Never buying a Ford again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First of all I just got my 2000svt contour in late July with 35,000 miles. I started noticing the gas pedal sticking. (small thing really) I simply cleaned the throttle body.

Next my car started to buck violently. I took it in and was told nothing could be done until a light came on or a code showed up. After about a week I noticed this would only happen at below half a tank of gas but really bad at a quarter tank. Hince the fuel pump is going bad. I took the car in a second time because the car was really bad. I had two mechanics ride along. During the ride they both agreed it was the fuel pump. (keep in mind this is all covered under warranty) I then was harrased about not getting a rental to drive.(different story) Anyways, when I dropped the car off for the fuel pump to be changed the service guy asked if anything else needed to be look at. I said not really but there is a small squeek coming from the right front fender. I said you can look at it but it's not that big of a deal. The service guy said "no problem, we'll take care of it". Now comes the *censored* up part. After five days of calling to see what the problems were and non returned phone calls- I get some info. The fuel pump was the problem. They said it would be covered under warranty and I would just have to pay the deductible and the cost of the fuel filter and labor. fuel filter= $17.45 + labor 1/2 hr $36.00. I can handle that.

The service guy then says he had three different mechanics drive my car to see what the squeeking was and they didn't know. Once again I said this wasn't that much of a problem and if they couldn't figure it out it wasn't that much of a problem. He said it wasn't and said he would call back when they knew. I asked for a total on the bill. He stuttered and after about five minutes of trying to find a sheet where it was written down he said he would have to call me back. Later today I heard nothing from him and gave him a call. He told me that after numerous attempts of lubbing the chassi they finally fixed it. I was happy until he said it would be $260.00 for just lubing the car. First of all I never said fix the squeek and was never told this wasn't covered under warranty. He said "yeah man, I didn't realize it was going to take this much and it costs so much for the labor". I said, you offered to fix it and never mentioned any charge or it not being covered under warranty. I then talked to the service manager and (explained again and again and...) he finally said " since the initial service guy offered to do this and never informed you of any costs then we will take care of it. So, as I drive the wounderful mouse powered rental Focus back I had time to cool down.

sort of. I go to pay and the total was $106.00. After all of that I gave in and paid the man. The intial service guy that I was dealing with talked to me and was appologizing over and over. He admitted to his mistakes and even had the nerve to ask for a good review when I get a follow up service call.

Now, as I pull out of the dealership I run over the first bump- guess what!!!!! (squeek * squeek * squeek * squeek)

I can only imagine how pissed I would have been if I paid that $260.00.

Does anyone know if this would be under any kind of lemon law? I live in Charlotte, NC. I looked these laws up but only found lemon laws on new cars.

Also, are these problems expected on 2000svt's. Should I get out of this while I can. I really like the car but for only having my car since late July and three problems already, I want to wreck the darn thing.

I had a Nissan before this and never had a major problem. That car had 180,000 miles on it.

This really just feels good to vent some anger, but any advise is appreciated!

atlest you have your car i have been without my car for 7 weeks now for a mild finder bender.
Pic's Here

mike davidson ford.

well im gonna start out by saying that i completely agree w/this cat dluv!! my 00 svt has been the biggest piece of

poo ive ever owned in my time. first off i'll tell you the squeeking noise isnt a cv boot or a spring or anything like that. mine does it on the drivers side and the problem is between the fender and the bumper, theres a clip where it bolts on and that clip rubs on the fender hence making the noise.

now to address the dealership issue.......i dealt w/richmond ford in richmond va and had the same problem w/their horrible service. my list of problems on my car personally have been a blown motor @26k, 2 blown trannys @10k and 36k miles, electrical, etc. i hate this car and its a trap b/c once you take out a loan for it your stuck and automatically upside down unless you find a way to get a really good deal. this car has had sooooo many problems that i cant truly figure out how its still running. i just recently mysteriously broke a tranny mount. the tie rod ends are destroyed as well. this car seems like a lego car made by a 2 year old who only knew how to half a@@ build it.

