Ongoing Ford impasse has been frustrating nightmare

I NEED your advice please. On November 16, 2015, I took my car to Action Ford for a cambelt service. The same day, my husband went to fetch it, and to his surprise it was smoking and misfiring.

He asked the then manager why the car was smoking, as it wasn’t when we brought it in. The manager said it might be hidden damage.

The manager agreed to look at the problem, so my husband left the car with them. Ford kept my car for eight months and I only got it back in July 2016 (still smoking). The next day, the clutch pedal of my car broke. It was towed back to Ford, who took another two months to fix it.

In September, my car started making a funny sound from the turbos (which Ford worked on when trying to figure out the smoking issue). I took it back to them and got the car back only towards the end of November – still smoking.

I then alerted the current manager (Kobus) about it and he told me that I must keep on driving the car for the smoke to subside, which it didn’t. On December 18, the same clutch pedal they fixed in August broke. It was towed back again to Ford.

Action Ford is now refusing to fix anything further. I took them to the Motoring Ombudsman, but they sent me a report stating they will not hold Ford liable.

Georgie: I approached the industry representative, which couldn’t get involved, as the ombud had made a ruling, and the matter has now been taken up with the National Consumer Commission. Ford promised to revert, but didn’t. Yet another blot on their customer service record. This might be an issue with a dealer, but the head office should be paying attention.