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Mr. Gathai wasn't told about the accident, but says he's happy about his purchase...

I'll tell you another story about Toyota. My neighbor had a Lexus SUV that was plagued with steering column lock-ups. If fact, she had two "Lexi" with the same problem. The dealer was able to fix the 1st one, but the second one sat in the repair shop long enough to qualify under the "lemon law." Finally my friends got Toyota to take the car back and refund their money, but the dealer forced my friend to sign a paper saying there was "nothing wrong with the car" in order to get cash back. (First they tried to make them take another Toyota product.)

When my friend asked why, she was told that it was so Toyota could put the car on the used car lot witihout disclosing the car's "lemon law" history. So, when you encounter an almost new, low mileage Lexus SUV on a car lot purchase a different car!

This TRUE story makes me view Toyota's "customer satisfaction" ratings with a whole canister of salt!

I had a problem with Ford, or more specifically, the local Ford dealer.

I have a 1996 Ford Contour that is affected by a problem with the wiring harnesses--the insulation isn't the right stuff and it cracks off, leaving bare wire.

Ford put a 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty on these harnesses.

I took the car to the local Ford dealer, who patched up the damaged wire with a piece of heat-shrink tubing (5 minutes and 50 cents in parts), and said that they did it as a "goodwill" repair because the wiring harness replacement doesn't cover damage to that one wire. I knew that was BS.

I called Ford, they referred me back to the local dealer who told me in no uncertain terms that they were not going to replace the harnesses because the inspection procedure doesn't direct them to look at the area where the wire is damaged.

This despite the fact that the wire is part of a harness that would be replaced, and they were "not going to take the risk that Ford would inspect the old harnesses and charge back the warranty repair to us". Also BS, they can trash the harnesses as soon as they're removed from the car, Ford doesn't want them back.

Well, later on I did my own inspection and found wire damage in an area where the documentation DOES say to inspect. Therefore, by the local Ford dealer's own creative interpretation of the documentation, this means they have to replace the wiring harnesses.

I went back to the local Ford dealer and, in person, made an appointment to drop the car off. The service advisor, who knows little about auto mechanics and even less than that about customer service, was not happy to see me, and wasn't trying too hard to hide that fact.

After that experience, I thought about and came to the conclusion that I gave them a chance, they blew it, and I called another Ford dealer to make an appointment. (Plus I've had other problems with the local dealer in the past).

The Ford dealer I called is MUCH better than the local Ford dealer. I dropped the car off, the service advisor listened to what I had to say, and they told me today they've ordered the wiring harnesses.

I'm planning to replace the 1996 Ford Contour with a 2006 Ford Futura. Guess who I'm NOT going to be buying it from?

Moral of the story: If you think your local dealer is a piece of crap, they probably are. Go somewhere else.