Last Ford I buy

[Eagle11]

Good for you! Glad you love it and see my struggles as hit on your own person because you love you truck so much that you identify anything bad being about the Maverick as a personal attack against yourself.


just remember, your vehicle is still new and plenty more time for things to go wrong on it.

So you come on a public forum, and complain, which you have a right to, but you also need to not be a jerk when others point out they don't have issues with their

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[WNYEscapee]

WNYEscapee

THANK YOU!
Your explanation explains a lot as to why so many people are not either getting the correct service done, or, can't find and fix the issue that the customer complained about.

I'm an old school, learned how to fix cars on my own type of person. Most of my experience in working on cars is prior to 1995, but since then, I have been able to still do complete brake jobs, replace starters, replace solonoids, alternators, timing chains, replaced heads (after having them machined), etc.

I have always done my own oil changes and will continue to do so as long as I can safely and creatively do it.

But with newer cars, computers are the norm. Computer chips are the norm. You have to plug into a car and get a computer read out of what is wrong. Remember when the mechanic would ask you to start your car, listen to it, and then tell you what was wrong with it? That's how I knew I needed a new timing belt or timing chain. That's how I knew my timing was off a tooth. That's how I knew my timing or dwell was off. That's how I knew my valves needed adjusting. Black smoke in the tailpipe meant the carburetor needed cleaning.

With newer cars, the mechanic techs are more specialized. Our new technology should create an easier fix for these folks. I feel for them. Having had to work in a tech environment with software for our customers, it can be tiring. The software we deployed had to be updated weekly, and sometimes daily!! Very frustrating for the customer.

With all this being said, I now understand the issues going on at dealerships. It makes sense now as to why they aren't in the loop as fast as we are here in MaverickTruckClub. The Techs are just trying to fix the work that's in front of them.

I wish I could go into detail about why it is not just the complexity of vehicles which make them more difficult to repair; there's a lot of policies and practices at some dealerships that are either wrong or just non-existent which makes them little more than circuses with a fixed roof. At some the pay doesn't come close to matching the hours worked, demands, nor duties placed upon you. Some owners are very hands on and out there socializing with everyone they employ -- and they understand and appreciate what you do; others you rarely or never see and wonder if they've a clue what you do there. Some management steers the ship, others operate as though they have no rudder -- and no backbone to assure people do their jobs, if even correctly.
Additionally, I believe that some owners only see parts and service as necessary evils. But they are also ones to exploit for higher profit. Aside from that, I suspect most haven't really a clue what goes on in those departments and only really see the numbers they generate as relevant to their business. This often appears to be evident when the priority on hiring for these departments is on paying less for someone without experience that "can be trained" to do the job. Training someone off the street with no real knowledge of automobiles to be proficient in parts or service is more often than not impossible and I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen it done successfully.

In all, they can be very well run and good to deal with in every aspect, and conversely, they can be hit and miss, good for a purchase but lousy for repairs or vice versa.
To work at one, it can be enjoyable and depending upon your job, can make a decent living; or it can be a soul-sucking experience that makes you wish you chose another occupation, if not question your very existence.

And honestly, Ford's practices for acquiring parts on backorder is probably the worst experience I've had with any manufacturer. The number of hoops and hurdles is mind-numbing, then they change it to a new set of hoops and hurdles which make no difference whatsoever, just a new source of frustration and more wasted time. Consider for example, a customer who first visited dealership "A" needs a TCM for their transmission. After 6 months of waiting, they visit dealership "B" to see if they can acquire it sooner. After another 3 months there's still no part received to repair their vehicle by either dealership. In the meantime, you receive the same part number for half a dozen others customer's vehicles that have been at your shop for anywhere of a week to that same 3 months. Additionally, the original dealer who ordered parts, now 9 months ago still hasn't received their order either. Tell me how it is their system is working? ....and you should have seen the contacts the original dealership had with Ford regarding this order -- they were rightfully steamed and let go on them, and it did nothing to help their customer, just as I opened a case with them citing the other dealer's contacts, too; and it did nothing.

