I bought a new 2009 Ford Escape in late January to specifically tow behind my motor home. The Escape owner's manual states that this can be done. I had towed a Honda CRV for over 50,000 miles, trouble free but wanted to buy American so when Ford came out with the 2009 model and said it could be towed I didn't look anywhere else and bought the Ford. Big mistake! While returning from a long trip to Canada in August the transmission burned up. The car had about 8500 odometer miles on it at the time.in July of after 200 miles of towing the car since the first failure it burned up again. The car had approx. 10,200 odometer miles on it at the time. I had to leave the car in Amarillo, TX and bought a new Honda CR-V to continue on with our trip. Eventually I sold the car to the Amarillo dealer at a substantial loss after Ford refused to buy it back three times. The fact is Ford has bought several Escapes back after four transmission failures. A casual search on Google under "Ford Escape Transmission Failures towing" will yield several reports. Some have actually caught fire. Mine almost caught fire on the first failure. Most State Lemon laws kick in after four failures. I couldn't accept having to endure two more failures before Ford would buy it back primarily because we do only long distance travel of 4-8 weeks at a time and having the transmission fail early in a trip and then waiting 2-3 weeks for the repair (that's the average for most of the reported failures I've seen online) is unacceptable. It might be different if we did only local "camping" within a 100 or 200 miles of home but we don't. Our average trip is 3500 miles. I want Ford to be fair and make it right by reimbursing me for my loss. Following is a letter sent to Ford dated July 18.
July 19 Via USPS Express Overnight Mail Ford Motor Company
Customer Service
P.O. Box 6248, MD4S-B
Dearborn, MI 48126 RE: 2009 FORD ESCAPE VIN: 1FMCU03719KA28994 CUSTOMER SERVICE CASE #0556042390
Gentlemen:
I am writing this letter to appeal your decision not to re-purchase the above vehicle from me. As a long term Ford stockholder and customer this greatly disappoints me. Via this letter I am asking you to reconsider your decision.
As I explained to your Customer Service Representative, Nikki, on July 13, I purchased the subject vehicle in January specifically to tow behind my motor home. I had previously towed a foreign made vehicle over 50,000 miles without any problems and as the time approached to replace it I learned that the 2009 Ford Escape could be towed with all four wheels on the ground. I verified this by going to my local Ford dealer who showed me the Owner’s Manual for the 2009 Escape and the pages that stated it could be towed with all four wheels on the ground. With that knowledge and the fact that I was a Ford stockholder and long term customer and that I wanted to buy American I purchased the Escape without checking with any other brands.
In May I received a letter from Ford Motor Company asking me to take the vehicle to my local Ford dealer to reprogram the transmission and adjust the fluid level for towing. I took it to Robinson Ford in Baton Rouge, LA on June 15 to have this work done. At that time I also received new instructions from Ford for preparing the vehicle for towing which I have carefully followed since then.
On August 15, while returning from an extended trip to Alberta, Canada, the transmission began smoking on I-49 near Ville Platte, LA. I had the vehicle transported
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To Hub City Ford in Lafayette, LA for repair. Hub City Ford installed a new 2010 transmission with some updates that were supposed to solve the problem. When I picked up the Escape on August 27 from Hub City Ford the odometer had 8,260 miles on it. Due to several factors we have not towed it since then until departing July 6 on this current trip to Colorado. On that date the odometer reading was approximately 10,200 miles.
On October 18, with 8,850 miles on the odometer, I took the vehicle back to Robinson Ford in Baton Rouge and they performed another transmission program update procedure and checked the fluid level.
Since October I have returned the vehicle at least three times to Robinson Ford for a problem with the transmission. When cold and within the first one-half mile of travel, the transmission “flared” when shifting from 2nd to 3rd gear under very moderate acceleration in my subdivision where the speed limit is 30 mph. I know other Escape owners have reported a similar problem. Robinson Ford could never replicate the problem and it continued to occur as late as July 6th when we left on our current trip to Colorado.
When we departed Baton Rouge on July 6, I stopped after only approximately 80 miles to check the Escape and run through the transmission towing prep procedure. Everything appeared normal. The recommended procedure is to do the towing prep procedure every six hours.
I stopped again after another 125 miles and the transmission was smoking and the engine wouldn’t start. A small amount of oil had “burped” out of the fill tube and down onto the transmission housing causing the smoke. After a few minutes the engine started and I ran through the towing procedure again. It engaged all of the gears and stopped smoking. We continued onto to our destination which was Hot Springs, Arkansas. After staying there two days and driving the Escape around Hot Springs with no problems we departed on July 8th and proceeded to Melissa, Texas north of Dallas, a distance of approximately 280 miles. I stopped several times along the way to check the Escape and run the towing procedure. We made it to Melissa without any problems and drove around north Dallas over that weekend with no problems.
On Monday July 11, we departed Melissa, Texas for Amarillo, Texas, a distance of about 380 miles. I stopped every 100 miles or less to check the Escape and run the transmission procedure. Approximately 130 miles from Amarillo, Texas, the transmission was smoking again and the engine would not start. After a short time the engine could be started and I ran through the towing procedure. The transmission
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Engaged all of the gears and cooled off. After that I stopped every 25-30 miles to check the transmission until we reached Amarillo.
On Tuesday July 12, I was able to drive the Escape to Tri-State Ford in Amarillo for diagnosis and repair. The transmission technician told me the transmission was “fried” and needed to be replaced. On that date the odometer reading was approximately
10,400 miles and the vehicle had been towed 1,054 miles since the new transmission was installed.
I would like to point out that since buying our motor home in August we have driven it over 77,000 miles. I set the cruise control at 60 mph for safety, fuel economy and due to the towing restrictions on our tow vehicles including the Escape. During this time we have stayed in our motor home 691 nights through tonight. Of those 691 nights only 7 have been in Louisiana. My point is we purchased our motor home for long distance travel, not for weekend excursions to local areas. We typically spend three to eights weeks at a time traveling from California to the East Coast and to western and eastern Canada. On trips such as these we need a tow vehicle that is trouble free. On this current trip we lost a full week waiting in Amarillo before continuing on without the Escape. This is unacceptable not to mention the additional expense we have incurred due to this situation.
I don’t think it is fair for Ford to expect me to continue with the Escape with the distinct possibility of additional low mileage transmission failures. Further, as a Ford stockholder, I question the economic sense of risking another transmission failure, given that two transmissions have already failed at considerable cost to Ford. Whatever profit Ford booked on the sale of this vehicle is now long gone. The sensible thing for Ford to do is buy the vehicle back and resell it into a non-towing application where it will do fine. It’s a great vehicle but you can’t tow it.
Public awareness of this problem and Ford’s reluctance to act aggressively to address the situation is growing. It is damaging Ford’s otherwise rising customer perception of quality and market share. What is really a shame is, this doesn’t have to happen.
Having been in the construction equipment dealer business for nearly thirty-years I can attest to the fact that the quickest, cheapest and fairest way to resolve these types of problems is for the manufacturer and customer to come to a settlement early on without involving third parties.
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All I am asking is for Ford to be fair and reasonable as I fully intend to be. I paid $22,058 for my Escape. Make me a fair offer, allowing for depreciation and that it only has 10,400 miles on the odometer and is in excellent condition, and I will likely accept it. Doing so will keep me a Ford customer for life.By the way, during my nearly thirty years in the construction equipment dealership business I have probably purchased over 500 Ford trucks and cars and continue to recommend Ford products.
Thank you for reconsidering my request.
Very truly yours,
Richard T. Hevey
C: Mr. Alan Mulally, President and CEO Ford Motor Company
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