Reign of Ravens
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2021
- Threads
- 5
- Messages
- 462
- Reaction score
- 506
- Location
- Hawaii
- Vehicles
- 22 Mach-E Premium, Chrysler PacHy
- Thread starter
- #1
Brief summary here: my instrument cluster (screen behind the steering wheel) went out; Ford was amazing in handling it, the dealership was so-so.
About a month into ownership, my instrument cluster began to flicker. At first it would flicker off for less than a second about once every three seconds, but over the course of about a week it began to remain off, flickering on briefly for less than a second about once every three seconds. This is a safety issue on multiple levels (in particular, if the car needs to tell you to stop for something like the HVBJB failure issue). It's also tricky for the dealership to handle, because spontaneously, sometimes for hours and sometimes for days, the screen would work perfectly again... before reverting to its problematic behavior.
I was already in touch with Ford thanks to their social media account here. I had joined a thread about wind noise, and their social media person had picked it up and requested more information. I've seen that account get mocked a few times before (there are only so many ways to write that request for more information - social media person, you have my sympathy), but they were pretty responsive and then handed my information off to someone at Ford, who communicated with me by email. I had been considering declining to move forward with the wind noise issue, but the screen went out shortly after I was emailing with Ford.
The Ford representative handled all of the coordination: they set a date and time with the Ford dealership, and also handled procuring a rental vehicle. They even offered to cover any fuel expenses I might incur. The dealership service department was nice and more pleasant to deal with than their sales department. I appreciated their honesty: they only had one technician certified to work on the Mach-E, and I was in luck, because he had just come back from vacation the other day! (Honolulu is a mid-sized city and this is one of the larger, if not the largest, of the Ford dealerships here. I'm still sort of shocked that there's only one guy certified to work on these vehicles.) I was away from the vehicle for about four days, and it was returned to me with the following report: there was no abnormal amount of wind noise; and the technician could not replicate the screen issue (which presumably resolved after some software updates).
Well, the screen issue returned a day or two after I picked the vehicle back up. The Ford representative was also regularly following up with me, and I let them know that we needed another appointment. On the day of the appointment, however, the screen was working perfectly. I contacted the dealership, who said that it might be best not to bring the car in, because if the technician couldn't see the problem then they wouldn't be able to cover the cost of a rental. I think there's some miscommunication here, as it seems the dealership can provide a rental directly, or Ford can cover the cost of a rental through a rental agency... in any event, I didn't want to waste time swapping cars around if the dealership would just have me get it again a day or two later, so I canceled the appointment. When my wife went to drive it that afternoon, the screen was out again. She rushed over to the dealership, where the service adviser could see it. They went to get the technician to see it as well, and... they couldn't find him. Kept my wife there for a few minutes and then had to admit to her that they didn't know where he was. It wasn't close to closing time, either.
By now it was already over a month since the issue had started. I took some videos of the screen issue and sent them to Ford. They forwarded the videos on to their engineering department and again scheduled an appointment, with specific directives to the dealership to communicate with Ford and hold the vehicle even if the screen seemed to be working. They also happily told me that the dealership would loan me a Mach-E, instead of having me face the standard rental vehicle. Luckily, the screen was still in its failed state when I dropped the car off. Unfortunately (and not unexpectedly), there was no loaner Mach-E available. Back to the rental car agency I went.
I don't know if the dealership needed help from Ford on getting it this time, but they identified that the screen had failed and needed replacement. The total time away from the vehicle was about six days. The dealership surprised us on this one: Ford let me know that the parts were ordered and to expect the vehicle in about a week; about an hour later, the dealership called me to say that they were wrapping up and I could pick up the vehicle that afternoon. The screen has been working as it should since then.
The good...
