A guy called, (on Saturday no less), but I just happened to be here and I answered the phone. He said he needed the spark plugs replaced on his 2005 Ford pick-up and wanted to know what it would cost. He said he’d gotten an estimate of 385 dollars from somebody named Gary on 31 highway and wanted to know if I could do any better. Well, in my post on 6/2/2012, I explained why I would want no part of this catastrophe. I told him so and that his 385 dollar estimate probably was not too far out of line, until a spark plug or two broke off in the head, then his estimate was out the window. “You mean, I’ll have to pay extra if ‘they’ break a spark plug off?” Yes. Yes you will. “But it’s not my fault if ‘they’ break a spark plug.” No, but it is your fault that you bought a vehicle with built-in engineering problems and you now know what could happen ahead of time. “If I take it to the Ford dealer, will they help me out?” No, but they will sell you a new truck with redesigned heads that it only took Ford five years to figure out were a problem. Some time back, I also had a do-it-yourselfer call to tell me he had broken one of the spark plugs in his 2006 Ford pick-up and what would I charge to get it out. Thank you but no. You see, even though there’s a device sold to remove these broken spark plug bits, there’s still a chance it won’t work and the cylinder head would have to come off. On these Fords it’s actually easier to remove the body from the frame, (believe it or not), to get to the engine than it is to do it from under the hood. It never ceases to amaze me how the manufacturers can sell people a vehicle with a built in hand-grenade that’ll go off after the thing is out of warranty, and then just consider you out of luck. I guess because these same people will turn around and buy another vehicle from the same manufacturer, and probably the same dealer. It’s not just Ford, although I feel they might be the worst offenders, but all the brands have issues that seem to surprise owners when they realize they’ve been considered uncompensated long-term test dummies. But when somebody calls me and says they’re thinking about buying a 2010 Fizzbang SS, and asks what I think about it, and I tell them I know of several unresolved issues with that particular make and model, what do you think they show up with a few days later? Yeah, but they got a really good deal on it.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 23:05:02 +0000
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