now im hoping that since you replaced the fuel pump it stopped "bucking". im having the same exact problem and in trying to sell the car it does me no good to have to keep it constantly on full just to try to scam someone to buy it.

bro i'll tell you like this.......i truly understand your frustration and anger and my personal and honest opinion is that its luck of the draw. sometimes you get a good one and sometimes you dont regardless of the make. this i will say though......get out ASAP!!!!! you hold this car too long and you'll pay more on upkeep and repairs than the cars value and what you owe. trust me

im so sorry to here you got probs with your motor, but i'ed go back and tell them you want your money back

Originally posted by IanX12SVT:
atlest you have your car i have been without my car for 7 weeks now for a mild finder bender.
Pic's Here

mike davidson ford.

7 weeks just for that OMG tell them to take finger out of a**

I saw this and figured I would throw my 2 cents in as well. I think Ford is probably the better of the 3 american car companies today. They used to advertise they had 5 of the top ten selling cars and I am sure they still have a few. If they are making this many sales, they must be doing something right. This is not to say they haven't made mistakes. Many dealers have screwed customers, they have made crappy cars such as the Pinto, they haven't recalled the contour waterpumps and other such things. In general: American cars are much better than they used to be, but still aren't as good as some foreign cars. Ford, in my opinion, is the best american car, but the best cars come from either Honda or Toyota. As much as people want to deny it, you can't beat either of those. Now I feel better, hehe

Originally posted by dluv:
First of all I just got my 2000svt contour in late July with 35,000 miles. I started noticing the gas pedal sticking. (small thing really) I simply cleaned the throttle body.

Next my car started to buck violently. I took it in and was told nothing could be done until a light came on or a code showed up. After about a week I noticed this would only happen at below half a tank of gas but really bad at a quarter tank. Hince the fuel pump is going bad. I took the car in a second time because the car was really bad. I had two mechanics ride along. During the ride they both agreed it was the fuel pump. (keep in mind this is all covered under warranty) I then was harrased about not getting a rental to drive.(different story) Anyways, when I dropped the car off for the fuel pump to be changed the service guy asked if anything else needed to be look at. I said not really but there is a small squeek coming from the right front fender. I said you can look at it but it's not that big of a deal. The service guy said "no problem, we'll take care of it". Now comes the *censored* up part. After five days of calling to see what the problems were and non returned phone calls- I get some info. The fuel pump was the problem. They said it would be covered under warranty and I would just have to pay the deductible and the cost of the fuel filter and labor. fuel filter= $17.45 + labor 1/2 hr $36.00. I can handle that.

The service guy then says he had three different mechanics drive my car to see what the squeeking was and they didn't know. Once again I said this wasn't that much of a problem and if they couldn't figure it out it wasn't that much of a problem. He said it wasn't and said he would call back when they knew. I asked for a total on the bill. He stuttered and after about five minutes of trying to find a sheet where it was written down he said he would have to call me back. Later today I heard nothing from him and gave him a call. He told me that after numerous attempts of lubbing the chassi they finally fixed it. I was happy until he said it would be $260.00 for just lubing the car. First of all I never said fix the squeek and was never told this wasn't covered under warranty. He said "yeah man, I didn't realize it was going to take this much and it costs so much for the labor". I said, you offered to fix it and never mentioned any charge or it not being covered under warranty. I then talked to the service manager and (explained again and again and...) he finally said " since the initial service guy offered to do this and never informed you of any costs then we will take care of it. So, as I drive the wounderful mouse powered rental Focus back I had time to cool down. sort of. I go to pay and the total was $106.00. After all of that I gave in and paid the man. The intial service guy that I was dealing with talked to me and was appologizing over and over. He admitted to his mistakes and even had the nerve to ask for a good review when I get a follow up service call.

Now, as I pull out of the dealership I run over the first bump- guess what!!!!! (squeek * squeek * squeek * squeek)

I can only imagine how pissed I would have been if I paid that $260.00.

