing me off i managed to get the car in to get the leak fixed, its fine now, the vibration was not fixed by them(which it took me 5 seconds to find, the plastic ring inthe metal mesh surround of the speaker) which shows they didnt even look
the squeaking belt??? i beleive was fixed for about 3 days then came back
and the bumper......paint drips all along the bottom and go and i touch it, just touch it lightly at the top and it chips.

is it just me? or does this dealers service suck? and does this car not get constant vibrations little ones?? i swear i have a new one every week. just wanted to vent....thanks

 

[97stscaddy]

Sounds like a shoddy dealer.
Any car will have random vibrations, and theres probably not a whole lot you can do about it. The pervious owner probably lived on a road that was pretty rough and it rattled everything loose. You can take the whole interior apart and put it all back together if you want.

If they did a shifty job painting the bumper take it back.
The "lurch" you're having is probably a result of the car being driven very slowly at all times by its previous owner. Take it out and drive it like you stole it, and that should go away. Im not sure if the LS uses a learning transmission or not, but most new cars will "teach" themselves your driving habits and the transmission will change its shift points and speed according to how you drive. It usually takes about 3k miles to fully "learn" your driving style, unless its totally erratic like mine... then it probably won't ever figure it out.

That A-pillar leak has been discussed several times here from what ive seen. Usually solved by adjusting the weather seal on the passenger door. Try searching for it.

 

[glanga]

the bumper is going back for paint, the a pillar was fixed it was the weather stripping

 

[RequestingFlyBy]

Check out Murphy Ford Lincoln Mercury in Chester or Ryan Lincoln Mercury in Springfield....PA of course. They are a little further from Philly, but I use both of them and haven't had any problems with either. They treat my LS almost as well as I do. Good Luck.

 

[glanga]

yeah well i know someone in the service dept who hooks me up so i cant beat that, labor free, i just pay for parts and even those are discounted. its mostly the salesman who sold me the car, i have to go through him for everything. hes a greasy p.o.s. if anyone really wants to know the dealership and salesman so you can avoid him then pm me, i feel bad just saying it on here haha.

 

[T_Man]

Why do you have to go through a Salesman for service? Do you need his permission or something?

That seems weird to me. Why not go directly to the service department and have them deal with it? If the car is still under warranty or if you have everything they are supposed to fix in writing, take the car to the Service Manager and say "Here, Fix It"!

 

[glanga]

becauseof the IOU the salesman wrote

 

[glanga]

and the bumper painting is done off premises and its the salesman who makes the appointment for it, and its a hike for me to get to philadelphia so i have to coordinate the bumper appointment and the rest of the service