Hello,

I am in the midst of handling a huge dilema with a local Ford Dealership that had my 2013 V6 Mustang for service the past couple of weeks and I need some assistance with how to handle this. Let me start with this, I bought the car in the very end of September after waiting 3 months for a custom build after ordering it in June or July. I had dropped my car off at a local Dealership called Jersey City Ford around (October 24th) to service my car and help solve an issue with shifting from 1st into 2nd. In fact I had the issue with the car for weeks and previously taken it to the same dealer only for them to have my car for 2days and never loook at it, so this time I asked for a loaner car since I knew from the prior week it will just sit for days until they get around to looking at it.

Okay so at this point it is Friday or Saturday and Hurricane Sandy is approaching so I call the Ford Dealership to see if the Mustang is finished, all they needed to do was drive the car around the block and feel how it shifts; but the car was not looked at yet. I then told the service department staff that the hurricane is coming and that I wanted to be parked inside in a safe spot, they acknowledged and assured me that it would be and not to worry. So the Hurrican hit Monday the 29th. I never heard from the ford dealership until November 5th when they called to tell me that my car was flooded with over a hundred other cars on the lot and that they would call me later that day after meeting with their insurance.

So Monday ends with no call from the dealership. The same with Tuesday, so I called the dealership Wendesday and asked about the car to only hear the service lady(Nurmia) say that only the flooring was wet and they're just gonna replace the carpeting. Umm, at that point I pointed out how she informed me on monday the car had over 2 feet of water inside of it and that it was SALT WATER! I asked for the name of the insurace company, agent, and a phone number only for her to respond that she will have someone call me. Come Thursday a manager calls and reaffirmed that they are only replacing the carpets, I asked for their insurance company and stuff again with him to tell me he doesn't know, I told him I am refusing to pick up the car and that I am calling my own insurance. After that phone call with Jersy City fords Manager Rudy, I called my Insurance and opened a claim. I have owned this car for 2 months with less than 2,000 miles on it, only 1 car payment made; no way am I taking this salt water flooded car back due to the negligence of this dealership.

I also called corporate ford on November 7th to file a complaint, I have yet to talk to somebody.I want to know how to proceed with this. First off, all I want is a replacement car. I cannot afford to buy this car again, I had just enough due to all the rebates (private offers and public), plus i traded a car in so I saved money on the taxes I would of had to pay with cash. Honestly, if this isn't resolved through corporate ford communicating with me I am going to get my attorney involved.

 

Free 2014 GT upgrade?

Hope you get it worked out.

My car was also in for service at the time of the Hurricane, and I was adamant that they have my 46,000 car indoors, so i feel your pain.

 

Hello mmensch,

I completely understand your frustration. Hurricane Sandy did so much damage in several locations and I hate to hear that your Mustang was flooded.

I would like to escalate this to your regional customer service manager. I can advocate your concern and pass along the details to assist. Please PM me with your VIN, dealer, mileage, full name, and your best daytime phone number. I will work my hardest to get this in front of the right person!

Andrea

 

Mmensch - sorry to hear about your problems with the storm.

On the other hand - three cheers for Andrea!! She has already offered me help regarding the 2014 I plan to purchase. Talk about proactive service!!

 

Awww, shux. Thanks PaxtonShelby!

Just doing my job, but that really made my day.

Andrea

 

Wow, that sucks. I would imagine the whole interior and electronics are ruined, and they just want to replace the carpet and call it done? They're either lying about how much water was in it, or they're just trying to screw you. I can just imagine it'll always have a moldy wet smell at the very least. I hope you get it all fixed up to your satisfaction.

Andrea, what happened to Deysha?

 

Man, I just want a new mustang like I paid for. It is Jersey City Ford's fault for not moving these cars, plus I never would have taken it in again if they at least looked at it the first time I dropped it off for a couple days. I think they never called their insurance company to save a couple $s, funny how I keep asking for the name of their insurance company, agent, or a phone number and they just keep saying only the dealership owner knows and he isn't available.

This is my 1st Ford vehicle, my first brand new car after Graduating college 1.5 yrs ago and moving to NYC for a job and saving $ up for this, and this is the crap a dealership is putting me through. The car was in SALT WATER for over a week since they were out of power and closed, so it is gonna be screwed in a couple years, when the warranty is expired.

Crazy how I have the Ford Mustang FB-profile as a friend and their giving away V8 Stangs for free and they wont replace my base model manual V6 with only a Performance and Appearance Package. Seriously, I have cloth seats most base car, those are gonna stank!

I'm not asking for a V8 or a single thing different from my base V6 with two cheap packages. My car was 22,200 + frieght 800 + Perf. Pkg 2,000 and App Pkg 300....