Does anyone know if this would be under any kind of lemon law? I live in Charlotte, NC. I looked these laws up but only found lemon laws on new cars.

Also, are these problems expected on 2000svt's. Should I get out of this while I can. I really like the car but for only having my car since late July and three problems already, I want to wreck the darn thing.

I had a Nissan before this and never had a major problem. That car had 180,000 miles on it.

This really just feels good to vent some anger, but any advise is appreciated!

Possible causes of "bucking" problems have been thoroughly covered in this forum -- including info about my experience.

I had the problem. My independent repair shop diagnosed its cause and eliminated it.

Enter "bucking" into the Search tool under the Troubleshooting topic.

Man do I feel your pain, dealers could really care less if your happy about there buisiness or not they are pretty much getting paid regardless, I have spent over 5,000 in repairs on my svt and not one time did the dealer ever call me first to let me kno my cars status, It was me who had to badger the hell out of them just to get the status, and ford also fugged up my mirko splitter backing it off the rack and offerd to repair it at the body shop, which they did a good job but refused to paint it WTF after I spoke to the GM things got straightend out and painted :-) but I feel you and I dont feel ford, bunch of thieves if you ask me....

w00t!

Thats right.. my dealer pissed me off so bad I just refused to take it to them period. I had 2 sets of BFG's on the car in under 16k Miles!! Worn out insides, got first free alignment and new tires but had to pay some on it. Those wore out from 8k to 16k on the inside and I had taken them to be rotated and everything! Then I had to eat it for an alignment and another set of tires (those crapped out around 24k same issue) Ciener-Woods Ford BLOWS in the service dept.

100k mile warranty if you take it to them to get screwed every 5k for oil changes @ 30$ a pop. Whatever.. i'll change my own oil and fix it.

Oh yeah and the car felt way underpowered after about the first 4k miles and asked about it.. "well it seems normal no CEL" so blah blah, turns out now that its out of warranty I might need a new clutch and definatly need a new FUEL PUMP! 2K SVT BTW, who would have guessed a FUEL PUMP! :\

Screw them, I will fix the Fuel Pump myself. No more FORDs though the only good ones I have ever owned out of 7 are these: 1992 Escort LX (234k miles all stock including clutch) Just replaced timing belts (never went to the dealer period!).. 2 Mustangs (problem cars a 2000 and a 2000 3.8L btw. leaking seals etc.) 1998 ZX2 first year 30k miles bad main bearing :\ 2000 Lightning (Great truck dealer screwed up front bumper on night I bought it and promised to replace it, Had the SC pulley lock up and hose the belt, never got the paint right on the front bumper after 5x repaints and getting grease in my suede seats and scratching the never used Bed up) I threatened to sue them for it and they gave me an '01 Lightning for just the taxes I had to pay on it instead of my poor '00 they hosed up. The '01 is my other great ford it ran flawlessly for 5k then my wife got pregnant and I sold it outright and got the PAIN Model 2000 SVT Contour :\

Rant off :P

BTW lemon law is a yes in NC, used depends did they give you a warranty if its under warranty and etc etc has been in shop x amount of days or cost x amount of dollars then yeah you can cry lemon. Check with a local attorney.

Your squeek may be coming from the front bumper cover. Mine did that for a while and I too originally thought it was some suspension component.

Just shake the front bumper, in front of the wheel, by hand and see if that is whats making the noise. A shot of WD40 into the fender seem fixed my squeeking.

Originally posted by blackmondy:

Originally posted by IanX12SVT:
atlest you have your car i have been without my car for 7 weeks now for a mild finder bender.
Pic's Here

mike davidson ford.

7 weeks just for that OMG tell them to take finger out of a**

7 weeks and one day and they still got my car, might not have it untill some time later this week.

