It's interesting the folks that take the side of Ford Motor Co. and defend them to the end. Bad service is bad service. I should probably go to another dealership, but this one is SVT "certified" and all the repair history of the car has been completed here. They are very nice guys, very patient, very willing to "make it right", but you're right. They're swamped. I dropped my car off this last time at 7:45AM and already there was a line of 7 cars outside the bay entrance. What's worse, is most of them were new (new SVT Cobra, new Ranger Splash, newish Lincoln Mk8. I talked to a couple of these guys as we were waiting to be checked in, and an alarming number of them were there for what would end up being major warranty work. Left front brake caliper dragging (pulls hard to left under braking), mysterious clacking noise from engine bay (we SVT owners know what that is), broken power steering, etc. Maybe this is standard-issue stuff for most manufacturers. My last two cars were a Nissan Maxima and a Honda civic, respectively. I drove both of them roughly 70,000 miles, changed the oil every 15-20K and never had a problem other than getting a CD stuck in the head unit on my Maxima, and worn rear wheel bearings on the Civic. Lucky? Maybe.
I love my Ford, I enjoy the hell out of it. I'm just beginning to realize that it WILL break more often than a jap car, and the level of service I should expect at the dealership WILL be sub-par. It's unfortunate, but true. Sorry if I hurt any of you guys' feelings... it's nothing personal.
Having said that, my next car will either be the new GM LS1 sedan (from Aussie), an SVT Cobra (new supercharged one) or a C5 'vette. So these experiences haven't scared me away from American cars. The car/dollar ratio is what makes American cars so attractive. Yeah, I expect to get a little less reliability out of a 340hp American car than I would out of a 340HP Infiniti, but then again, it's tens of thousands of dollars cheaper.
