My MKX has been at the dealer for 15 of the last 30 days

[walkabout]

Purchased the car at Galpin Lincoln, out here in Los Angeles.

 

There was a problem at purchase, with the rear seat not folding correctly.  Galpin kept the car for four days, before returning it to me with the statement that it was working as should be an no repairs where needed.

Brought the car back a few weeks later with a variety of issues, including the rear seat not folding and then the side bolster on the car spontaneously changing settings during the drive (among other problems).  Galpin then kept the car eight additional days before returning it with a statement that all was working as needed and no repairs were needed.

 

I called Lincoln and complained, they sent me to Star Lincoln in Glendale CA (a suburb of LA).

 

Star kept the car for six days. They found a fault code that suggested the Sync 3 system had to be replaced, and that the vehicle was having difficulty "remembering" settings as  result.

 

Star returned the vehicle yesterday. When I received it, all the USB ports in the car were totally dead -  no power, vehicle wouldn't recognize them at all.  In addition, the felt lining in that little cubby at the front of the console was torn in multiple places and the plastic molding around the USB slot itself was damaged - it looked like it had been pried off by some tool with nicks resulting.

 

Its back at the dealer today.

That is some craptastic customer service. 

 

 

[thisguy159]

That is terrible. Sorry.

[Cosmos36]

The thought of ever encountering such egregious 'service' with my Lincoln is frightening!

[rst08tierney]

Welcome to the club.

 

Things will snow ball from here.

 

From past experiences things won't get better.

 

I highly suggest opening a case for resolution with Lincoln directly. Best case they start a buy back for you. Worst case they attempt to fix your issues and extend your warranty....

 

 

Do you mind me asking your build date?

Edited November 11, 2016 by rst08tierney

[walkabout]

I opened a case.

 

I don't know the build date of hand but I took delivery Aug 28.

[rst08tierney]

How's your case going?

[walkabout]

They are reviewing my file and are supposed to get back to me next week.

 

So far, its been a comedy of errors. 

I had this bizarre problem with the 22-way seat spontaneously changing settings while I was driving.  First dealer kept it eight days before concluding every thing working as  expected. 

 

Second dealer kept the car 7 days, finding a fault in the SYNC 3 which did  (to my surprise) cause the problem.  They swapped out the Sync 3, and no more issues.  But, while doing so, they tore up the felt covering for the storage cubby with the USB port and disabled all USB ports in the car.

 

Second dealer then agreed to make repairs.  Keeps my vehicle another three days, and then calls me Friday announcing he needs new parts and wants to keep the car until Monday.  I went and I got my car and I told them to call me when I got the parts (because I knew they were full of shit about the parts coming in a few days).  

 

Of course, that Monday rolls around no parts.  Finally, the parts arrived yesterday (Thursday).  Dealer calls me, and says he is coming to get my car at 9 AM . 11 AM, nobody in sight yet.  He calls says he'll pick the car up, but can't have it fully repaired until early next week because they got such a late start.  So, I refused.

 

The problem I have with this entire situation is that my MKX, which I am paying nearly $800 a month to lease, keeps getting taken off the road for a week or two at a time because of dealer incompetence.  Then, they give me a stripped MKC or MKZ in the meantime.  I actually had a MKC with vinyl seats for a week.  Both the MKCs they lent me had My Touch insteat of SYNC 3 and they removed the nav SD cards so I couldn't use the nav.   

 

It also irks me that I spent all that money because I wanted a vehicle with all the latest safety gadgets (particular automatic braking) and none of the much less expensive vehicles they keep loaning me

Edited November 18, 2016 by walkabout

[NOTMY911]

If its a lease I think you would have a case to have some money coming your way but they will try every thing to weasel their way out.

[walkabout]

It is a lease

[mfam16]

They are reviewing my file and are supposed to get back to me next week.

 

So far, its been a comedy of errors.

I had this bizarre problem with the 22-way seat spontaneously changing settings while I was driving. First dealer kept it eight days before concluding every thing working as expected.

 

Second dealer kept the car 7 days, finding a fault in the SYNC 3 which did (to my surprise) cause the problem. They swapped out the Sync 3, and no more issues. But, while doing so, they tore up the felt covering for the storage cubby with the USB port and disabled all USB ports in the car.

 

Second dealer then agreed to make repairs. Keeps my vehicle another three days, and then calls me Friday announcing he needs new parts and wants to keep the car until Monday. I went and I got my car and I told them to call me when I got the parts (because I knew they were full of shit about the parts coming in a few days).