I have a 91 escort with abiut 160000 miles on it and it runs fine . Mainly because I took the time to learn about the fundamentals of repair work. I took about three semisters of classes on engine, trannie and body work. that way I could tell weather or not some mechanic is trying to mess me around. my svt has 70000 on it and I bought it with 45000. no problems so far.. good luck though.

Originally posted by dluv:
This really just feels good to vent some anger, but any advise is appreciated!

I know how you feel about just paying an incorrect bill just to get out of there. I did the same thing and then a few days later, went back and calmly and politely explained the situation and how the bill was too much and the service manager refunded my CC on the spot. It wouldn't hurt to have the customer sat. form in your hand also, if you have it.

To all the 2000 SVT bashers

mine's been pretty solid so far. As a matter of fact, I was wondering if they had licked some of the common problems. But now that I look at my list,

I have had:

Fixed under warranty
- repaint driver-side door because paint did not match under door ding strips
- replace EGR valve (moosing)
- replace p/s pump (leaking)
- new dash (warping recall)
- driver door weather seal (leaking)
- driver door pin switch (interior light and chime would not turn off)
- replace leaky foglight

Other:
- my tires wore out on the inside shoulder @25k, a common problem with contours. Dealer would not do anything, which I frankly understand, because they have no idea what curbs I could have run over. Just get a life of the car alignment deal at a good shop and take it twice a year or so.

The bottom line is, hey if I wanted a soul-less appliance to go from point a to point b, I would buy a Toyota Camry and not have to worry so much about problems.

Originally posted by TourDeForce:
If you mean to imply that Fords are significantly less reliable than a Chevy, dream on. The good Fords we've owned, Bronco, several vans for the business fleet, Capris RS 5.0, Town Car, LTD wagon, Montego, Torino, Torino Touring, 2 Grand Marquis, Escort, and now my 'Tour. The Capri belonged to my older brother who was about to put 250,000 miles on it when he got sandwitched on I-95. All other got over 100,000 and most nearing 200,000 before being traded.

Yes, I have a large family.

I'm with ya bro, my Contour was, until it got stolen and joy-ridden to death, an awesome car. Sure, like anything, it had it's little piddly problems, squeaks, rattles, etc. And I also went through a HUGE battle with the stealerships over a bucking problem, which with the help of TourDeForce, dbbubba and a couple others we finally figured out. But that wasn't the cars fault, nor Ford's fault. The stealership is and was at fault in my case and in this guys case. Cars are made of metal, plastic, aluminum, etc, etc by humans. Modern cars are 10,000 times more reliable and more efficient than they ever have been in history. I wouldn't blame all Fords just because of one unscrupulous dealer. I have had Fords my whole life, and in every case, they have been reliable and long lasting provided they were cared for. But through trial and error I have had to weed through dealers, some are dishonest, some are stupid, some are too big to take the time for diagnosing a small squeak that most of the owners wouldn't care about. So it's up to us, the owners to seek out competent care. I miss my little silver Tour, it was always up for an impromptu road race through the twisties. It got consistently 25-30 mpg. It was fine looking AND it didn't look like all the other rice that everyone else with a backwards baseball cap drives. Remember, luck is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. And I have ALWAYSh ad great luck with my Fords, there must be a reason for it eh ? Peace bro, I'm on the lookout for a Tour that I can spend the time with to hotrod now that we bot an SUV for momma to drive. So LOOK OUT world !!!

Your best bet is, as others have said, threaten the dealership with 1) reporting them to Ford proper for performing unnecessary and unrequested procedures on your car, 2) reporting them to the Better Business Bureau for performing unnecessary and unrequested procedures on your car, and 3) threaten to sue them for both the $56 and punitive damages. As I have been faced with the same problem here in California (I turned my car in for a tune up, and gave them Mobile 1 and a oil filter to put in.. and they added and "additive" for $30 that I did not request)

If this dealership treated you this way, perhaps they are open to a class action law suit... If you have a laywer friend, they might be interested in padding their resume by taking a case like this....

