Gordonwrogers

The 12 volt alerts sound familiar. I think the ventilation system is working overtime trying to cool the batteries, but it cant. How did I handle it? I tried to stay courteous, but let them know about my extreme frustration. I received my first lease statement while my car was in the shop and they offered to reimburse me for the first payment. I received my first Dealer CS call yesterday. Most of the questions were about my experience with dealership personnel with which I have no problem. When the Ford Quality and Satisfaction questions came up, I let them have an earful.

There was a plug improperly left in the battery ventilation ductwork (during the manufacturing process) that blocked the airflow to the batteries. It was causing charging to fail after about 20 minutes due to overheating. The Ford Service Engineer arrived and ran a test on airflow and found that the air was being diverted to the cabin and not running through the battery compartment. Go figure.

The selling dealer Theodore Robbins Ford in Southern California has the same three day return policy. The challenge is that I live in northern California and took it in for service there. There was the issue of transporting the car 450 miles. Today, Ford engineers were able to diagnose and repair the problem. They are testing the car and want to cycle it though two charges prior to releasing the vehicle. I won't have it back for a couple more days. That will round out three weeks in the shop for a brand new car.

Update on my Fusion: My brand new Fusion Energi has been in the shop since July 8th, just three days after my purchase. It has now been two weeks and to my knowledge, the following has occured: 1) I was accused of using an extension cord to charge the vehicle and the vehicle was sent home unresolved. 2) Ford has asked my dealer to perform a significant amount of diagnostics including updating module sofware. 3) When that didn't work, they ordered a replacement module that took three days to arrive. They had a high degree of confidence that the module was the issue...after two days of repairs, it was not. 4) Now they are saying a local Ford Engineer will need to see the car. It will take a couple days for him to get to the dealership. If he takes a couple days ordering parts, etc., I will be staring at 3 weeks of driving a Toyota Camry rental after making a down payment on a new Ford. GO FIGURE! Even though I am completely frustrated with this situation, the Ford Customer Relations people have been courteous. They offered to make my first lease payment and continue to pay for my Toyota rental. Here are some helpful phone numbers for Ford if you have troubles. Customer Relations: 800-392-3673 and Ford Electric Vehicle Team: 800-343-5339. Customer Relations referred me to the EVT who created a case number and put me in touch with my Ford zone rep. The rep. explained that Ford mirrors lemon laws in the state where the vehicle was purchased. In my case, California, the car must be seen three times with no resolution, or be in the shop for more than 30 days. Tick-tock! If anyone from Ford wtches over this forum, I would encourage Ford to adopt a different policy for new cars where the problem cannot be readily diagnosed. STAND BEHIND THE PHRASE, "QUALITY IS JOB ONE" AND REPLACE A NEW VEHICLE WITH PROBLEMS LIKE THIS!

ERIKW - I'd sure like to know if Ford was able to resolve your issue. I purchased my Energi Friday July 5 and its been in the shop ever since the following Tuesday. The dealer has had the vehicle long than I have at this point and I'd like to know if their is a light at the end of the tunnel. I know the dealer has been in contact with Ford and they required several tests. The confounding thing is that the battery and systems have all passed the diagnostic tests. The original symptom was that the car would accept a charging cord (either 110 or 220), the blue lights would make two revolutions, and the first quarter circle would begin to slowly flash. Then about 20-25 minutes into the charge MyFordMobile sends me a text saying there is a charging fault. When this happens, the blue light circle flashes for about a minute and the charging stops. Also, on the "leaf" menu on the big screen, there are two selections, "settings" and "charge". When I select "charge" it says my last charging result was a fault.