The experience really put Ford in a different light for me. Between covering the costs of rentals (and even fuel), checking in throughout the process, and handling the scheduling and communication with the dealership, it felt as if I was receiving VIP treatment. I've never owned a luxury-brand car, but this was the type of service I would have expected from owning a vehicle 2-3x the cost of the Mach-E. You can view their efforts in a cynical manner, and I'd guess that's part of it, but I really think Ford wants to "win" in the EV space and use the opportunity to change themselves a bit, and this is what it looks like. The electric vehicle revolution is really allowing various car companies to change their positioning in the old order: Hyundai and Kia are brands I never would have even considered, but their electric offerings are impressive and they're now greatly elevated in my mind, whereas Toyota's first EV is an utter embarrassment that had a major recall due to the wheels falling off, of all things, and Toyota has dramatically fallen from grace in my mental ordering. This experience makes me think more highly of Ford.
The bad...
Everyone in the EV space is benchmarking against Tesla. Majority consensus is that Tesla's sales process is superior than dealing with the salesperson model (although Ford's new EV agreement with dealerships might rectify that), while many think that having a solid dealership network should mean a better support and service experience. I think that a few years down the line the dealerships will prove to be a solid asset. Right now, however, it feels like they're holding Ford back. From limited EV-certified technicians to poor communication back with Ford, the feelings of a luxury experience cultivated by Ford's direct representatives were dashed by the almost comical ineptitude faced on the ground. I give the technician a pass for not nailing the issue on the first try - these are relatively new vehicles, after all - but the miscommunication with Ford was a pretty basic error. I have some hope that in the future this will improve, but maybe the dealerships need to begin to view themselves differently, as well.
The ugly...
I've read another account or two of people who had their instrument cluster fail, and their dealerships could not sort it out for them. I am grateful to the Ford representative, and to the social media team who helped to make that connection. I shudder to think about what this experience might have been like without Ford's help. Without the social media team, I'm not sure what I would have been able to engage Ford's assistance. That's not overly reassuring, although it's understandable why Ford wouldn't want to act as a regular intermediary between customers and dealerships. And I fully expect that this is special treatment because the Mach-E is new; once it becomes a more commonplace vehicle that has been out for some time (and most of the issues have been fixed or are known entities), I'm doubtful that the treatment I received would be given so readily.
About a month into ownership, my instrument cluster began to flicker. At first it would flicker off for less than a second about once every three seconds, but over the course of about a week it began to remain off, flickering on briefly for less than a second about once every three seconds. This is a safety issue on multiple levels (in particular, if the car needs to tell you to stop for something like the HVBJB failure issue). It's also tricky for the dealership to handle, because spontaneously, sometimes for hours and sometimes for days, the screen would work perfectly again... before reverting to its problematic behavior.
I was already in touch with Ford thanks to their social media account here. I had joined a thread about wind noise, and their social media person had picked it up and requested more information. I've seen that account get mocked a few times before (there are only so many ways to write that request for more information - social media person, you have my sympathy), but they were pretty responsive and then handed my information off to someone at Ford, who communicated with me by email. I had been considering declining to move forward with the wind noise issue, but the screen went out shortly after I was emailing with Ford.
The Ford representative handled all of the coordination: they set a date and time with the Ford dealership, and also handled procuring a rental vehicle. They even offered to cover any fuel expenses I might incur. The dealership service department was nice and more pleasant to deal with than their sales department. I appreciated their honesty: they only had one technician certified to work on the Mach-E, and I was in luck, because he had just come back from vacation the other day! (Honolulu is a mid-sized city and this is one of the larger, if not the largest, of the Ford dealerships here. I'm still sort of shocked that there's only one guy certified to work on these vehicles.) I was away from the vehicle for about four days, and it was returned to me with the following report: there was no abnormal amount of wind noise; and the technician could not replicate the screen issue (which presumably resolved after some software updates).
