I bought my wife her very first brand new car at Fairway Ford in Anderson. After hours of negotiations, we finally made an agreement with our trade in and it was after hours by this time. My wife was to pick up our new car the next day as I had to work and all the paper work had been taken care of. Upon her arrival, she was told there had been a problem with the financing and they had to make some minor changes to the contract with the bank that would make our payments about $20.00 more each month. My wife signed the papers thinking they were trustworthy.
Soon I found out the payments increased by $100.00 per month and also added another year to the loan, we struggled to make these payments. Our new car also came with free oil changes during the finance period that we also paid for dearly. Everytime my wife would take the car in for the free oil change, she would be there for two to three hours as they would take all the wheels off the car at each visit. My wife called me crying several times during these so called free oil change visits because they would scare the living hell out of her by coming up with expensive repairs that our new car needed.
On one visit, she was told the car needed an entire engine flush and coolant change at a cost of $830.00. My wife was terrified and did not know what this meant, I had to call them and tell them to put the wheels and tires back on the car and let my wife leave. It got to the point that my wife hated to go to this dealership alone because the mechanics were very rude to her and would still remove the wheels at every visit and keep the car up on a lift for hours, even after she would tell them she had errands to run and wanted the oil change only because she was in a hurry. On several occasions the mechanic would leave the car up on the lift and go to lunch.
On her last visit to this dealership for a free oil change we requested the brakes to be checked as they were squealing some. I knew it most likely needed a brake job by this time but wanted to know their opinion. Once again my wife called me crying and upset because the mechanic had told her the brakes were totally shot and that she could not leave with the car in this condition.
I was furious at this point and fed up with these mechanics always trying to take advantage of women so I left my job to travel to Fairway Ford, before I arrived my wife called me back and said they gave her a price of $1,200.00 for the complete brake job and four rotors. I made them lower my car against there will, had some choice words with them and went home and replaced the brakes and had the rotors machined (turned) for around $50.00. Then my stereo stopped playing in the car and the cruise control would get hung up and not shut off and the dome lights would stay on and not go out. Of course they could not verify these problems so I was basically a liar, but with the use of my $2,500.00 extended warranty, I was able to purchase a new stereo to correct the problem at a price of $100.00. Now the stereo, the cruise control and the dome light situation still exists after spending this money and after I told them repeatedly that it had to be a computer problem.
Shortly after this last visit we suddenly lost our brakes one day, only to find that the brake lines had been rubbing against the rear springs of the car and they told me I had run over something and bent the lines or it was caused by ice and snow building up on the lines. (Hello, we live in S.C. Not a lot of ice and snow here) Not even possible if you look under the car, because they are both protected by miscellaneous metal parts. This was probably a poor design by Ford as the new Brake lines that I ordered and installed had a totally different bend in the metal portion of the lines to keep them away from the rear coil springs. This cost me $67.00 to repair myself.
Now the car is resting quietly on my carport with a blown engine that I am told cannot be repaired and must have a total engine replacement at a price of $5,261.00. I never knew trying to do something good for my wife would be so costly. This was her first ever brand new car and I was hoping for the peace and assurance that she and my daughter would be traveling in the car worry free. This has left us feeling like we never want to buy a new car again and with the mental anguish they put us through we would definately not buy one at this dealership and I will continue to tell everyone that I know to steer clear of Fairway Ford of Anderson S.C.in case you are wondering, the car in question is a 2003 Ford Expedition XLT.
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