SF Bay Area dealer service - recommendations?

bbulkow

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Hi everyone. This thread is old but I just now found it and wanted to respond -- my dealer from Day One has been Towne Ford in Redwood City on the Peninsula. They've done a super job in every way.
I bought at towne and had a service there when i had lots of front camera resets, and a full 'must atop now' error.

very unsatisfied.

i made a reservation on line, on a date that specifically said they could service my mache. after waiting three weeks, they called me two days before and said i would have to wait another three weeks because that was the next date an ev tech would be in.

when i brought the car in, they called me and said the car was 'ready' when i picked it up they said there were no codes showing error. that after me telling them there was a service now code and telling them specifically what the code was. that's bs, because i actually sent them the codes when trying to make an appointment. Then the advisor tried to save face and say it starts a record of the fault.

The advisor and techs had trouble understanding my English. Wasnt a problem with the sales dept, which is all bilingual but with excellent English. In service, The woman said something link no codes but i showed her the codes, i think there was subtlety in the concept she couldn't express to me.

Since they either lied to my face or suffer rank incompetence, i would not trust them to tie my shoes.

Mike, you had a glowing comment but no notion what they did and why it was so superlative. That always worries me, there are fake review bots with similar vague statements.

if you use towne, only deal with them over the phone, and ask to be transferred to someone else if you have language problems.
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HuntingPudel

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I bought at towne and had a service there when i had lots of front camera resets, and a full 'must atop now' error.

very unsatisfied.
<SNIP>
I get your feeeling. I brought my MME to them for the HVBJB issue. Once I left the car with their sedrevice department I got no response from texts, emails, or voicemails. I even left a couple of messages with the receptionist who guaranteed that my service advisor would call me back. After 5 days of being ghosted (I didn't call them on the first day I left the car with them) I decided I'd stop by on my way home from work to see if they had ordered parts or any other status information. The service advisor checked in his commputer and told me that my car was done the day before and "Huh, the tech completed it and didn't tell me." Ugh. ??

I guess they're still better than the Dealership Group Who Shall Not Be Named (whom I have despised since the very early '80s). ??
 

bbulkow

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I get your feeeling. I brought my MME to them for the HVBJB issue. Once I left the car with their sedrevice department I got no response from texts, emails, or voicemails. I even left a couple of messages with the receptionist who guaranteed that my service advisor would call me back. After 5 days of being ghosted (I didn't call them on the first day I left the car with them) I decided I'd stop by on my way home from work to see if they had ordered parts or any other status information. The service advisor checked in his commputer and told me that my car was done the day before and "Huh, the tech completed it and didn't tell me." Ugh. ??

I guess they're still better than the Dealership Group Who Shall Not Be Named (whom I have despised since the very early '80s). ??
And then someone writes a fawning review of their excellence. Hard to not think it's a plant.

I'll probably give them one more try.
 

rclark2589

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I hear that Walnut Creek is good in the East Bay and if you’re in the Northern Peninsula Serramonte is good (never been to either myself). ?‍♂?



Glad your friend left to start a better dealership. Being at The Dealer Group Who Shall Not Be Named must have sucked for him. ??
Now that we have a recall on the Mach E, does anyone have a good experience or recommendation for dealership to do the work? East Bay of San Francisco Bay Area. Thanks,
 

HuntingPudel

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Now that we have a recall on the Mach E, does anyone have a good experience or recommendation for dealership to do the work? East Bay of San Francisco Bay Area. Thanks,
East Bay = Walnut Creek
South Bay = Sunnyvale or Morgan Hill
Peninsula = Serramonte
??
 


LeWe

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So I went to Morgan Hill for my 20k service and they charged me:
* $65 for “the works”
* ~$80 for the cabin air filter swap (40 for the filter, 40 for labor)

Total was around $150 include tax. But, in the FordPass dealer record the price states $0. I’m not sure why I need “the works” but I will definitely do the cabin air filter myself in the future.
 

bbulkow

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So I went to Morgan Hill for my 20k service and they charged me:
* $65 for “the works”
* ~$80 for the cabin air filter swap (40 for the filter, 40 for labor)

Total was around $150 include tax. But, in the FordPass dealer record the price states $0. I’m not sure why I need “the works” but I will definitely do the cabin air filter myself in the future.
I think Towne Ford RWC charged me $40 for the service, I didn't care much because I have a TON of fordpass points they gave me when Tesla lowered the boom on EV prices.

