Life's Irritations
Being a lawyer, I am my family’s lawyer. Not very lucrative; but, that’s family.
My brother called yesterday because he was mad at Ford Motor Company. He’d bought a 1999 Explorer for his daughter. In August they’d gotten a recall notice about a switch for the cruise control. His daughter took it in, they told her it was fixed and she left. Shortly after she tried to engage the cruise control and no luck. She called and they told her they had only disconnected it and were waiting for the part. Months passed. No part. No word of when the part might arrive.
Brother being pissed, called me. I gave him a website that Ford maintains for “customer service.” He called. It turns out there are over 3 million of these switches that need to be replaced on Ford vehicles made between 1992 and 2003. They are just now gearing up to make them. They will start going to dealers early in 2008. “You’ll get a call from the dealer when ….”
Brother being pissed, calls me and wants me to file a class action suit. I told him I’d stick to construction law.
On a broader note, if you have a ’92 to’03 Ford, you might want to see if it is subject to the recall. The switches catch fire, even while the car is turned off; it might be worth disconnecting, even if yours hasn’t been recalled.
9 comments:
The last two cars I replaced were Fords. I'll never buy another Ford again unless they get their shit together. The truck was okay, but the van was an abomination against humanity. It was a '99. It had cruise control. And it was on it's third transmission, which was crapping out.
Tell your family members to forget the class action suit and buy a nice Honda or Toyota or Nissan or something with a good reliability record.
Life's Irritations
I am very irritated with Ford and I have filed a lawsuite against them. My only wish would be that it was a lawsuit about a unreplaced part. In September 06 bought a 1993 Mark VIII with very low miles 86K, looked to be in excellent condition. Less than 3 months later in Decemmber 06 My son was driving the car when it caught fire, He was burned alive, along with his girlfriend. The car was examined, the cruise control part found to have INTERNALLY FAILED. A 20.00 part killed my son. A part Ford knew was defective since 1999. Ford recalled my car 2 days after they inspected it in Houston AUG.07.
ford has not even replaced my car,sent flowers to Payton's service or paid for the cremation.
Payton's Momma
Payton's Mom,
I'm very sorry for your loss and for having reminded you of your loss by my post.
For others, she mentions that it is a $20 part, something that I left out of the post.
I also left out of the post the fact that Ford has been recalling this part in dribs and drabs since 1999. My brother got the recall on his '99 in August of this year at about the same time as Payton's Mom got hers on her '93, eight years after the first recall.
Again, I'm sorry that I caused you pain Payton's Mom.
I have a 2002 Ford Escape that is my daughters ride. She took it in just not too long ago for this recall. She is out driving it at the moment but I intend to go out and check it when she gets back to make sure they did not just disconnect the cruise control until the part comes in.
For Payton's mom, I am sincerely sorry for your loss. I hope that Ford gives you what you deserve, although it will be minimal compared to your loss. My codolences.
Oh wow...I was about to make a stupid comment, like everyone needs a lawyer, a doctor and a mechanic in their families.
BUT now reading Payton's mom comment, I feel like an ass.
I'm so sorry to hear that this tragedy happened to you and so sad to hear about your son and his girlfriend.
A lawsuit, at the end of the day, is just that. Doesn't fix the tragedy, somehow, it just doesn't seem enough.
Michelle
Wow, deliciadawn, that is a sad and amazing story - like Michelle, my comments about your post, Dave, suddenly seems a bit trite.
Umm, wow. I asked PDM about this, and he says yes, he received the recall notice. Now he knows not to use cruise control until it is fixed, so thank you. He says he has noticed that the steering column got hot when he used CC (which is not often, since he mostly drives in ATL traffic).
I bet he might be able to join a class action suit - check on google!
Fermi, tell PDM that even if the CC is not used, as I understand it, it can catch fire. I think ya'll need to disconnect it.
To you and all the other commenters, Happy New Years!
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