Is it just me or are Ford cars actually pieces of crap?

[expresspotato]

Hi,

Is it really just me or are these cars pieces of crap compared to the Japanese brands? Don't get me wrong, the Fusion is a decent car but the sheer number of problems with it have left me angry and wanting to warn others about the poor quality of these expensive machines. 2015 Fusion Energi here.

 

 1) Charge Port Ring Light burnt out, just outside of warranty. It's LED for gosh sakes!
 2) SD Card Navigation Fault all the time
 3) 12v Battery completely discharges, can't even get into the car
 4) Rear strut mount died at 60,000 miles (96,000 kms)
 5) Recall for steering wheel bolt
 6) Recall for 3 bolts in the steering gear
 7) TCU for My Ford Mobile (specific to Energi cars) dies every 3-5 weeks, just says ESN unknown, requiring a fuse pull or the 12v battery to be disconnected
 8) 120v Charger Cord died, also just out of warranty, always throwing a red triangle, had to buy one from china for $200 which negates tons of fuel savings not to mention it's built way better!
 9) Now I have a click pop noise accelerating and decelerating from a stop 

Edit:

Add 10) To this to the list, my car almost catches fire. This company just like Boeing this company is run by clowns. Do you self a favor and buy Japanese. 



Like what a piece of **** car, obviously the warranty is so short for a reason. I get zero sympathy from Ford dealers and they just want to suck more money out. Quoted $365 to install a $0.64 washer x2 and replace the bolts and nuts $1 and change.

How has your experiences been?
 

Edited February 9, 2020 by expresspotato
Updated with even more problems!!!

[bangster]

Sounds like you have had a pretty bad experience, I would certainly be sour on that experience. I don't think it is a common list, or all that bad, but I have had pretty much the opposite experience.

 

Spend lots of money in maintenance on them, but when you get 300,000+ miles on them, lots of oil changes happen. I can look in front of my house and add up 1.1 million Ford miles (150+k on 1982 F150, 200k on 89 Cougar, 150k on 97 Cougar, 140k on 97 Mark VIII, 330k on 00 Grand Marquis, 108k on 2012 Fusion, 55k on 2017 Fusion). I have personally put nearly 1 million of those (or my wife). That is just what I still have around. My older iron, 1981 Fairmont over 250k, 1979 Zephyr 150k, 1980 Pinto 100k. I get lots of use and miles out of cars.

 

I was a little worried about the past on my 2015 Fusion (well, bought for my daughter), but it seems fine, daughter has put 35k miles on it (70k now). The backup camera is starting to flake and the capped lug nuts needed replaced.

 

I would say that maybe my 1989 Cougar with the 3.8 and head gasket issue was troubling, but I got around 140k out of it before the head gasket blew, then another 60k before I decided I didn't like driving it anymore. 140hp and the chokematic auto seat belts are tiresome.

 

I haven't had my 2012 Fusion long, and it had a less than stellar previous life, but I knew that going in and it hasn't disappointed me yet, even with the neglect it got, and how hard I drive it now. I have to pull the battery every 6 or 7 months when SYNC no longer finds my phone via Bluetooth. Not all that much of an issue.

• 1997 Cougar, wrecked
• 1997 Mark VIII, wrecked
• 1982 F150 financially not viable to drive currently, 8mpg
• 1989 Cougar, lost interest in
• 2000 Grand Marquis, lost interest in, AC quit working, intake leaks coolant, needs battery ($250 and back on the road)

My father in law always brags about how clear the oil is on his Toyota Corolla compared to mine, or how my Grand Marquis did start puffing smoke at start up if it sat a few days, but it gets less miles a year than mine get in 2 weeks or a month. Every plastic piece under the hood is busted (coolant overflow, windshield fluid, engine cover) and the ETC has failed on him quite a few times (he had no clue it didn't have mechanical throttle until that started happening). He is lucky to get 60k miles out of his cars, they get few miles and the environment is difficult (120 degree ambient temps, lots of idling in California and Mexico traffic).

[Ponyguy]

My current squawk is with my 2004 Grand Marquis, which I traded for the new-to-me 2019 Fusion this afternoon.

The Mercury has 143,000 miles on it, and it's had a number of problems... starter, steering rack, anti-lock brake module, and the real king of crappy designs: The heater-air conditioner plenum. There is a door flap inside of this plenum that directs the air flow to either defrost or heat. The door swings back and forth depending on whether the system is calling for defrost or heat, or vent. With the Automatic Temperature Control, this door is almost constantly in motion... and it has a flexible plastic hinge! Of course, this plastic is going to flex only so many times before it fails... and fail it will!