A K&N washable cabin air filter that will last the lifetime of your car is $40 (ok, more with tax and shipping but still). Ordering mine now.
 

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Livermore Ford charges $550 for the 20k service (🤡🤡🤡)
 

rclark2589

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Check out Walnut Creek Ford. I have been impressed by their cost and performance on my Mach E 2022.
 

ChrisO

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If you are near San Jose.

I just had my 10,000 mile service done, and from what I can see the only difference between that and the 20,000 mile service is changing the cabin air filter (which I wouldn't have them do because I have already replaced the standard one with the premium one that gets rid of the smells and will do it again, when needed).

The price: $50. At Mission Valley Ford Truck Sales Service, San Jose. That's right a truck place, mostly catering to commercial trucks. I decided to check them out because they are close to where we live. When you look at what needs to be serviced it is clear to see that it is basically the same as an ICE car/truck, so what I was fine with them for this, and the fact that they deal with commercial customers I figured that treated their customers right. And I was right. Very happy with them. Talked to the salesman there, they had 3 Mach-Es for sale, and he said that they were there only because Ford forces them to buys some. :ROFLMAO:

My next recommendation is that you don't go anywhere near Frontier Ford in Santa Clara for service, the sales is good, but service is terrible (Had an appointment at the start of the day, after an hour they hadn't even moved the car into a service bay. Wife had to light a fire under them.) Bought the car there and took them up on a free service at about 6 months (mostly to see if they had changed their ways, we had a problem with my wife's 2008 Mustang that we didn't want to take a chance at driving to Fremont for. The service was terrible back then years ago too). The invoice said the cost was $100, so I have to figure that if we had taken the car to them for the "paid" 10,000-mile service it would have been $100).

My second choice would have been Fremont Ford, they are great too, but a bit farther from us. We bought my wife's 2008 Mustang from them. Both great sales and service.
 
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BatteriesIncluded

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Frontier Ford in Santa Clara: I'm trying to follow-up on service. No one answers the service phone line -- seriously. I've called over 10 times. I've twice left messages with the main number admin but no one calls back. I finally found the service manager's phone number on a Yelp review and at least I could leave a message. Capitol Ford is where I bought the car but they tried to severely overcharge me for the 10K service and wouldn't budge saying I needed all sorts of required service.

So after issue I'm done with Frontier and I will try Sunnyvale. It is a shame since Frontier is in a good location for me. I can't wrap my head around the logistics to have my service in Morgan Hill.
 

ChrisO

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Frontier Ford in Santa Clara: I'm trying to follow-up on service. No one answers the service phone line -- seriously. I've called over 10 times. I've twice left messages with the main number admin but no one calls back. I finally found the service manager's phone number on a Yelp review and at least I could leave a message. Capitol Ford is where I bought the car, but they tried to severely overcharge me for the 10K service and wouldn't budge saying I needed all sorts of required service.

So, after issue I'm done with Frontier, and I will try Sunnyvale. It is a shame since Frontier is in a good location for me. I can't wrap my head around the logistics to have my service in Morgan Hill.
Yeah, That's Frontier Ford!

If Frontier Ford is convenient to you then Mission Valley Ford Truck Sales Service would be closer than going to Morgan Hill. I don't know that I would trust them for anything that is "EV" because they really just focus on trucks, but servicing is really just the same as on an ICE car. They are very responsive. The one thing I would say is that I scheduled an appointment online and it didn't give any feedback/email reminders. But when we got there everything was fine.

Of course, if you can find a good dealer closer to you, go for that.

Another thing I will say, I remember someone that their dealer was the top one in the country, but they had a bad service experience with them. "Top one" in this industry means sales, not service. They can be wildly different, and from my experience I have always had better luck with the "small ones", than the "top sales in the area".

Here is a bit of an update on the post above. Shortly after the one-year mark (we did our service a couple of weeks before the one-year mark) we decided that we couldn't pass up a good deal at Fremont Ford for a 2025 Premium. We really wanted the features in the Premium instead of the Select in the first place but couldn't find one configured the way we liked it at the time. It cost us some since the trade-in was negative, but we are loving the 2025 Premium even more than the 2024 so it was worth it. And knowing that we will never go back to Fremont Ford for anything is priceless.
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