 

Have you talked with your insurance company? You may have to file a claim with them to get to the dealers company. Your insurance company should take care of this problem for you, that is why you pay them. A few years ago, I had a problem after an accident with the other drivers company trying to blow me off. I hung up and went right to my company. Thirty minutes later I was in a rental, and my car was in the body shop. My company simply had a talk with his. Good luck!

 

I turned this into my insurance on Thursday the 8th and they called me back Friday to work on the claim. They had called Jersey City Ford on three-way for me to give my insurance permission to tow the car. Funny thing is I got a call Tuesday from my insurance notifying me that the towing company is unable to acquire the car due to ford not returning voicemails or answering the phone. Actually, my insurance (Progressive) wanted me to handle this, so it doesn't seem like they're doing what I pay them to do. Plus they said I'd have to pay the deductible and that they can't subrogate (go after ford’s insurance) this due to it being an act of “god”, even though it was on fords property and they're suppose to be liable seeing how I sign an inspection form when I drop the car off that notes any scratches and stuff so they aren't liable for existing damages and to return the car in the same condition that it is dropped of in.

I really need to get an attorney with this. I think these are my option on handling this.

1) My insurance and pay the $500 deductible, and get less for the car and then pay more for the car since I wont save the $700 on taxes from my 10K trade in, not get the $750 private offer. So in sum I’m going to get less for my car and then if I want to buy the same car all over again I’ll be paying more!
2) Lemon law: only if my car is not totaled by the insurance company can I pursue this which would pay me back nearly everything, but then again there is the risk of getting nothing.
3) Negligence: It will be hard to prove that the dealership was negligent since this was a hurricane/ act of god.
4) Breach of contract: I can possibly get them on the for that is signed when the car is dropped of that describes the condition of my car, etc…

You’d think Ford would just replace my car and avoid the court costs and attorney fees I am going to have them incur, **** man the car msrp is $25,500 and they can just buy it back and resell it for like 20K or something and only bite 5k in loss and make everyone happy rather then spend that paying the lawyer and nobody is happy. Corporate could also just force the dealership to handle this, or work with my insurance if they total to just pay the gap from what I get from insurance and the cost of an exact replacement.

 

Your situation definitely sucks, but don't confuse Ford with the dealership. Ford did nothing wrong, and has absolutely nothing to do with this situation.

I feel like the dealership is definitely at fault and should fix/replace your car, no questions asked. It was in their care, and they should be responsible for what happened to it. I don't think you're automatically entitled to a new replacement, just because something happened to your car. But it should be on them to fix it properly back to it's original condition. If that's not possible, then I'd talk about replacement.

With the amount of water that you said was in it, I don't see how they would be able to get away with just replacing the carpet. Do you have any actual pictures of the damage?

 

I don't have pics since the hurricane was Oct29th and the dealership was closed for over a week due to the flooding and power outage. They called me Monday Nov5th or Tuesday Nov6th to tell me the car was flooded. By the time I got to the dealership they had already vavummed out all the water and had the windows open for days to air out the car.

I know it's not Corporate Ford's fault, but they can regulate the situtation somehwhat with the dealership. So I am gonna pay full retail on a car that was flooded, screw the car payments on a car that is ruined on resale value due to the carfax.

 

Why the hell is it the dealership's fault. They didn't bring on Sandy. They don't have room to put every car in there shop. Call your insurance company.

 

It's their fault because he attempted to prevent this situation before it even happened.

 

shame this happened.. BUT Andrea is trying to help remedy the situation. Be patient. This also could have happened with your car at home..

 

This is not a FORD issue, this is between your insurance and the dealership's insurance. Nothing more.

 

She’ll be on this forum from now on, stupidgenius36. I’ll still be her backup whenever she’s out of the office. Like today!

Deysha

 

they're responsible for the car while it's in their possession, no it's not their fault it got flooded but it's their responsibility to fix/replace it after the damage happened, and the dealer or their insurance should take care of it

it works the other way around too, when you rent a car, you (and your ins) are responsibe for it while it's in your possession until you return it.
go rent a car, fill it with water, bring it back and say "it wasn't your fault" and see what happens

 

It doesn't matter if the dealership directly caused the damage or not. The car was still in their care, and they didn't take care of it. So now they're responsible for the damage.
This^
Oh, ok. That was the first I had seen of her. Glad to have you both around.

 

The dealer should only have to fix what is broken. So what you need to do is have an outside source inspect the car to see what kind of damage there is as well. That way it's not just the dealer inspecting it.

 

At this point in time I am consulting with an Attorney.