Hmmm. Ford. I will never ever purchase another Ford again!
In the fall of 1996, I bought a 1996 Ford Aspire. It had only 60 miles on it. Well that I knew of. When I drove it off the lot, my friend and I went to a place for dinner, and when we were leaving the restaraunt the car wouldn't start.
So, I called the dealership and spoke to someone there who transferred me to the Sales guy. He arranged for a tow truck to come pick the car up, and take it back to the dealership. When the guy from the Tow truck service came, he got inside the car and asked me if I had noticed that the Trip odometer had more mileage that the actual odometer? I hadn't. I mean who looks at those sorts of things? Any way when the car was towed back, we waited for an hour and the salesman told me that it would need to be left overnight and I could come back the following morning and pick it up. While I was there I asked the salesman about the mileage, and he told me sometimes that happens. I was young and a doo head, and believed him. My friend who had also purchased a new car the same day said we could come back the next morning to get it.
The next day when I went to get the vehicle, they told me it would be ready by noon. So we had to wait around until it was fixed. Turned out the battery was completely dead and the alternator was faulty. So they had to replace both. Noon came around and the car still wasn't done. So I asked them if there was another vehicle with similar options ect. We could just substitute. The salesman said no. The car I had purchased and the one my friend had purchased were the last two. (How convenient!) So I had to wait for the thing to get done, then drive to my hometown 200 miles away. (We went to a metro area to purchase since our hometown was so secluded and what vehicles they had were outrageously expensive) Finally at 3 in the afternoon the car was done. And we departed.
I drove half way home and the "Check Engine" light popped on. The engine drug down and the vehicle had lost quite a bit of horsepower. Once in my hometown, I took it to the Local Ford dealer to be repaired. They did a diognostics testing and found nothing wrong. This occured more that 10 times. Finally very angry and frusterated I called Ford Motor credit and told them look, the car I have is a hunk of junk! It does fall under the Colorado Lemon law and someone either fix it, or you are getting it back. The lady on the line said it is fully warrantied and I should take it to be fixed. I actually moved to the Denver area, with a job transfer. So I had more than enough dealerships to take the car to for repairs.
I tried 4 different dealerships, all came to the conclusion it was "ME".in the summer of 1997, I called Ford told them come get the car. The lady stated that it would be considered a voluntary reposession, and I asked her to file the appropriate work for the Lemon Law. She said that I would need documentation from all the places I took it too. So I tried to gather all the info, sent it in. And assumed it was taken care of. They came and got the car, I declined the option for a replacement as I was very dissatisfied with the Ford product. So I never heard from them until two months ago, when a collection agency sent me a bill for 9239.00. I promptly called the Agency explained this car was under the Lemon Law, the lady at the agency told me to call Ford Motor Credit as they were the creditor. I called them spoke to five or six representatives.
Finally got someone intelligent enough to understand what I was talking about. She said if I could send all the information, papers signed, receipts for vehicle repairs she could investigate it. I told her I have moved more than three times, and I no longer had the information. She advised me to call all the places I took the car to, and get the receipts. Since 4 years had past they had all perged their files, and all they had was my name.
So I was SCREWED! I had a bad debt on my credit for something that was a LEMON in the beginning. I called the Collection Agency and they said they had a settlement of 900. I could pay and have the debt come up as paid on my credit. I have paid the debt, but can tell you I will never look at a Ford product again. I will drive a Yugo first.
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