I'll tell my story at the end of this post, to spare those who'd rather not read it.
After much bickering, the local dealership (Gabus Ford in Des Moines) has called in a Ford field rep. to look at my 1999 SVT. I would like to bring with me:
1)a list of owners who have had this *specific* problem (difficulty shifting into 1st/Reverse).
2)If it's fixed, and if so what was done and by whom.
It's appreciated, and I will followup.
Now for the ranting
-Brought the car in and told them the problem. They spent 2 minutes driving it around and couldn't reproduce (duh, it's intermittant). Told them it's getting worse anyway so I'd bring it back.
-Brought it back in 2 weeks later and was able to reproduce. Incompetent service manager tried the Jedi mind trick on me and attempted to convince me it was normal--as if after 2 years I had no concept of what normal is.
-They somehow came to know that an "updated" tranny was available. Yeah!....installed it a couple weeks later. Told me it shifted a little rough but to give it some time. Not only does it shift a little rough...but it had the same problem
-A gave it a few weeks (knowing better than to give them ANY reason to dismiss me) and called back to explain the problem. Incompetent service manager wants me to AGAIN prove to him that the problem exists. Apparently he has become aware of my excessive-compulsive desire to be without a car, miss work, and bicker with idiots...all without reason. I got the general manager involved. He too wanted me to prove that the problem existed. HERE'S THE GREAT PART....he gets in the car, starts it up, and HE CAN'T GET IT INTO REVERSE!!! Beauty. I thought I had FINALLY made my point. However, after driving around for a few minutes he has the audacity to pronounce, "I think that may have just been because I'm not used to shifting this car". LOL. He decides we need to bring in a Ford field rep to look at the car. He's not bringing the rep in to figure out what's wrong though...he's bringing in a Ford field rep to determine whether there even IS a problem. Apparently neither of them qualifies having difficulty shifting into 1st/reverse as a "problem". So NOW, on a dime I have to demonstrate the problem to yet another Ford representative. I can only asssume that their hoping one of these times I won't be able to reproduce the problem and they can say "looks ok to me".
