Dealerships or is it just mine...

[Rich55Marshall]

I've got a '21 PowerBoost and the extended warranty / ESP. I'm presently at about 69K miles, and the exact same thing happened to me. I'm extremely happy with my hometown dealer, and I figure $159 for a diagnostic fee for a problem they couldn't replicate isn't so bad in the big picture.

Sponsored

 

[Dadofjax]

The biggest problem is techs have not idea how to troubleshoot anymore. They hook up the computer if that doesn't tell them what is wrong and how to fix it, it's "normal".

 

[eharri3]

The only "failure to present" scenarios I ever encountered were rotor issues on my 04 Dakota and a shifter issue on my manual 2016 challenger and in both cases they did not charge me to test drive and tell me nothing found. I never encountered tricky diagnosis issues on my Tundra or F150.

One thing that I think/hope works in my favor is as long as the dealer does good work and does not charge extortionate prices they get to do all my standard maintenance. 10-plus years pf services at my Toyota dealer and I previously serviced a company car at my Ford dealer where I got my F150. When these sorts of things come up they have to look at my long service history spending in the thousands over the years after buying the vehicle and ask if they want to piss me off over a 100 dollar diagnostic fee.

I have found it better in the long run to do business this way than to only ever show up at a dealer as one more random face in line when I have a warranty problem.

 

[UNIKRN150]

My "local" Ford dealership is in a town of 330,000+

I bought my truck from a dealership in a town of 11,000

I have been SHOCKED by the excellent service and am convinced that the "small town Dealerships" have to try just a little harder to make you happy.

 

[Kodiak]

I've got a '21 PowerBoost and the extended warranty / ESP. I'm presently at about 69K miles, and the exact same thing happened to me. I'm extremely happy with my hometown dealer, and I figure $159 for a diagnostic fee for a problem they couldn't replicate isn't so bad in the big picture.

IMHO the dealership should at least give you one or two for free if they cannot diagnose the problem. If someone continuously wants the dealership to do the same thing then they could consider charging you for the diagnostic. They should tell you that up front so you can decide if you want to try. They should also tell you that if they do charge you and then find the issue at a later date, they will credit you the diagnostic fee back. To me this is fair enough.

 

[Ronin1973]

If you are under warranty, then there should be no charge whatsoever. That is what a warranty is for. Complete BS that some dealers do this.

 

[L33der]

I experience the same thing at my Ford Dealer that I purchased all my vehicles from. I even had video of the CEL and the error listed in Ford Pass. They weren't able to find an "Active DTC" and charged me $50 to cover time. If there is not an active DTC, I was told that Ford will not cover the warranty repair claim. With the way the economy is, Dealers and Service Dept. are hurting big time and have to recoup their losses wherever they can. Even though it put a bad taste in my mouth, as a business owner, I can understand. Still sucks nonetheless.

 

[Karytas80]

my shitty local Ford dealer didn't even want to give me a loaner when they had my less than a month old truck to replace a bad turbo for 14 days. I even had a ford customer rep on the phone and she told them Ford will cover for the rental but they still denied the rental. I didn't purchase FORD ESP because of two reasons: 1. my local Ford dealers sucks. 2. I'm going to install after market parts once the original warranty expires such as tunes, intercooler & etc, and there is no way my local dealers will still honor ESP coverages after seeing those parts. If I'm going to have too many issues before 3yrs or 36,000 miles, I will just trade mine in for something else but so far, it's been really good experience first 10,000 miles.

 

[Gros Ventre]

It's not a Ford issue per se, all dealers of all vehicles will charge you diagnostic fee, even if they can reproduce the issue but you elect not to fix it, but you do have extended warranty so I don't understand why would they want to charge you, it should be covered under the ESP.

Then take your truck to an AutoZone store. They do a diagnostic checks for free. Takes a dealer a few minutes to hookup a reader and find out what the computer is thinking. Such fees remain baloney.

 

[Gros Ventre]

I experience the same thing at my Ford Dealer that I purchased all my vehicles from. I even had video of the CEL and the error listed in Ford Pass. They weren't able to find an "Active DTC" and charged me $50 to cover time. If there is not an active DTC, I was told that Ford will not cover the warranty repair claim. With the way the economy is, Dealers and Service Dept. are hurting big time and have to recoup their losses wherever they can. Even though it put a bad taste in my mouth, as a business owner, I can understand. Still sucks nonetheless.

Ever gone in and had a wheel alignment check? If an alignment is not needed, do they charge you a fee for the check? No, at least most don't. So why a fee for a diagnostic check, if no work is done?

 

[MiquelCamo]

If the dealer cannot confirm the issue Ford will not reimburse. Paying a fee for their time seems fair with the provision that a refund is in order should the issue arise again. This would give them the evidence to present to Ford for coverage.

Sponsored