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Everything used is technically a lemon, or a lemon waiting to happen. To paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy, If it has over 100,000 KMs... it might be a lemon. That's no knock against Stan (FocusIsArt), that's just the way I approach every used car I buy until proven otherwise.

Always make friends who aren't mechanics if you're not able to completely re-and-re your entire car yourself. Have said mechanic friend completely once-over your car when you buy it to see if he can see anything suspicious or halfway-gone. Have him test drive the car and report his findings, do a safety inspection and then one looking at things safety might not care so much about - driveline, susp, engine overall health, complete underbody inspection itself.

It'll be worth its weight in gold.

My quick recap for what I replaced after buying the car from Stan: fuel filter, spark plugs, spark plug wires, coilpack, 2 driveshafts, air filter, bunch of misc. bulbs, 4 new tires (old 15s were sieves!). Plus stuff I wanted, like new H4s, replaced shift knob, etc.

And that's a car with 318K on it currently, almost 319 as of this morning.

Good luck John, and definitely lean on Ken if he's offering assistance. He knows his deal.

So I've been 404error coded off FC.net for the last lil while but DP came threw, woot woot! So here is a current situation of the car...

December 13th
I called Ford. Asked, Hey so whats the ETA of the wiring harnesses coming from the states and when can you have my car done? I asked pretty nicely.
One harness will be in on wednesday (15th) and the other one will be thursday (16th) or Friday (17th) due to weather. I said no prob.
So in that case the car should be in th shop Monday (20th).
Fantastic, I might get it for Christmas...

December 17th
I called just to check to see if the parts are in.
Oh sir, Nelson is off today I am Diana. Yes the parts came in and it is halfway done.
Woot woot on my end. Perfect I'll call monday to see about the status once again.

December 20th 4:40pm ish...
My dad calls Ford. So the Focus completed Nelson.
Oh, no the car never made it into the shop.
Well my son was told it was half comleted on Friday by Diana.
She didn't tell you correctly, I'm sry but it was going to go into today but the Electrician was all booked up today.
My dad wasnt too happy to hear that...
Get the Fucking car done, it been over a month between your bullshit and statefarms bullshit.
Yes sir I will have it in tomorrow (Tuesday 21st).
Pops called me and told me, I was like for f**k sakes. Whatever...
The days not done...
6PM rolls around and a call from the Service desk at Colony comes threw the line. (Now they were closed at 5pm)
It's Nelson....
So Nelson talks to my Father.
Sir, our only Tech that can work on you car is the Electrician and we are short on Techs to begin with. Hes on Vacation as of Wednesday (22nd) and tomorrow (tuesday 21st) he is all booked up. So it will be in the shop on the next Monday (27th).
Dad says sure just get it done.
So he tells me and I'm like Dad... Most places don't open the Monday and Tuesday (27th - 28th) due to holidays.
So he was pissed off even more.

So thats where I'm at.

Merry Christmas John. What else can I say?

(12-26-2010, 12:22 PM)Focus man. Focus. Wrote: [ -> ]Merry Christmas John. What else can I say?

I wish I knew what to say kev. Hope your XMas was a good one with the Fam!


So back to the car lol

Dec 27th
My Dad went over to Colony after dropping my sister off for work down the road from the Dealership.
Saw they were open. Went around back and saw her still sitting there.
Went in and spoke to Nelson.
He had some words with him and was told the Tech (the only one that is alowd to work on my car) called in "SICK" today.
My Dad gave him a piece of his mind and left.
We will see what happens next.

I'm pretty mechanically-inclined, have done most my own repairs for 20+ years. Feel pretty self-confident about my own abilities and able to judge a used car purchase. That being said, I've gotten unexpected surprises afterwards. If you're buying a car, it's gotta go on a lift first, because you just can't judge properly without one.

Question, why can't a harness from a used car be used? If I pulled on myself, can't see paying more then $20 at my favorite wreckers.

When I had taken a look at it, it was worse that I had thought.
Everything was melted. The completed interior needed to be taken out. The Tranny wouldn’t come out of park. Everything electronic was f**ked and I had no way of getting to a wreckers. All the ones I called either didn't have any or wanted too much for used ones.
Plus I didn't know what else was needed to repair this. I figured it was going to written off anyway due to the prices of the Harnesses Combined with the Labour.
I have more than enough knowledge to do this job myself. I've been working on cars since I was 6, really 6. Hell, I just retapped a 5.4L E-250 Head for a new spark plug and had to create the tool to do it too a couple of weeks ago. No one would sell me a harness and I hate used parts/cars. 50% chance of a crap product.
I was hoping for some warranty compensation or something else to be like... Hey this is a known problem, sure we will cover it. Since I am still paying off $30,000 for the dam thing... 6 months left...
But they look at my car like it’s an alien and they don't want to touch it. I'm just sick of ignorant Techs, Insurance Companies and BS Service People.
At the end of this I won't be surprised if I don't want to keep the car after all of this. Also I hope no one ever goes to that dealership and everyone cancels the State Farm Insurance they have. Though, everyone is the same with the loop holes asking all the questions like a cop would ask a Serial Killer. They pretty much treated us like criminals about this whole deal. Makes me wish it had burn to the ground.

A college classmate of mine was having problems with his vehicle. Looking at him, broken glasses/clothes/attitude, you'd never guess his family was filthy rich. Was talking to his dad about all the B.S. they were giving him. His dad, just happened to be entertaining... the VP of the car company. Got a call to bring in the car right away. (At night) The vehicle was all mechanically fixed and they redid the body and paint for good measure.

