DJ140

I would appreciate advice and experiences people have had, claiming for warranty work from Ford.

A friend of mine has a Focus Zetec, with several stone chips on the front spoiler, which have developed into large (2-3 inch) patches of missing paint. The local Ford dealer has claimed that warranty will not cover re-painting as they are classed as stone chips!

Having had excellent service from my local Subaru dealer, when my MY00 had a rust spot on the roof, should she accept that she bought a Ford and get's sh*te service as standard, or argue with the dealer until she get it resprayed FOC?
IMO the paint is faulty. The front of mine is covered in stone chips, but the paint around them does not fall of, as it has on the Focus.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dan

P.S. I personally would never have another Ford, their customer service is, and has always been, shockingly bad.

nigelward

AFAIK no paintwork warranty covers damage caused by objects hitting the outside of the paintwork, eg stones.

If the rust spot on the roof occured under the paintwork and then caused the paintwork to bubble then fair enough the roof wasn't prepared correctly during manufacture.

Maybe if your friend doesn't drive so close to the car in front the stone chips won't occur.

Ford will do paintwork if it is a valid claim, I had the side of an Escort resprayed due to dis-colouration on the passengers door without question (once the paint depths of the panels had been checked).

MARK MORRIS

my wifes now got a focus, no probs, brilliant car, she had an escort before, rust on doors, b pillar, sills when new, various water leaks, knackered suspension bushes and a broken seat frame, ford fixed all but the seat frame, but ****e service and loads of hassle
mark

Webdunk

I had a Puma for a bit (98-01) and it started to rust for no apparent reason. Ford main delaer weaseled out of it claiming that only 'inside to outside' rusting would be covered by the warranty.

On a possibly related note a number of the Racing Pumas (all Ford Imperial Blue) had shocking paint problems around the nose of the car. The consensus appears to have been that Ford were just getting used to more environmentally friendly paints - these newer paints were not as impact resistant as previous ones.

For my money, if the car has rusted from stone chips, you're not going to be able to claim via warranty unless your dealer is very keen on customer service. If, however, it's more than just rust and the paintwork appears to be faulty, ask them to call in an independent assessor (main dealers use the AA) - I believe that's part of their standard service w.r.t. disputed paint warranty claims.

HTH,

Duncan

DJ140

She can accept stone chips, but it's the fact that where each chip appears, on the plastic bumper, 2-3 inches of paint around the chip fall off too!

To me this is a fault that Ford should rectify, no questions asked. Once created that chip should not keep "spreading" indefinately.

Do you drive a car Mr Ward? I would suggest that it more the types of roads driven on, rather than the distance you travel from the car in front, that causes stone chips. On a motorway for instance, unless you drive on it when no other cars are present, it is inevitable that you will get paint damge from stones - FACT. Cars overtaking you, being overtaken etc.

My MY00 is covered in small stone chips, due to 80% of the mileage I do, being on the M1/M40. I do not drive close to the car in front and am not complaining about my stone chips, as they haven't caused paint around the chip to fall off in sympathy, which is what has happened to my friends Focus.

Dan

nigelward

Try reading the last paragraph of my previous post, it is in simple and easy to understand english.

DJ140

IMO it is a valid claim, problem is Ford think it isn't, they are wrong.

A quality manufacturer would accept it was a problem and fix it, you get what you pay for I guess.

Dan

MrDBM

sounds valid to me - i had a shed load of problems with my '99 ST24, bloody awful paint being one of them - and pants service. well, forget that; bloody AWFUL service actually.