After reading the brake fluid resivoir cap thread, I checked my car over a month and a half ago, and found the damage everybody was seeing. Took it to the dealer and they had never seen anything like it before (first bad sign), and told me to bring it back in the following Monday because that's when their painter would be in. So I did and they gave me a loan-mower (Focus) to drive around for a few days until they repainted it, for $5 a day. I get a call the next day (tuesday) saying the painter had looked at the car and decided that it needed to be stripped down to bare metal and repainted and even clearcoated to match, after removing the brake booster and everything else in the way. I said that was fine and told them to take their time on the repair. I've painted things in the past too and know it's a time extensive process. And I don't hear anything on the car until the following tuesday when I get a call at about 5PM. They said that they were throwing on the final coat of paint and it bubbled up on them, and was unnacceptable. Their guess was contamination had somehow entered the engine bay. They said they would need a few more days to strip it back down and retry it, told me to check back on Friday. Got sick of driving a Focus and traded it in for a Taurus. Much nicer. Still no Mustang.

I called back on Friday and left several messages on the machine, no replies until tuesday only to find out it happened bubbled again. So they try it again and it's another week gone by with me leaving messages and no replies. This week was the third. I finally got sick of this crap and on Wednesday afternoon went down to the dealer in person and demanded to know what was going on with my car. He said it bubbled again, and the theory is that there is still brake fluid in the "channels" of the frame as he called them, that must be coming out whenever the car rolls. The guy at the counter isn't involved in the actual work of course, and this is just what he was told. Also found out that THE PAINTER IS FREELANCE AND IS ONLY IN THERE ON MONDAYS AND TUESDAYS!! This is why I don't hear back until the beginning of the next week! THIS IS TOTAL BULL!! I asked them, "why am I paying over $400 a month for a car payment for a car I haven't even seen in 2 and a half weeks? You don't expect me to pay $5 a day over several weeks on a loaner car because you're only working on my vehicle 2 days a week, do you? Considering the amount of time this thing is taking, why can't you get the painter in more than 2 days a week to finish this #$*#@ thing?" To which they replied, "[insert C.Y.A. B.S.], the painter is freelance, he goes between all of our locations all week and we have to work around his schedule, etc talk to the service manager". I'll talk to the manager about the loaner charges when I get my car back.

Also got these pictures when I demanded to see the car for myself. Sorry, only had my camera phone, so these are a little blurry.
Attachment 8383 Attachment 8384

So anyone have any suggestions for what might be causing this, how to get them to not charge the full cost of the loaner, and how I can get the dealer to finish the car faster? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I haven't had my car since August 21st, and I'm getting tired of the runaround. Unfortunately, i don't have another car to fall back on, so I need this loaner to get around, otherwise I'd just tell them to put it back together and let me take it to a different dealer. Thanks in advance.

 

No takers?

 

Maybe time to get to know your regional Ford rep.
Look up in your manual or paperwork whom to call and start calling.

 

Well, got the car back and they finally did it right. Only charged me for 3 days for the loaner car. They washed it, and now it smells like a new car again! Still going to slam them on the satisfaction survey. 3 and a half weeks is way too long.