To anyone working with Ford on 2003 Expy air conditioners: I have followed the threads and read with much interest how the battles were going/went with respect to having Ford fix the A/C or buy back the defective vehicles. I have just finished the Lemon Law process in Texas and failed to prove that the value of the vehicle was severly impacted since one position - max air - worked from September through the end of the year in Texas without making the problem reappear. While I am disappointed with the Judge's ruling knowing that in Texas infants are adversely affected by extreme heat inside vehilcles and because this vehicle will be where my newborn grandchild will ride most of the time, my biggest disappointment was with the way Ford handled their side of the lawsuit presentation. I was basically too dumb to understand how ALL air conditioners work -- anyone with one eye and half-sense understands that the ONLY setting for an a/c is as humid a climate as I live in MUST use only maximum air all summer. The long and short of Ford's "customer care" to me was to attempt to undermine my integrity and show me to be a hysterical woman with no understanding of how air conditioners are to work. They did succeed, though, in one thing. I will never buy another Ford product. Maybe one day they will run out of hysterical buyers and go out of busines. Good luck to you all ... 30 years of owning Ford products was not enough to ensure customer care for me ... so my gut feel here is that if you can, you should RUN -- not walk -- away from Ford family products.

 

People lived for 50,000 years before A/C. was invented.
Cars didn't have A/C before the 40's and very few in the 50's had A/C.

People really did live with out A/C.

I guess the grandkids must have a DVD in the car to go across town to the kiddie kennel too all the time ma/nanny is yacking on the cellphone.

 

Fifty years ago, "we" did not drive the lengths we do today in a metropolitan area where not only temperatures outside climb but where road rage is abundant and safety is utmost in the minds of most people as they drive across many areas to get where they are going. This MommaBear does not have a DVD player in the car, does not intend to have one, and does not yak on the cell phone as you implied. Perhaps you'll love your 2003 Expedition and you'll love sweating across the plains of wherever it is you live. I do not; and I stand by my comment that I am not a brainless female with nothing better to do than argue with Ford Motor Company about whether or not there is really a factory defect in the A/C -- especially after I received correspondence in writing (in addition to the verbal feedback from three Ford sources) stating that a defect does exist and that there is no known timeline for repair.

 

I am sorry it didn't work out for you. I hope you have good luck in the next vehicle you purchase.

 

Thank you. I know that there are caring individuals out there who would like to see Ford products retain the level of confidence that they once had ... but the company as a whole has totally lost sight of why they are in business.


I have no illusions that any car manufacturer has a vehicle totally without quirks and/or defects that need to be fixed. However, I am expecting much more out of the next manufactuer than what I've seen exhibited by Ford.

 

what is the propbelm with you ac system, Someone on FTE am sure can help and give you the knowlege you need to go back to your ford dealler and have this repaired the way it should be, going in and saying ok i think the ac compressor is back or i think its the dryer will elimenate them think of you as a car iliterat women.

 

and also fix the problem

 

Well, we did that. We had the compressor changed -- the clutch was bad and it was disintegrating! The problem is that there is a valve that freezes up when the a/c is run on normal settings. The factory customer care center has responded in writing that this is a known flaw and that there is no known eta for a repair. The only short-term work-around suggested at the dealer's service center was to run the a/c only on maximum "wide open" until a fix could be found and put out on the defective vehicles.

After five different attempts to fix a/c related issues with the Expy (running from freezing up to a/c clutch disintegrating to condenser leaking inside the car instead of draining outside), I tried the Lemon Law approach since in the State of Texas extreme heat within the car cabin can cause illness, if not death. Most people will not buy a car in this state if the a/c is substandard or non-functional.

The great state of Texas administrative law judge sided with Ford and threw out my complaint because I can limp by with just maximum a/c running. Combined with the atrocious Ford "care" at the hands of the man presenting Ford's side, I can only say that although I have enjoyed a long relationship with Ford products, the handling in this instance was enough for me to swear off ever having my name on something that says Ford family again. I am but one; however the verdict against my case in spite of written documentation from Ford that the defect was a known factory flaw and friends/co-workers hearing the details of how the Ford rep repeatedly addressed me as less than coherent and obviously not in control of true knowledge that all a/cs are meant to run on maximum only has left the many people who were tracking my situation with absolutely no desire to darken the door of a Ford dealership for fear of receiving the same treatment should they have a problem with any Ford product.

So the big car manufacturer manages to snuff out another of th people who thought that F'ord Care was more than just a slogan and that Quality is Job One really was possible.

Live and learn .... By the way, I will not try to sell the vehicle; I would not be able to live with myself should I sell the Expy and have someone's health compromised. I suppose I should consider myself lucky that a rear-end collision with an Expy has not yet shown that the vehicle will explode! You see there must be some valid reason to pay $40,000 for a vehicle which is useful to me only one-quarter of a year without resorting to short term work-arounds just to stay inside the car's cabin. Maybe one day I will see that, too.

Thanks for your concern.