I own a 99 contour LX, bought it new in July 99. Less than a year later, June 2000, the dash was coming apart near the passenger defrost, looked like crap. Dealer fixed it with a whole new dash, took 4 days, he gave me rental car. I was told they needed to remove windhsield for this?
Then in June 2001 exact same thing, exact same place. Dealership puts a whole new dash in, #3, takes just 3 days this time. This tells me that supplier is supplying grossly defective part, and that the part is not getting fixed - despite massive failure rate Ford's supplier keeps making the same old crap.
Replacing the dash twice has given the car a number of squeaks and rattles deep in the dash. My bigger concern is this: if Ford keeps buying dashes that only last a year, when my car leaves warranty (about 10 months from now), what will I do?! Every year I am supposed to pay dealership for 2000 dollar repair?!
My concern is that Ford find a way of fixing the dash, a way that lasts more than a year. Either fix the defective part or find a way to fix the old dash.
If within a year of warranty running out the dash goes south again I'm going to raise holy heck. It is totally unacceptable to knowingly repair with defective parts.
So does anyone know: has Ford finally started buying dashes that don't warp?! Or does the repair kit work for more than a year?