To repair this system, the entire vehicle's dashboard must be removed to access the plenum; some clever guys have devised a make-shift "hinge" using zip ties, which can be made to work, given adequate time and patience. To properly replace the offending part (the plenum assembly) will cost about $200 to $250 for parts (if they can be found), and probably a day or two of labor. I chose to replace the car.

[FusionBerry]

On 1/22/2020 at 2:00 AM, Ponyguy said:

My current squawk is with my 2004 Grand Marquis, which I traded for the new-to-me 2019 Fusion this afternoon.

The Mercury has 143,000 miles on it, and it's had a number of problems... starter, steering rack, anti-lock brake module, and the real king of crappy designs: The heater-air conditioner plenum. There is a door flap inside of this plenum that directs the air flow to either defrost or heat. The door swings back and forth depending on whether the system is calling for defrost or heat, or vent. With the Automatic Temperature Control, this door is almost constantly in motion... and it has a flexible plastic hinge! Of course, this plastic is going to flex only so many times before it fails... and fail it will!

To repair this system, the entire vehicle's dashboard must be removed to access the plenum; some clever guys have devised a make-shift "hinge" using zip ties, which can be made to work, given adequate time and patience. To properly replace the offending part (the plenum assembly) will cost about $200 to $250 for parts (if they can be found), and probably a day or two of labor. I chose to replace the car.

What you're describing sounds like the infamous "AC blend door."

 

Often it is a failure in the servo module that moves the door back and forth, though I'm sure there are other failure modes.

I still own a 1998 Grand Marquis that I have now replaced with a 2014 Fusion.  The Mercury's blend door servo failed a really long time ago, I think around 120000-150000 miles?  Main symptom was no air conditioning, which was a very big problem as it happened in summer in the US southwest.

 

At the time, I wasn't doing my own work yet, and ended up spending around $500 to get the thing fixed.  Most of that was labor, since as you say the dash must be pretty much removed to get at the offending bit(s). 

 

Modifications can be made to ease subsequent blend door servo replacements, but thankfully I haven't needed to do that yet, at nearly 215k miles.

[Ponyguy]

On 2/14/2020 at 12:37 PM, FusionBerry said:

What you're describing sounds like the infamous "AC blend door."

 

Often it is a failure in the servo module that moves the door back and forth, though I'm sure there are other failure modes.

The servo was fine... I'm familiar with the servo failures, where it's difficult to access the little electro-mechanical widgets...  those servos employ plastic geartrains, which tend to lose a tooth or two when they get old and the plastic dries up. Mine had no airflow through the system, with a whistling  howl from the blower... with an occasional "clunk" from the innards of the system. It was the door hinge that failed.

 

The plastic coolant crossover married into the intake manifold is another brilliant design... mine was the later, "improved" design with the aluminum crossover integral with the manifold... and it still managed to leak under the thermostat. Why in Hell does the coolant need to flow through any part of the intake manifold, anyway?

 

The Ford Modular Motor (4.6, 5.4, and 6.8 liter displacements) are apparently decent, long-lived engines, but their accessory bits are weak parts... I love the Coyote 5.0, and the VooDoo 5.2's, but why couldn't the old Ford small-block V-8 (221, 260, 289, 302, & 351 CID versions) have been refined enough to do the required job? General Motors was certainly able to do the job with their basic existing small-block design... it does the job quite adequately, without resorting to the complexity of multiple Overhead Camshafts which make for an enormous, and expensive engine.

[expresspotato]

Truly, truly. Everyone was right, your mom, your dad, your brother, your cousin, your cousin's friend when they told you that Ford vehicles are pieces of ****. Now add to that list, a backup camera that doesn't work and a sun roof seal that is leaking and rusting out the top of the car.

 

Absolutely completely piece of *** car. Everything that could go wrong did, everything you hoped would be reliable wasn't. I feel like to biggest fool for ever buying a Ford car. 16 issues in, 5 years and rusting out on me and falling apart. $52,000 CAD price paid. NEVER EVER BUY A FORD. If you are reading this please I PLEAD with you GO BUY A FREAKING CAMRY!

Edited June 26, 2020 by expresspotato