Ford Windstar Refunds

I wrote to you in early Jan. decribing how my 95 windstar caused me hardship. After Ford Canada did not return my original phone call I decided to phone again. I was assured that in ten working days I would be getting a return call. I did not hold out much hope, but in ten days a Ford rep phoned.

He asked how many kms were on my van at the time of the breakdown. I told him 172,000kms. He told me to fax a copy of the bill to him. Just before hanging up he asked if I had any other problems with my van. I said yes I just had to redue the transmission. He asked to have that bill faxed also even though I had my van repaired at a private shop.

My total on the bills faxed was $3300.00. The next day this person from Ford phoned offering me $2300.00. I was very surprised and happy. It still cost me a thousand but at least I got something. They paid 90% on my head gasket and 50% on my transmission.

I was planning to replace a 1995 Ford Windstar with a new Ford truck. Had some loss of coolant, private mechanic replaced thermostat and serviced radiator; problem persisted; head gasket blew. Kenly Ford claimed no recall; received letter from Ford next day. Dunn Benson Ford said there was a recall, but details were sketchy, rebates of up to $4000, Ford buying vehicles, several options, was told to call Ford Customer Assistance.

Was told Service Mgr. would review and replace head gasket and if head gasket affected engine, then Ford would give me option of 1. Replace engine, or 2. Buy back at Blue Book value and give me $3000 certificate, or 3. Give me $4000 certificate and let me keep car.

Towed car to Dunn Benson Ford on March 31, they called April 13, said would allow $3500 trade and Ford would give $1000. Called Ford, they said would replace head gasket only. Have been without car since Feb. 13; cannot get anything in writing or same story twice.

I have in the meantime ordered a 2001 Ford F-150 from Dunn Benson Ford, thinking I would get $3000 + book value or $4000 that I could use to replace engine. Cannot sell vehicle without replacing engine. What is the REAL STORY on what Ford will do? Have talked to 3 people at Ford Customer service plus dealer and have 4 different stories.

The real story? Good question. Between Ford Customer Service and the dealers, it's basically a variant of the old shell game. Now you ssee it, now you don't.

On Jan 14th, 2000, we took our Ford Windstar to Matt Ford Sales in Buckner, MO for the repair of a blown head gasket. At that time the Windstar was five and one half years old and had approx. 47,000 miles. After reading of the Windstar's troubles, we decided to trade it while it was at Matt Ford and bought a 2000 Crown Victoria on Jan 17th, 2000.

In that trade, it was acknowledged by Matt Ford that we were paying for the Windstar repairs which cost something over $900. However, we were NOT given a receipt for that work. (The Service Dept. was closed when we finalized the sale of the Crown Victoria and we were told that dept. would give us a receipt later. That never happened.)

Then we got a letter from Ford Motor Company telling of their 00M09 program that would either pay for the head gasket repairs OR give us a discount on a new Ford product. We called the Matt Ford dealership who basically told us that without our receipt, we were out of luck. They said they were unable to print us out a receipt after the fact.

We had said to our salesman, Bill Dull, at Matt Ford Sales that we understood that we would be paying for the repairs to the Windstar in the transaction to trade it for the Crown Victoria. He agreed.

We cannot believe that Ford does not know we paid for those repairs. They have us in files under the Windstar and the Crown Victoria. They know what we have done and why - or would know why if some of the folks at Matt Ford were called into court! THEY all certainly know what was done and why we traded cars!

We wrote to Ford, who telephoned us. They told us that we had fallen through the cracks and that there was nothing they could do to help us. I have been a loyal Ford customer all my driving life (over 30 years). Being a respected engineer, I have convinced friends and family to buy Ford Motor products. We trade cars about every 4 years and we are a two car family.

The incredible stupidity of Ford in taking this attitude that they can help everyone else but not us tells us a great deal. We can cost them far more in the next 5 years time than it would cost them just to make us happy now!

comment: Can someone explain to me why Ford is only covering certain vehicles with a headgasket failure. I own a 93 Thunderbird & had to replace the head gasket at 55,000 miles. I thought the same engine,i.e. the 3.8L V6 engine was the same engine in the Windstar, Taurus,etc. Can someone tell me why it isnt covered by Ford.

The short answer is that Ford is doing the least it thinks it can get by with. The slightly longer answer can be found in the complaint below:

Hello, My name is Bryon and I own a '94 Ford Taurus which is supposed to be covered by an extended warranty by Ford due to the head gasket problem as described in their 98M01 notice. My car had began to overheat and I was experiencing problems with the heating system, anti-freeze loss, etc. I took my car to the local dealer (Tennessee Motors) and they refused to acknowledge the warranty extension because it has been longer than 5 years from the vehicle's original warrant start date. The repair estimate was $929 ($304 parts and $625 labor). My car has 54,539 miles on it and feel it should be still under the extended warranty. The warranty states "The no charge coverage for this condition is available on affected Taurus, Sable, and Windstars for 5-years or 60,000 miles from the vehicle's original warranty date and is automatically transferred to subsequent owners." Nowhere in this stipulation is the common warranty phrase "whichever comes first". The absence of this phrase would lead one to believe that the warranty was good as long as a persons car met either one of the conditions. The dealer would not perform any warranty work until it was approved by Ford and gave me their toll free number to call. The Ford representative told me although the "whichever comes first" phrase is not included in the statement, it is implied. After expressing my dissatisfaction with her answer I asked to speak with a higher authority. She then put me on hold for about three minutes after which she told me that since I had less than 60K miles on my car she would contact the dealer to see if I would qualify for financial assistance. She explained that this assistance would be a sharing of the repair costs between myself, Ford, and the Dealership. She gave me a case number 900260992 and said that the dealer would contact me in two working days (approximately 2/16/00) to tell me if I qualify for the assistance. Although the assistance would be better than having to pay for the total repair cost, I still feel that these costs should be born solely by Ford. I would appreciate any help or advice you can give in this matter. Best Regards, Bryon