Dealer wanted to charge me $1400 for updates!

[agoldman]

Sheehy Ford, Gaitherburg, MD to be exact. They say because the updates aren't recalls. Does Tesla charge for updates like this? I wish I had know this before I bought the car. I'll likely not get another Ford. Not a good experience at all.

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[Caliroute1]

WHAT??? These dealers are getting out of hand....

 

[Logal727]

Sheehy Ford, Gaitherburg, MD to be exact. They say because the updates aren't recalls. Does Tesla charge for updates like this? I wish I had know this before I bought the car. I'll likely not get another Ford. Not a good experience at all.

Were they the official updates or individual modules that weren’t part of a program?

 

[TS0926]

Cash grab preying on those who are scared of technology and trust everything a dealer says.

Their night job is calling people about the FBI coming to arrest them if Target gift cards aren't supplied.

 

[sockmeister]

Sheehy Ford, Gaitherburg, MD to be exact. They say because the updates aren't recalls. Does Tesla charge for updates like this? I wish I had know this before I bought the car. I'll likely not get another Ford. Not a good experience at all.

What updates in particular? The car is under warranty. Find another dealership. That's unheard of.

 

[generaltso]

Sheehy Ford, Gaitherburg, MD to be exact. They say because the updates aren't recalls. Does Tesla charge for updates like this? I wish I had know this before I bought the car. I'll likely not get another Ford. Not a good experience at all.

Which updates? I don't think there have been any bulletins for dealer updates for the GT except the BlueCruise map update. Tesla doesn't charge for OTA updates, but neither does Ford.

 

[agoldman]

Were they the official updates or individual modules that weren’t part of a program?

They were on the scan done here for me. Normal updates to several modules. Being that they aren't so called "recall" updates, the dealer says $200 per each update to install them. I assume that these updates are there for a reason and not a $1400 luxury only customer item. Even if these aren't critical, I would like to have my $62k car updated? Geeze. By the way, other than extending Blue Cruise expiration date, I have not received even one OTA update since November delivery. The whole thing feels cheap and petty to me. Even though it's the dealer that wanted to charge, I think the real problem is Ford doesn't pay dealers for updates unless part of a recall or similar problem related to a particular issue. And why can't these be sent OTA in the first place? I guess OTA is reserved for tic tac toe only. Sheesh..

Cruise Control Module
Driver Status Monitor
Image Processing
Power Steering
Gear Shift
Off Board Charger Controller
HVAC Control Software

 

[AKgrampy]

The price seems a bit high but it does take time and effort to do these updates and the dealer is not compensated unless it is a Ford driven update - kind of like a recall.

 

[ADDZ71]

I would tell that Dealer that you will no longer do business with them and will be finding a new dealer with a service department. That is absurd to suggest that they are charging for updates. I would also contact Ford Customer Service.

 

[Mach1E]

They were on the scan done here for me. Normal updates to several modules. Being that they aren't so called "recall" updates, the dealer says $200 per each update to install them.

Cruise Control Module
Driver Status Monitor
Image Processing
Power Steering
Gear Shift
Off Board Charger Controller
HVAC Control Software

That’s because it’s not a part of a recall, nor is it a warranty issue.

If Ford doesn’t pay for it, someone has to.

That said, $1400 is unreasonable to just plug your car in and let it sit and update. Maybe an hour or two if labor should be charged at most.

Now if your car has specific bugs that need fixed, that’s a warranty issue. Totally different situation.

 

[Mach1E]

I would tell that Dealer that you will no longer do business with them and will be finding a new dealer with a service department. That is absurd to suggest that they are charging for updates. I would also contact Ford Customer Service.

I’m not sure that “threat” will work.

The OP is asking for free service. “I’ll take my $0 I’m going to pay you elsewhere” doesn’t sound too threatening.

 

[Davedough]

That’s because it’s not a part of a recall, nor is it a warranty issue.

If Ford doesn’t pay for it, someone has to.

That said, $1400 is unreasonable to just plug your car in and let it sit and update. Maybe an hour or two if labor should be charged at most.

Now if your car has specific bugs that need fixed, that’s a warranty issue. Totally different situation.

Honestly, for less than that (I believe) you can get your own equipment to do the FDRS update yourself, as well as future updates

 

[generaltso]

Normal updates to several modules.

This has always been the case with cars. Most legacy cars have module updates available for their entire life that will never get applied unless there's a problem that the update fixes. But now we have OTA functionality, so most of these updates will get pushed eventually. Ford knows that the OTA updates are taking a while, which is why they've been putting out bulletins to pay dealers to perform these updates. But your car doesn't have any such bulletins yet, so your dealer would not get paid for the work.

 

[agoldman]

Plain and simple, it is an update of bugs and system operations to my car that is being sold like floor mats. I'm not surprised at this policy, although I'm shocked at the cost the dealer is quoting me, but I will take this policy under consideration for all future purchases. There are companies that give you all the updates free, like Volvo for instance. Not sure what Tesla does, but I think most are free OTA. The way I look at it is how would you like it if Apple or Microsoft charged for every point update or bug fix on phones and computers etc? Feels the same here. But I get that they are entitled to operate however they see fit. Likewise, I am entitled to voice my negative opinion and shop elsewhere. I only hope that the trend in the future is not more of this same nickle and dimeing. It doesn't sit well with me, and at some point there will be other options out there that I hope make updates a feature rather than a costly burden.

 

[jrstinkfish]

That’s because it’s not a part of a recall, nor is it a warranty issue.

If Ford doesn’t pay for it, someone has to.

That said, $1400 is unreasonable to just plug your car in and let it sit and update. Maybe an hour or two if labor should be charged at most.

Now if your car has specific bugs that need fixed, that’s a warranty issue. Totally different situation.

Don't almost all of these updates include bug fixes? Seems whenever I see a summary of one, you get a line that's something to the effect of "various bug fixes." Seems to me if you could find a summary of the updates and a "bug fix" is mentioned anywhere in there, you could claim it as warranty work ..... maybe?

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