CPO woes. What good is a warranty?

[nul7]

Hey, all. Been lurking since before I bought my car, but hoping I can get some advice on how to proceed with some issues I'm having with my car so thought I'd make the leap to register and post. Sorry if this gets wordy.... TLDR at the bottom.

I bought a certified pre-owned 2021 MME Premium RWD. It's my first EV. I love the styling, the convenience of home charging, and all the features! Unfortunately, there are some issues with my car that I've been going back and forth with the dealership and BEV customer service over. I assumed they would all be covered under CPO warranty or the PremiumCARE EV contract that I bought with the car. Unfortunately, it seems I have to fight for everything.

Here's the breakdown:

1. The dreaded "stuck" update. When I test drove the car the salesman mentioned that he was not used to the version of software that was on the car, because it reverted to it's original version whenever they reset the car at intake. He talked about BlueCruise and all these cool features the car will have once it updates. Thought it was odd that it would revert software versions from a reset, but I've seen stranger things and looked forward to getting all these features he told me the car had. After seeing the blank version #s and not being able to enable automatic updates, I discovered my car suffered from the "stuck" update issue. After doing more research here, I found the TSB that lays out how to recover the APIM. I spoke to my salesman about the issue and he said I would have to go through warranty and to make a service appointment. Their service department said because I just bought the car, I would have to talk to my salesman. I didn't want to bother playing this game so I bought the Mongoose cable, all the adapters, and a subscription to FDRS to just do it myself. Excitedly, I got everything ready, hooked up FDRS, only to find out that the APIM has been locked out since the beginning of 2022. Obviously, the salesman lied when he said that it had newer software, but whatever. I called the BEV line, talked to 4 or 5 different people in all different divisions.... They all said it would be covered under the CPO warranty and that I could take it to any dealership. Called a few dealerships around my area... All of them were booked until Sept or later (after CPO warranty expires) aside from one.

2. After making my appointment, I took my car through a car wash, and it leaked a not insignificant amount of water into the cabin. The headliner was wet and pink where it meets the A-pillar trim. The vent on the A-pillar trim was dripping water out, and the kick panel and carpet were soaked. Pulling the trim out a little, I can see that the airbag is stained pink, as well. So I called the dealership and asked them to add that to the service request.

3. I didn't want to get too involved with settings and features, since I figured most of it will change or get reset once the APIM is replaced, so I haven't done too much with the car. I did get curious about PAAK and the app, so I went ahead and downloaded the app and got that set up. After a day or 2 I got an alert about a CSP for BlueCruise module programming. Called the dealership and added that to the case.

My appointment finally arrived and I dropped my car off yesterday... No loaners.... Had to get a shuttle ride home and now I'm stuck here because this is my only car. But.... It's being worked on, so it will be worth it..... Hopefully.

Got a text earlier today from the service rep that they are working on the car. Awesome! Was happy until I got the follow up text just before closing time. They confirmed the software is really old but that "there is an update they can do that is covered under warranty." They said the leaking is from a "body line hole in the sealer" and that I would have to take it to a body shop to get fixed. And the kicker, they said that because my MME only came with a trial of BC so they would have to reprogram a bunch of modules and that it would cost me $1440.96 for them to do it.

I told them to feel free to try the update, but as I've mentioned multiple times, the TSB states that if the APIM is locked, there's nothing that can be done to fix it aside from replacing the APIM. I told him if they want to borrow all my adapters and stuff, they're still new in the packages and are welcome to them. Still hopeful on this getting fixed because he did state it would be covered under warranty.

I mentioned the CSP for the BlueCruise programming again... Hopefully that just slipped his mind and they'll cover it without charging me nearly $1500.

My biggest concern is with the leaking roof. Old software sucks, but it's not going to destroy my car (maybe?). Of all the things that should definitely be covered under warranty or service contract, though, I would think that a leaking roof would be one of them. If they can't do body work, shouldn't they be the ones to coordinate with a body shop and have it fixed? Do I really have to find and pay for a body shop to fix my leaky car??

While I'm venting, what is the point of a CPO warranty? Every dealership can just say they are booked out. I called Ford customer service about this. I said that since the CPO warranty is through Ford directly, can I not file my complaints with them to have them noted within the warranty period, and have them still cover the warrantied items when a dealership can finally get me in for service. They informed me that that's not how it works and that a dealership would have to diagnose the issue and submit it to Ford within the warranty period and that Ford has no control over how busy dealerships are. Again, what good is a CPO warranty if all dealerships are booked so far out that your warranty expires before you can even get an appointment? F'ing ridiculous.

Sorry for being so long-winded... Just getting frustrated. Thanks to anyone who can provide any help or advice.



TLDR: Very old software and a locked APIM. Roof is leaking and was told I would need to take it to a body shop. Open CSP for BlueCruise programming, but dealership wants to charge me almost $1500 to do it. It's a CPO car with warranty until mid-August and I bought a PremiumCARE EV service contract. Shouldn't all of this be covered by one and/or the other??

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[Snakebitten]

What a lousy scenario to be the reason to join and post.
It simply amazes me that the selling dealership would treat a CPO sold vehicle any differently than a brand new vehicle. Why designate a used vehicle as CPO?
No matter how "busy" they might be, there are circumstances that warrant special consideration.