Enough of my venting; but maybe someone at Ford should let some of these remarks sink in. Aside from working under frustrating conditions, we have to deal with their symbolism of concern vs. real actions to deliver. When they flub up a vehicle, we're the face of Ford, our efforts make or break many people's impression of their product, we'd just like results not more hoops and lip service. ....and why don't we get a better discount on a vehicle purchase, we're the ones who take the blame when we can't get the parts to fix your mistakes!

 

[WNYEscapee]

Nicely put, that is why even though I don't like the dealership I'm dealing with, and I do believe they have some fault in my struggles, I'm still blaming Ford, they made the product and also control the warranty guidelines and how the privately owned dealership can get reimbursed for such work, loaners and ordering of OEM parts, especially on such a new vehicle when Ford is the only manufacturer of said parts.

In their defense, while they are the only ones to supply the parts for repair/sale, most parts come from outside suppliers. When looking at the notes in their internal system for any reasons provided for delay or an ETA on availability it is often noted the supplier cannot get materials or is having staffing issues. Yes, the dreaded nobody wants to work scenario.

But more can and should be done to be able to supply parts to repair their vehicles. If this means they acquire operations or build more components in house, then so be it.
After all, there was a time when some manufacturers owned the very companies they now use as suppliers. And what would be wrong with American manufacturers hiring more Americans to produce their products?

 

[CurtisB]

I wish I could go into detail about why it is not just the complexity of vehicles which make them more difficult to repair; there's a lot of policies and practices at some dealerships that are either wrong or just non-existent which makes them little more than circuses with a fixed roof. At some the pay doesn't come close to matching the hours worked, demands, nor duties placed upon you. Some owners are very hands on and out there socializing with everyone they employ -- and they understand and appreciate what you do; others you rarely or never see and wonder if they've a clue what you do there. Some management steers the ship, others operate as though they have no rudder -- and no backbone to assure people do their jobs, if even correctly.
Additionally, I believe that some owners only see parts and service as necessary evils. But they are also ones to exploit for higher profit. Aside from that, I suspect most haven't really a clue what goes on in those departments and only really see the numbers they generate as relevant to their business. This often appears to be evident when the priority on hiring for these departments is on paying less for someone without experience that "can be trained" to do the job. Training someone off the street with no real knowledge of automobiles to be proficient in parts or service is more often than not impossible and I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen it done successfully.

In all, they can be very well run and good to deal with in every aspect, and conversely, they can be hit and miss, good for a purchase but lousy for repairs or vice versa.
To work at one, it can be enjoyable and depending upon your job, can make a decent living; or it can be a soul-sucking experience that makes you wish you chose another occupation, if not question your very existence.

And honestly, Ford's practices for acquiring parts on backorder is probably the worst experience I've had with any manufacturer. The number of hoops and hurdles is mind-numbing, then they change it to a new set of hoops and hurdles which make no difference whatsoever, just a new source of frustration and more wasted time. Consider for example, a customer who first visited dealership "A" needs a TCM for their transmission. After 6 months of waiting, they visit dealership "B" to see if they can acquire it sooner. After another 3 months there's still no part received to repair their vehicle by either dealership. In the meantime, you receive the same part number for half a dozen others customer's vehicles that have been at your shop for anywhere of a week to that same 3 months. Additionally, the original dealer who ordered parts, now 9 months ago still hasn't received their order either. Tell me how it is their system is working? ....and you should have seen the contacts the original dealership had with Ford regarding this order -- they were rightfully steamed and let go on them, and it did nothing to help their customer, just as I opened a case with them citing the other dealer's contacts, too; and it did nothing.