Well, the screen issue returned a day or two after I picked the vehicle back up. The Ford representative was also regularly following up with me, and I let them know that we needed another appointment. On the day of the appointment, however, the screen was working perfectly. I contacted the dealership, who said that it might be best not to bring the car in, because if the technician couldn't see the problem then they wouldn't be able to cover the cost of a rental. I think there's some miscommunication here, as it seems the dealership can provide a rental directly, or Ford can cover the cost of a rental through a rental agency... in any event, I didn't want to waste time swapping cars around if the dealership would just have me get it again a day or two later, so I canceled the appointment. When my wife went to drive it that afternoon, the screen was out again. She rushed over to the dealership, where the service adviser could see it. They went to get the technician to see it as well, and... they couldn't find him. Kept my wife there for a few minutes and then had to admit to her that they didn't know where he was. It wasn't close to closing time, either.
By now it was already over a month since the issue had started. I took some videos of the screen issue and sent them to Ford. They forwarded the videos on to their engineering department and again scheduled an appointment, with specific directives to the dealership to communicate with Ford and hold the vehicle even if the screen seemed to be working. They also happily told me that the dealership would loan me a Mach-E, instead of having me face the standard rental vehicle. Luckily, the screen was still in its failed state when I dropped the car off. Unfortunately (and not unexpectedly), there was no loaner Mach-E available. Back to the rental car agency I went.
I don't know if the dealership needed help from Ford on getting it this time, but they identified that the screen had failed and needed replacement. The total time away from the vehicle was about six days. The dealership surprised us on this one: Ford let me know that the parts were ordered and to expect the vehicle in about a week; about an hour later, the dealership called me to say that they were wrapping up and I could pick up the vehicle that afternoon. The screen has been working as it should since then.
The good...
The experience really put Ford in a different light for me. Between covering the costs of rentals (and even fuel), checking in throughout the process, and handling the scheduling and communication with the dealership, it felt as if I was receiving VIP treatment. I've never owned a luxury-brand car, but this was the type of service I would have expected from owning a vehicle 2-3x the cost of the Mach-E. You can view their efforts in a cynical manner, and I'd guess that's part of it, but I really think Ford wants to "win" in the EV space and use the opportunity to change themselves a bit, and this is what it looks like. The electric vehicle revolution is really allowing various car companies to change their positioning in the old order: Hyundai and Kia are brands I never would have even considered, but their electric offerings are impressive and they're now greatly elevated in my mind, whereas Toyota's first EV is an utter embarrassment that had a major recall due to the wheels falling off, of all things, and Toyota has dramatically fallen from grace in my mental ordering. This experience makes me think more highly of Ford.
The bad...
Everyone in the EV space is benchmarking against Tesla. Majority consensus is that Tesla's sales process is superior than dealing with the salesperson model (although Ford's new EV agreement with dealerships might rectify that), while many think that having a solid dealership network should mean a better support and service experience. I think that a few years down the line the dealerships will prove to be a solid asset. Right now, however, it feels like they're holding Ford back. From limited EV-certified technicians to poor communication back with Ford, the feelings of a luxury experience cultivated by Ford's direct representatives were dashed by the almost comical ineptitude faced on the ground. I give the technician a pass for not nailing the issue on the first try - these are relatively new vehicles, after all - but the miscommunication with Ford was a pretty basic error. I have some hope that in the future this will improve, but maybe the dealerships need to begin to view themselves differently, as well.
The ugly...
I've read another account or two of people who had their instrument cluster fail, and their dealerships could not sort it out for them. I am grateful to the Ford representative, and to the social media team who helped to make that connection. I shudder to think about what this experience might have been like without Ford's help. Without the social media team, I'm not sure what I would have been able to engage Ford's assistance. That's not overly reassuring, although it's understandable why Ford wouldn't want to act as a regular intermediary between customers and dealerships. And I fully expect that this is special treatment because the Mach-E is new; once it becomes a more commonplace vehicle that has been out for some time (and most of the issues have been fixed or are known entities), I'm doubtful that the treatment I received would be given so readily.
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