This is how a brand gets destroyed one customer at a time.

 

[Sikkun]

Totally wouldn’t pay $1500 for the programming when you already bought all the stuff to do it yourself.

Unless they mean your car only came with a trial of blue cruise and you would have to pay for it…which yeah that part is probably true. (IE the service itself, not the FDRS part).

 

[wholesome]

If Ford denies claim you could try to appeal to BBB. There is a procedure in warranty book, its online and free.

another user mentioned that it helped to fix the cracked roof under warranty which was denied initially.

 

[nul7]

What a lousy scenario to be the reason to join and post.
It simply amazes me that the selling dealership would treat a CPO sold vehicle any differently than a brand new vehicle. Why designate a used vehicle as CPO?
No matter how "busy" they might be, there are circumstances that warrant special consideration.

This is how a brand gets destroyed one customer at a time.

That's what I expected. I thought since it's a CPO that it would have basically the same warranty as a new car, albeit only for a short time. It's funny how differently the dealerships treat customers based on the car they have. I bought a CPO Lincoln MKZ Reserve Mk2 a few years ago. They basically treated me like royalty at this same dealership my MME is at now. Even though the MKZ was around $10k less expensive, both new price and used price compared to the MME (both around 25k miles).

Still keeping my fingers crossed and that all this will be worked out without much more trouble... But the way things have been going though dozens and dozens of calls to different dealerships and Ford direct, I'm really losing hope. Not a great first impression of Ford's EV division, for sure.

Totally wouldn’t pay $1500 for the programming when you already bought all the stuff to do it yourself.

Unless they mean your car only came with a trial of blue cruise and you would have to pay for it…which yeah that part is probably true. (IE the service itself, not the FDRS part).

Here is his exact text:

"for the blue cruise issue the vehicle did not come with the option for blue cruise it had a free trail run if you wanted blue cruise we would have to go back in all the modules and reprgram them that would run $1440.96 let me know if you want us to reprogram the blue cruise"

Wrote out a bunch of stuff here, but when typing out my reply it clicked that you're telling me I can do it myself through FDRS. That made me do a little more research and I found a thread here that lists the procedures. It specifically states in the bulletin, "This service must be performed on all affected vehicles at no charge to the vehicle owner." So there's that. The bulletin itself says it expired 12/31/23, but in the thread, it's mentioned that it's been extended to cover all of this year, as well. Will have to do more research to see if I can find anything in writing that it's still valid and give that to the dealership. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!

 

[nul7]

If Ford denies claim you could try to appeal to BBB. There is a procedure in warranty book, its online and free.

another user mentioned that it helped to fix the cracked roof under warranty which was denied initially.

Thank you... Hopefully it won't come to that, but I'll keep that in mind next time I talk to customer service! Maybe just the threat will be enough to get them to be a little more customer friendly about fixing a leaky roof on a certified car. (Still can't believe it's becoming an issue to get this fixed.)

 

[RyZt]

the salesman mentioned that he was not used to the version of software that was on the car, because it reverted to it's original version whenever they reset the car at intake

Is this true or a lying/misinformed salesperson? I wouldn’t expect the car to lose all software updates when it’s reset.

I’m about to be in the market of buying a used Mach E (currently a single car household with a 2021 Mach E). I’ll probably not touch a Mach E that doesn’t have the first refreshed Sync UI (original UI was super laggy, also it’s the easiest indicator of the car’s OTA progress), preferably the second refreshed Sync UI. But if reset reverts all OTAs, that would make me reconsider.

If that’s a lie yet OP doesn’t have BlueCruise, OP’s Mach E is probably one of those rare stuck-at-1.7.1 cars. Right? If so, fixing won’t be easy. I don’t know whether the special paid-by-Ford program for fixing those cars are still in effect.

 

[nul7]

Is this true or a lying/misinformed salesperson? I wouldn’t expect the car to lose all software updates when it’s reset.

I’m about to be in the market of buying a used Mach E (currently a single car household with a 2021 Mach E). I’ll probably not touch a Mach E that doesn’t have the first refreshed Sync UI (original UI was super laggy, also it’s the easiest indicator of the car’s OTA progress), preferably the second refreshed Sync UI. But if reset reverts all OTAs, that would make me reconsider.

If that’s a lie yet OP doesn’t have BlueCruise, OP’s Mach E is probably one of those rare stuck-at-1.7.1 cars. Right? If so, fixing won’t be easy. I don’t know whether the special paid-by-Ford program for fixing those cars are still in effect.

In my case, he was 100% lying because the car had not received updates for years. The APIM was locked years ago (verified by FDRS) and wasn't able to update. Whether or not it's true for a car that has working updates, I couldn't tell you. I'm 99.99% sure that it's not true in any case as I've read posts from people who said they performed a reset, but I don't recall any of them mentioning that the software reverted.

But, yeah, just avoid the headaches and my mistake and make sure that the software is updated before buying.

 

[Monke]

I would check tire threads and wiper blades too. I bought a $30k CPO with 20k miles and the CPO inspection sheet showed full tire threads. All the tires were at their halflife. The wiper blades looked not new. Not sure about newly replaced filters and oils.

The car was a Blue CPO. The CPO inspection did not reflect the car conditions.

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