Ford sucks.

I love my truck. When I bought it, I was so happy. It was the nicest vehicle I had ever bought and I expected it to last forever. It is a diesel after all. With a 100,000 mile warranty, picking it up with 47,000 miles on it meant the warranty would be good for a long time.

Of course, I never expected to put the miles on it while working for LoneStar Transportation. I put almost 50,000 miles on it during my tenure there. Just a mere 14 months. When I was laid off in February, it had over 95,000 miles on it and I had already started having problems.

At 87,000 miles, the EGR cooler developed a leak. This resulted in steam out of the tail pipe and a strange noise emanating from under the hood. I took it into the dealer for repair and they fixed it under warranty. However, once I got it back, it was still making the strange noise from under the hood. It was a whine. A moan. That was the only way I could describe it. I knew it didn't sound good. I took it back to the dealer a couple of days later and they told me it was normal. I knew this wasn't true, but what could I do. I continued to drive it.

At about 99,900 miles, I took it in again for one last ditch effort to have the techs at Ford find the noise from under the hood. While it was there, I had them replace the door handle because of damage from being broken into, but that is a story for a different time. They were unable to get that right too, by the way.

I had done my research and found that the 6.0 liter Powerstrokes were suffering from a manufacturer defect which was causing the trucks to blow head gaskets. As is always the story of my life, I knew this would haunt me someday. I brought the truck in, told them of the noise and asked them to fix it along with the door handle. I get the call a couple of days later. "Your truck is ready" said the service manager. Great. That was fast. I go to pick her up and ask what the noise was coming from under the hood. "Awe, that is normal. Nothing to worry about. We flashed the computer and you should be good to go." Yeah, right. I'm sure I'll be back.

As I knew before I took the keys out of his hand, I would surely hear that stupid, whining noise that had been driving me insane for months. I did. They didn't do a thing. We were heading out of town for the 4th of July weekend. My truck was expected to pull one of the floats in the Leakey parade.

We didn't even make it all the way to Leakey, TX before my truck began to over heat. What in the world could that be about? My wife suggested maybe it was low on coolant. We stopped. I added about a gallon of water and we were on our way again. Then I had to stop and add more. This kept happening for the next 5,000 miles. But I would go for weeks at a time without needing to add coolant.

Finally, with another mini vacation coming up, I brought my truck back to the dealer for the same problem for the THIRD time. Still making the noise from under the hood and coupled with the coolant loss, I was sure I knew what the problem was. Thank goodness I had brought it in a couple of times before while it was still under warranty for this exact issue.

Halfway through the state of New Mexico, on our way back home, I get the call. "I have bad news. Your truck has blown head gaskets." Really? Wow, that does suck. I guess you guys should have caught that on of my previous trips to your shop. This will be covered under warranty, right? "No sir, you are 5,000 miles out of warranty. It will be between $3,500 and $5,600 to repair it."

Wait, what?

You are telling me, that on the other THREE occasions I have brought my truck in for this problem, starting RIGHT AFTER the EGR coolant leak was repaired... you are telling me that this is not going to be covered? Ford knows this is a problem with this engine. They are aware of the situation. Yet they are refusing to cover it? "Hey, you're preaching to the choir" is what I was told.

The next day, while still on our vacation trip home, I get a call from a new guy. He tells me that Ford is willing to cover $1,462 of the cost. I have to pay for the rest. Up to $4,200 if it needs heads... (come on buddy... I can already see where this is going. Of course you are going to tell me it needs heads. Duh!) By the way, where is my service writer? Why are YOU calling me and not him? "Uh, he is no longer employed at this company."

Fishy.

That pretty much sums up the next 2 weeks of phone calls to Ford executives, service managers, and anyone else I could get on the phone. They all told me the same thing as if they were reading from cue cards or something. They just about told me that I was just one person. They couldn't care any less about me or my plight. I was out of warranty. Suck it up.

So, now we have to start selling some stuff to try and fix my truck. Ridiculous. Ford's customer service at this point is inexcusable. I was looking for that one person... the one who would say, Mr. Beard, I hear what you are saying. Yes, we do have an issue with our 6.0 Powerstrokes. Yes, the techs should have caught your problem long before you went out of warranty. Yes, the EGR leaks are what is causing this problem to begin with. I apologize for you not having your truck for 2 weeks. We'll get it repaired and get it back to you as quickly as possible. Thank you for buying a Ford.

But no. I got it stuck up my ass and broken off. Thanks Ford. You guys are awesome.

Ford sucks. I think I'll paint that on the side of the motorhome and drive it around for the next few years.

You wanna hear about my customer service experience with Whirlpool now? I didn't think so...