Pricey car woes

I don’t own a car and don’t drive one so may I talk about the case of one Janez “Jay” Zrozobrado, the distressed buyer of a Ford Focus Titanium.

Jay is my neighbour in a subdivision in Lagtang, Talisay City. He and his wife Johanna are likeable people who verily represent young, upwardly mobile professionals with comfortable lifestyles.

From Ayala Land, Inc., Jay has since moved to a home-grown but aggressive property developer. His comely wife Johanna works for a banking institution. Thus, when I heard two months ago that they bought a second car, I thought it was a nice and well-deserved gift for the hardworking and career-oriented couple.

However, the Ford Focus Titanium which they bought for a cool P1.2 million (the tab has actually gone up to P1.3 M after Jay bought accessories to enhance the car’s look and performance) has since become a source of deep frustration and anxiety for the Zozobrado couple.

In an e-mail sent to this corner, Jay enumerated the problematic issues he encountered with the Ford Focus Titanium that he bought from Ford Cebu/Ford Group Philippines:

“Unusual sound or knocking” (kagulkol in Bisaya) when the car passed uneven roads. This problem prompted Jay to return the car to Ford Cebu in April 25 but the issue was not resolved. Ford’s reason: this is “inherent” in the car, according to Jay’s narrative.

Another problem is the “shuddering sound or scratchy noise from the engine,” that according to Jay happens every time the engine changes gears automatically. The car dealer told Jay this will be gone after the car has travelled 2,000 kilometers to 3,000 km.

This may be a minor issue, but the “alarmingly hot hood” must have given Jay the chills. Like the kagulkol problem, Ford Cebu said the hot hood is also within specification of the top of the line model.

To make this long long story short, Jay sought a full refund but the car dealer did not budge, the reason the customer has gone to the media to ventilate his grievance. I’m giving him space because the issues being raised with respect to the Ford Focus Titanium are not isolated ones, but “inherent” qualities as pointed out by the car dealer. In other words, there is public interest involved in this case.

In his eagerness to drive the brand new, top of the line Ford Focus Titanium, Jay overlooked the first rule of thumb when buying anything that renders service: test the item first before paying for it, but that is now water under the bridge.

The point is, he has every right to ask for a full refund because the issues are clearly major ones which the dealer failed to address. In fact, by telling the buyer that the defects are inherent in the car, Ford Cebu appears to have sold the unit in bad faith. Telling Jay to accept an “inherently” defective car is adding insult to injury.

Jay has gone to the cyber world to air his woes, and somebody who intersected in the conversation foresees that the case will be lumped with countless complaints lodged against the carmaker by irate customers.

According to the online car news resource Autostat, “American concern Ford is withdrawing about 465,000 passenger cars because of a defect in the design of the fuel tank, which could cause a fuel leak. The withdrawal will concern models Fusion, Explorer, Taurus, Flex, Police Utility, Police Interceptor, Lincoln MKS, MKT and MKZ of 2013 model year.

“As the company noted, some customers felt gas from the tank or saw elapsed fuel. So far, this has not led to accidents. Nearly 390,000 vehicles were withdrawn in the United States; 23,000 more in Canada and 7,600 in Mexico. The withdrawal also touched vehicles in Europe, South America, Asia and other regions.”

With such staggering number of Ford cars being withdrawn from markets around the world, has the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) checked into the Ford models that are being sold in the local market?

I advised Jay to seek the intervention of DTI because if the agency is vigilant with faulty series lights, toxic food substances and cosmetics being sold openly, there is no reason they can’t look into the case of a pricey but “malfunctioning” car.