 

Of course, that Monday rolls around no parts. Finally, the parts arrived yesterday (Thursday). Dealer calls me, and says he is coming to get my car at 9 AM . 11 AM, nobody in sight yet. He calls says he'll pick the car up, but can't have it fully repaired until early next week because they got such a late start. So, I refused.

 

The problem I have with this entire situation is that my MKX, which I am paying nearly $800 a month to lease, keeps getting taken off the road for a week or two at a time because of dealer incompetence. Then, they give me a stripped MKC or MKZ in the meantime. I actually had a MKC with vinyl seats for a week. Both the MKCs they lent me had My Touch insteat of SYNC 3 and they removed the nav SD cards so I couldn't use the nav.

 

It also irks me that I spent all that money because I wanted a vehicle with all the latest safety gadgets (particular automatic braking) and none of the much less expensive vehicles they keep loaning me

Wow that's terrible! They should have tried to loan you something resembling your lease. I agree that you should state your case for reimbursement for the time you had to deal with the issues.

[rst08tierney]

I leased and got every payment back from Lincoln for my lemon.

 

If your not satisfied, call, email or fax your case worker constantly. You need to get across that you're one very unsatisfied customer and especially get the point across your dealer and or dealers are not taking care of you for loaner vehicles.

 

Unfortunately this seems to be the trend. Most dealers have 2-3 well equipped mkx's to loan but Wayyyyy too many x's end up in service so there's not enough to go around. Remember your the customer. Demand apples for apples. The only reason they are placing you in a crappy mkc is because they can't get reimbursed unless your in some type of Lincoln vehicle.

 

Good luck moving foward. If you think things are bad now, wait until you get your buy back approval and Ford RAV tries to screw you on the back end.

 

Document everthing and make notes of all dealer and Lincoln encounters incase you need an attorney to close the deal and straighten things out.

 

I notice your in Los Angeles. If you really want to spice things up the car shows in town. If there's ever a better time to get your displeasure across directly to people from Michigan it's now.

 

One of the things that helped my cause was bumping into compliance control out from Michigan on one of my many visits to service.

 

Good luck

Edited November 20, 2016 by rst08tierney

[walkabout]

And, here we go again. I'm still not resolved with all the issues that were causing me problems.  The last two issues were two panels in the luggage area were peeling off and needed to be replaced and I'm still having the odd issue I described above with the transmission (which, the dealer previously assured me was "normal operations").

 

Star Ford, out here in Los Angeles, has now had my car for something like 12 days, off and on.  On the last trip, they told me the completion of the repair would have to wait until they got parts.  I brought my car in today at 8:00 am. I got a call back at 4:00 that the repairs hadn't been made because they ordered the wrong parts.  The Service Adviser than told me that it would need to hold onto my vehicle for another three days while they waited for the part.  And, that they'd "try" to get to the other issue in the meantime. 

 

I have a loaner MKT (which is a road boat) in the meantime. I hate driving the damn thing.  So, I told them to deliver my car to my door while they wait for the parts.

 

EVERY single time my car goes to a Lincoln dealer its then off the road for six or seven days due to their basic incompetence.  

 

I do enjoy driving my MKX (when I actually get to drive it).  However, the dealer support is absolutely atrocious.  And, dealing with Lincoln USA is no better.  

 

the least is over in a 2 1/2 years - after that no Lincoln dealer will ever see my face again. 

[rst08tierney]

Have they approved a buy back for you?

[walkabout]

Nope. I like the vehicle a lot. I want it fixed, not bought back.

[mfam16]

Sorry to hear! Hopefully someone from Ford/Lincoln is monitoring this board. If they can improve service amongst all dealers, then these issues would not be magnified as much as they are. Also it seems like they need more quality control to avoid the issues

[walkabout]

Lincoln already knows as there is a case open.

 

They just don't care.

[akirby]

If all of your Lincoln dealers are incompetent or don't care then there isn't much you (or Lincoln) can do.  Nobody could blame you for walking away.

 

I really wish there was a mechanism for Lincoln to punish bad dealers and/or reward good dealers without being sued under state franchise laws.

[walkabout]

It's a shame because the MKX is still a really nice vehicle. Yesterday,I brought my car in with two trim pieces that needed to be replaced. I'd had that appointment for a week. Woke up at 7 am and brought it there despite a horrendous crisis at work (I am a professor at USC and it was my colleague who was murdered Friday night). So, they sit on the car all day without doing anything, and then they call me at 5:30 to announce they want to keep the car for for days because they accidentally ordered and installed the wrong color trim.