Enough of my venting; but maybe someone at Ford should let some of these remarks sink in. Aside from working under frustrating conditions, we have to deal with their symbolism of concern vs. real actions to deliver. When they flub up a vehicle, we're the face of Ford, our efforts make or break many people's impression of their product, we'd just like results not more hoops and lip service. ....and why don't we get a better discount on a vehicle purchase, we're the ones who take the blame when we can't get the parts to fix your mistakes!

Thank you again for your honesty. It appears that this type of mindset is previlent in other businesses/industries. Ford certainly has to take it up a notch. My last Ford before the Maverick was in 1984. I bougth a Ford Tempo. Big mistake. Most of the problems were "electrical" in nature.

The car wouldn't start. The electrical radiator fan would not turn on, causing the car to overheat. Main computer replaced 3 times. The last straw to break the camels back was the car completely shuttting down on the Freeway on my way home after work to celebrate my marriage anniversary!

Spent the next 38 years buying Toyota cars and enjoyed an unpresidented period of blissfull reliability. The reason I decided on the Maverick was the proven track record of Fords Hybrid system. I also really wanted a small truck, but didn't want to suffer from low mpg. The Maverick seemed to fit the bill. The price was also good. 3 weeks into ownership I got the dreaded "sleep" notification. I charged the battery and 3 weeks later woke up to a completely dead battery. Lovely!! Visions of multiple visits to the dealership like I did with the Ford Tempo entered my mind.

Well, thanks to the wonderful folks here in MaverickTruckClub, I took action and purchased my own Duralast Platinum BCI Group Size 47 680 CCA H5-AGM battery. I still get sleep messages, but I haven't gotten a completely dead truck for nearly two months now.

I read this forum everyday, sometimes several times a day. I thoroughly enjoy it! I will look to you all for solutions to our one-of-a-kind truck that is called the "Maverick." And may our Ford Dealerships and Ford corporate people get with the program. Ford has a wonderful truck, but it may burn it's own bridge by ignoring the issues it comes with.

 

[Glen Baker LLC]

Thank you for your post.
When my battery finally dies in my Maverick. I will definitely look for a
Duralast Platinum BCI Group Size 47 680 CCA H5-AGM battery.

Again,
Thank you
GB

 

[olderbudwiser]

Thanks for the helpful comment...Buy/Lease, whatever either way I spent my money on a new vehicle and my experience with it so far hasn't been the best..the only good thing about the Maverick has been the gas mileage but even that hasn't been what was promised. My main reason I leased it, like I do with all new vehicles, is to see how it holds up and if it does, I will buy the lease out. Which was my plan with the Maverick from the get go, as on paper it's a great vehicle but in reality it's just another cheaply made vehicle.

I'm not saying it's the last Ford I buy solely on my experience with the Maverick alone, I had a 2021 F150 before this and that had issues too but what is really putting the nail in the coffin so to speak, is my experiences on how Ford is able to make things right. With my F150, when it needed recalls or the work done under warranty, most of the dealership in my area had me waiting over a month to schedule repairs where they were also able to provide me with a loaner and/or they didn't have parts. Other times they flat out said they had no loners and if I needed a vehicle while mine was in the shop, I was SOL. If anyone buys or leases a new vehicle, they should not have pay for a rental or have to have a second vehicle just incase it's in service for repairs/recalls under warranty.

When I was with Toyota and Subaru, for one never had to take them in as often for recalls or work under warranty but when I did, never had to wait more than a week and they always provided a loaner vehicle if the repair expected to take more than a few hours and I couldn't stay to wait.

Now is my experience all on Ford, no, I understand that is partly a dealership issue but also Ford does have some blame here too for making and/or sourcing parts with poor quality control. If they would of done it right in the first place, they wouldn't be spending millions on recalls and actually from what I have been reading Ford is one of the top manufacturers right now or maybe it was in 2023, with the most recalls across their model line up.