well it sounds like a lot of us have started our pain and suffering at the dealership and gone from there. obviously it seems like we're sold a car and then left to die. the way i see it, its gonna become an issue where you start taking a ford to a honda dealer and so forth.

from reading all of this we are all having the same issues. after reading this i called about the fuel pump and found the dealer here wants $450!!!

now begins the journey of surfing and putting out postings to find a cheap new or used one. there is a site i found called www.all-parts.com which has seemed to be very useful. i got a tie rod end on there for $20. everywhere else wanted $125+.

the sad thing about all of this, which i know EVERYONE will agree with, is the fact that this is such a beautiful car. its sooo much fun to drive and i have one of the only ones around here so it turns a lot of heads. if only this car held up as good as the f150, i think this troubleshooting forum would be empty.

Yeah and then you hear your Import having friend with 25k cars talking about taking theirs in the dealers wash and clean it each oil change etc. I mean erhm I've found my local dealers are just pathetic to no end. I take a car in for a tire rotation and an oil change. Rear wheels look like new (clean shiney) when I bring it in and the fronts are black from brake dust. I come to pick it up and look at the wheels and they are the same as when I brought it in.. that tells me no rotation was done, ask them and they are like oh well we'll fix it. That happend TWICE! at the same dealer. This is the dealer (and reason why in 8k miles and at 15k I went trhough the insides of TWO full sets of BFG Comp KD's) plus a set of Firehawks until I took it to another tire shop and had them fix it. I think when this ride dies out (i love the car, i have owned several fords but..) I'm gonna get an import car (subaru or toyota or something) :\

Originally posted by dumped00svt:
well im gonna start out by saying that i completely agree w/this cat dluv!! my 00 svt has been the biggest piece of poo ive ever owned in my time. first off i'll tell you the squeeking noise isnt a cv boot or a spring or anything like that. mine does it on the drivers side and the problem is between the fender and the bumper, theres a clip where it bolts on and that clip rubs on the fender hence making the noise.

now to address the dealership issue.......i dealt w/richmond ford in richmond va and had the same problem w/their horrible service. my list of problems on my car personally have been a blown motor @26k, 2 blown trannys @10k and 36k miles, electrical, etc. i hate this car and its a trap b/c once you take out a loan for it your stuck and automatically upside down unless you find a way to get a really good deal. this car has had sooooo many problems that i cant truly figure out how its still running. i just recently mysteriously broke a tranny mount. the tie rod ends are destroyed as well. this car seems like a lego car made by a 2 year old who only knew how to half a@@ build it.

now im hoping that since you replaced the fuel pump it stopped "bucking". im having the same exact problem and in trying to sell the car it does me no good to have to keep it constantly on full just to try to scam someone to buy it.

bro i'll tell you like this.......i truly understand your frustration and anger and my personal and honest opinion is that its luck of the draw. sometimes you get a good one and sometimes you dont regardless of the make. this i will say though......get out ASAP!!!!! you hold this car too long and you'll pay more on upkeep and repairs than the cars value and what you owe. trust me

He, weird, cause my '95 Contour has been a very dependable car for me. I just keep up on all the maintainance and have had all the recalls serviced, and give it TLC, and mine drives like new, and it has 130,000 miles on it now. And I hammer on mine everyday, everywhere I drive, I'm into the throttle (just not excessive RPMs). I HAVE had a couple of very minor frustrations with it (like new cooling fans- since it was an AZ car for it's first 3 years which later turned into a recall, and typical waterpump problem at 70k mi) but I'm still running the original motor/trans and all right now! And I plan to hit 200k with it before I will freshen up the running gear. I DID hear though that the first Contours (like '95-96ish) were the best ones, but then Ford started loosing their a$$ in lost sales and in the later years had to start deleting all the features and premium equipment. Then they even started doing foolish things like switching to a returnless fuel supply line, and all this other retarded money-saving stuff in an effort to try and save their butt. Maybe I just got lucky with my '95, or maybe the older ones WERE all built better?