 

The MKX and it's twin the Edge compete with just about anything in the class. But, the dealer network is a joke.

[akirby]

There are a lot of good dealers out there but you won't hear about them nearly as much as the bad ones.

[rst08tierney]

T f

Edited December 6, 2016 by rst08tierney

[walkabout]

I don't doubt you have good deals by you akirby. I know that you are balanced in your perspective. But, every single Ford/Lincoln dealer I've visited had been an unmitigated joke. Reprehensible customer service

[akirby]

To the contrary - my normal dealer who sells Fords and Lincolns screwed up a repair on our Escape, so we used a different dealer for the MKX and so far they've been great.  There are a couple more within earshot that I could try if necessary.  I understand there are bad ones out there and in some cases all of your local dealers may be bad and that totally sucks.   But I don't think it's fair to say that the entire dealer network is bad because it's not.  Every dealer is an independent business.

[enigma-2]

Years ago I had a problem with my local dealer. Got blown off by the magager od the body shop after having some work done. Refused to fix his mistakes, "not a problem", "being unrealistic", etc. What I did was make an appointment with the owner of the dealership. Took my car in and showed him what I was disappointed over. He completely agreed and ordered the body shop manager to redo the work. Apologized profusely and told me to come to him whenever I didn't feel I was getting good servive. He really had no way of knowing what's going on in service if the customer didn't come to him. (Found out later I wasn't the only one had complained and the manager was replaced).

 

Point I'm trying to make is, the owner has a huge investment in his franchise and definitely wants his customers to be satisfied. Try talking directly to the owner.

Edited December 6, 2016 by enigma-2

[akirby]

On our Escape the moonroof motor died and the steering wheel radio button stopped working correctly.   Took it in on Monday.   They claimed they were waiting on parts for the moonroof so on Friday they agreed to give us a free loaner over the weekend until they could fix it on Monday.   It took them until the next Friday to get it fixed.  I pick it up and as I'm driving home I try the steering wheel button and it's not working at all.   Even worse - it's the wrong button obviously from a different vehicle.  They did get the moonroof fixed.   So not only did they use the wrong part but they obviously didn't do any testing at all in the 2 weeks they had it in the shop.

 

On Monday morning I called the owner whose name is on the sign.   They came and picked it up, left a free loaner, fixed it and brought it back the next day with a profuse apology.    Based on that I would use them again but in the case of the MKX the other dealer had what we wanted in stock so we decided to give them a shot to see how they do.  So far so good.   They even gave me a free Edge loaner while they replaced the door latches on my Fusion.  I had screwed up my second Fusion key trying to program it to the MKX so it controlled both vehicles, but apparently it's a 2 way connection and once you program it to another vehicle (which worked BTW) it no longer worked on the Fusion.   So I had asked them to reprogram both keys (at my cost).  For whatever reason they just gave me a brand new key already programmed at no cost.    I was 8 months past the 3 yr warranty.    This same dealer also provides free pick up and delivery for service on our 2016 MKX which is not required per Lincoln (only on 2017s).    Very happy so far.  BTW it's Gwinnett Place Ford/Lincoln in Duluth (Atlanta) if anyone is curious.

[rst08tierney]

Years ago I had a problem with my local dealer. Got blown off by the magager od the body shop after having some work done. Refused to fix his mistakes, "not a problem", "being unrealistic", etc. What I did was make an appointment with the owner of the dealership. Took my car in and showed him what I was disappointed over. He completely agreed and ordered the body shop manager to redo the work. Apologized profusely and told me to come to him whenever I didn't feel I was getting good servive. He really had no way of knowing what's going on in service if the customer didn't come to him. (Found out later I wasn't the only one had complained and the manager was replaced).

 

Point I'm trying to make is, the owner has a huge investment in his franchise and definitely wants his customers to be satisfied. Try talking directly to the owner.

Most dealerships could care less. They are in the bussiness to sell cars fist. The repair side of the bussiness is a major thorn in their behinds.

 

To make my point the owner of the dealership I delt with refused to give me a new x off their lot after being told to by compliance control. This all happened in person with two representatives flying out from Michigan to address my situation.

 

Owner could care less because he knows at the end of the day Ford/Lincoln RAV would step in and cost him nothing.

 

Service departs get terrible reviews everywhere for a reason. There's zero repercussions except a crummy yelp review that gets swept under the mat by recycling service writers every 6 months

 

Your time needs to be spent pushing to get things done on a corporate level. They seem to be the only ones who care about protecting this tarnished brand .

Edited December 6, 2016 by rst08tierney