Hey John, have you thought of going to the BBB with this?

Whats BBB????

The Better Business Bureau. http://www.bbb.org/canada/

(12-29-2010, 09:41 AM)Focus man. Focus. Wrote: [ -> ]The Better Business Bureau. http://www.bbb.org/canada/

Very tempting

The car is in the shop as of today. No idea if its being worked on but its in...

Really right now I don't want anymore stress from this deal. They seem like they would help a lot but I don't need anymore people involved currently.

If something else comes up with this whole deal I'm gonna go that route and then call it quits on the car.

Thanks Kev for the info.

Dec 30th

Car update
So I stopped by ford yesterday on my way home and saw it parked off to the side. I thought omg its done. Well I was half right. The harnesses are in but the car still has issues...
They still can't grasp the fact that they installed that remote starter, so nelson asked me, did u have an alarm installed on it cause the lights were flashing when the harnesses were installed. I said yes, I paid u guys an extra $1000 on top of the car to installed ur ford autostart/security silver package. He just said oh and fumbled around with some papers.
Also there is 2 lights on the dash. Door agar and airbag. He then said the cars done but we need to contact statefarm and see what they want to do with this situation. Then he said it should be ready tomorrow meaning today. f**k that. It will take 2 days for statefarm to approve the diagnostics to find out what is causing the lights to come on. He literally want to release the car to me with those two lights lite up. So I'd be driving an unsafe vehicle that the Colony Ford says is done. So that's where it sits now lol
Oh ya, and my key they broke, he said I can't offer u the 200 u want for replacing the key, I can only offer u 100. I then said is it the same key, he was no but its similar. I said we order me in one and have it paired to the car. He then said he can't do that. This is making me sick the more I talk about this dealership.

Its making me mad just reading this! I don't think I could show as much self restraint as you, i'd probably be in jail.

Call the newspaper, call City TV & CTV, Phone into the radio station they have playing in their waiting room. Make doing business as difficult for them as difficult as they are making things for you. I would even go as far as picketing out on the street. Total BS if you ask me.

I'm with Kev. Just reading this makes me mad.

Agreed!! This is making my blood boil too!! What is wrong with Ford dealerships?!

Ford in Oshawa was crappy too!!!

---

OH and if your insurance is covering this, how come no rental car? How come they're not pushing the dealership to get it done?

get on your insurance' ass to get on ford's ass, no?

Insurance would have only covered $900 for a rental car.
They were on Colony's case about the car but never informed us of them talking to Colony.

State Farm has come through, they got it detailed and dealt with the rear harnesses and Labour. The deal was to cover any other items needed too. Or so they said...

Dec 30
I received a call and the car is ready.
Phoned my father and he said he was just down the road from the Dealership. So he was going to stop in and discuss the details about the car in person. That was done, they deducted $100 and the car was just being taken to be detailed.
So my Father and I showed up around 7pm to pick up the Focus. It was sitting up front by service all shinny and ready to go. Looked well I thought.
Went in and saw Nelson. Started to slap out the $1591.xx we owed for the front harness, couple hours of diagnostics and labour.
So I got the stock key back. (An original one I had to give them in order to use because they broke my aftermarket flip key) Plus I also got a second Key FOB and a second Key from them too. They say they needed two keys to program the car in order to start it.
Anyway, Nelson then told me to mind my fraid throttle cable. It had stuck on when the wash bay employee was pulling the car out. Well I took a look at that and it was my cruise control cable that was damaged. Also if you moved the TB and attempt to get it stuck you need to have it at Wide Open Throttle to have it stuck. So that says the wash bay employee had fun driving my car around the lot...
Also when I put the car in there on November 18th, I was in need of gas. The light was on. When I got in the car Thursday, it had just a little more than empty on the Fuel Gauge, which means they put some gas in my car. Well I assume they put 87OCT in the tank and man did the Focus ever run like crap going home.
So I also found that most of my Gauge lights were out and my climate control lights were out too.
I have an Airbag Gauge Cluster light and a Door A-Jar Gauge Cluster Light out too. Though if you turn the Headlights on. The Door A-Jar light goes out lol. WTF...
Also, my phone needed a charge. I have a brand new Torch right, not a cheap lil device either. I usually plug the phone in first then plug it into the 12volt in the car. Well some reason I just plugged it into the car first. The little LED light didn't light up. 5 seconds after that a loud pop came from it and also a large amount of burning electronics scent too. So that’s another thing to add to the list of damages.
Last but not least, I went to use my rear wiper and yep you know it, that doesn't work either.
So Monday I am going in and having a word with them and making them fix everything that is messed up or half ass’d repaired. If not then I will seek the media and tell them I will make it my job to make sure there is not another car sold here at this Dealership ever again.

Doesn't make me want to buy a Ford, new or old, and that's someone who doesn't have to deal with the same dealership. Colony probably won't be hurt as bad as Ford could be from any bad publicity. Probably time to go over this dealership's head to discuss the problem you're still having.

as awful as they've been, dont YET threaten the media

let them WANT to do the work, if they're forced to do it yeah they'll prob half ass it even more so. I dont trust ppl to work on my car when they're angry. The last time I did...

Soo guess what....

The same thing that caused this major problem with me happened again tonight.

The Parklight Fuse Is Blown Again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So my plan is to place a smaller fuse in and test to see if it pops. Plus also checking the whole wiring harness out from front to back.

Wish me luck.

oh and btw I'm not going to Ford for a fix.

HOLY s**t!!!! I'm ready to throw my iPad!!!!!!!!!