It's great others are having a good experience with their Mavericks, I'm being really sincere about that but hey, guess what there are a lot of people who are having the same experience that I am and having to jump through too may hoops to get their Mavericks fixed and with my case, it may not be safe to drive and I'm SOL and will have to rent a car and spend maybe a $1000 that I shouldn't have to because dealerships don't have loaners and Ford will not reimburse you for a rental if your vehicle is not able to safely drive because a faulty part they decided to use...if it was something like the AC or a part that made the vehicle just not function 100% but was still able to operate safety, I would be fine with having to wait, that I can understand.

And to all the other people who want to comment about too many commas/grammer and/or make negative comments, I've been typing this all on a phone and it likes to autocorrect/change everything but good job at being internet trolls!

You have to understand how Ford works. If the vehicle team brings in a vehicle or necessary parts under projected cost there are big bonus and or promotions involved.

If said vehicle has reliability / warranty cost issues, that is not a problem because that money comes from another pot within Ford. So the end result some folks get a big reward for cutting costs. Typically when a promotion is involved, it never comes back to their decision making.

 

[WNYEscapee]

Thank you again for your honesty. It appears that this type of mindset is previlent in other businesses/industries. Ford certainly has to take it up a notch. My last Ford before the Maverick was in 1984. I bougth a Ford Tempo. Big mistake. Most of the problems were "electrical" in nature.

The car wouldn't start. The electrical radiator fan would not turn on, causing the car to overheat. Main computer replaced 3 times. The last straw to break the camels back was the car completely shuttting down on the Freeway on my way home after work to celebrate my marriage anniversary!

Spent the next 38 years buying Toyota cars and enjoyed an unpresidented period of blissfull reliability. The reason I decided on the Maverick was the proven track record of Fords Hybrid system. I also really wanted a small truck, but didn't want to suffer from low mpg. The Maverick seemed to fit the bill. The price was also good. 3 weeks into ownership I got the dreaded "sleep" notification. I charged the battery and 3 weeks later woke up to a completely dead battery. Lovely!! Visions of multiple visits to the dealership like I did with the Ford Tempo entered my mind.

Well, thanks to the wonderful folks here in MaverickTruckClub, I took action and purchased my own Duralast Platinum BCI Group Size 47 680 CCA H5-AGM battery. I still get sleep messages, but I haven't gotten a completely dead truck for nearly two months now.

I read this forum everyday, sometimes several times a day. I thoroughly enjoy it! I will look to you all for solutions to our one-of-a-kind truck that is called the "Maverick." And may our Ford Dealerships and Ford corporate people get with the program. Ford has a wonderful truck, but it may burn it's own bridge by ignoring the issues it comes with.

It's funny you mention the battery. We've seen more than a few issues, but scouring the net and used vehicle service histories I find there's a lot of vehicle from multiple manufacturers that have had batteries replaced within only a couple years. I don't know specifically what that cause is and had at one time suspected the auto start/stop systems, but I cannot say whether or not those owners utilized that feature.
Additionally, I've noted a lot of traditional wet batteries in vehicles without this feature failing more frequently too. We have only speculated on lower quality or sourcing cheaper materials.
Nonetheless, I've not seen so many batteries needing replace in newer vehicles in my life. These new "glass mat" batteries do not seem to be any sort of improvement either. Honestly, in my opinion, they're just more expensive garbage.

 

[CurtisB]

It's funny you mention the battery. We've seen more than a few issues, but scouring the net and used vehicle service histories I find there's a lot of vehicle from multiple manufacturers that have had batteries replaced within only a couple years. I don't know specifically what that cause is and had at one time suspected the auto start/stop systems, but I cannot say whether or not those owners utilized that feature.
Additionally, I've noted a lot of traditional wet batteries in vehicles without this feature failing more frequently too. We have only speculated on lower quality or sourcing cheaper materials.
Nonetheless, I've not seen so many batteries needing replace in newer vehicles in my life. These new "glass mat" batteries do not seem to be any sort of improvement either. Honestly, in my opinion, they're just more expensive garbage.

You're probably correct. However, there is one guy in here that did a complete deep dive into the issues of the battery/Maverick. His discovery was that unless one pulls fuse #11 from the fuse box underneath the passenger floor, the truck will always take 75 minutes to completely shut down. This makes sense. The Ford Pass App monitors the truck too much and puts a strain on the 12v battery.

My Prius took about 20 minutes and had a really small 12v battery. No sleep issues or dead 12v battery ever in 7 years though. There was no app monitoring the Prius continuously.

He also found out by testing his AGM battery, it seemed to recover back to full voltage faster than the flooded battery. He also noted that in Forscan, our trucks are programmed to charge AGM batteries, not flooded. So maybe mine will last longer than 2 months. Is the the AGM battery the final solution? Time will tell.

The Maverick has a lot of computer sync things going on after you shut it down. Many here have pulled Fuse #11 and haven't had any more issues. Interior lights always come on for them now. If I have another dead battery, that is my next move.

 

[WNYEscapee]

You're probably correct. However, there is one guy in here that did a complete deep dive into the issues of the battery/Maverick. His discovery was that unless one pulls fuse #11 from the fuse box underneath the passenger floor, the truck will always take 75 minutes to completely shut down. This makes sense. The Ford Pass App monitors the truck too much and puts a strain on the 12v battery.

My Prius took about 20 minutes and had a really small 12v battery. No sleep issues or dead 12v battery ever in 7 years though. There was no app monitoring the Prius continuously.

He also found out by testing his AGM battery, it seemed to recover back to full voltage faster than the flooded battery. He also noted that in Forscan, our trucks are programmed to charge AGM batteries, not flooded. So maybe mine will last longer than 2 months. Is the the AGM battery the final solution? Time will tell.

The Maverick has a lot of computer sync things going on after you shut it down. Many here have pulled Fuse #11 and haven't had any more issues. Interior lights always come on for them now. If I have another dead battery, that is my next move.

But the AGM batteries are the ones we're replacing most often. I don't know what it is about them or the vehicles they're in, but they're not holding up, in my opinion.
I recall when the Continental first started rolling out. We had several of them with dead batteries. In fact, one of our vehicles was left at another dealership as it had to be rolled off to unload a delivery, but as the battery was dead and the AGMs were on back order, it was left where it was. I've not seen anything yet in them that leads me to believe they offer real benefit.
However, the OE AGM battery in our Cherokee finally cashed out after 5 years. That is acceptable, the one to two or so years we see a number of them failing is not.

 

[CurtisB]

I wasn't aware of AGM batteries failing in the Hybrid Mavericks. This is completely new to me. All I have been reading about is the flooded type batteries dying. I will read all the threads again as I could have sworn AGM batteries were doing better than flooded.

 

[Nw_adventure]

Finally, well almost finally...just got a call from the dealership and they said it was the passenger CV shaft, I should be getting my Maverick back tomorrow, hopefully the driver side is okay too, fingers crossed!

10/4- My passenger side axle said goodbye last week- Was replaced under warranty.

 

[Nw_adventure]

Is it driving fine now? I just updated my post, but wobble is still there, but it's better though. I'm guess the driver side is bad too, have to go back to the dealership in the morning to do a drive with the tech.

My gasket boot blew- Drove fine before- Don't notice much of a change after being swapped out.

 

[bbhaag]

Is it driving fine now? I just updated my post, but wobble is still there, but it's better though. I'm guess the driver side is bad too, have to go back to the dealership in the morning to do a drive with the tech.

His situation is different because he has an aftermarket lift installed. He was fortunate his dealer was willing to honor the repair under the warranty process.

 

[Nw_adventure]

His situation is different because he has an aftermarket lift installed. He was fortunate his dealer was willing to honor the repair under the warranty process.

Another dealer actually installed the lift springs. No reason to turn away work in these parts. -)

Do other vehicles' axel units instantly go on life support when a slight lift is mentioned ? Built Ford/Tough -

 

[CurtisB]

Not sure why the service department didn't replace both CV shafts.

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