Hi all from a drizzly Warsaw, Poland
First post here. Would appreciate your comments on this story:
I bought a new Galaxy V6 in Sep '04. Even though I am not a car expert, I thought something was wrong with the engine from day one ("gaps" in the power curve and generally not much oomph). Four visits to the dealer all ended with the same story "nothing's wrong with your engine, sir" (on the fourth occasion the dealer invited Ford Poland and the Polish Motoring Association to take part).
I started to think it was my imagination. As a last effort, I gave the car to a local car journalist to try out. He shared my view and took it to a local test centre, where the test showed 20% less HP and 25% less torque than there should be. Also the power curve was nowhere near smooth.
I have now embarked on a legal battle with Ford (I want them to take the car back on warranty and give me back my 25 grand). They are having none of it - they took the car to another test centre and won't show me the results. At the end of the test they claim there was a failure in the cooling system and they had the car towed to their garage where it has been sitting for a week. I think they are trying to repair the car without telling me.
The journalist thinks it is something to do with a device that measures the fuel/air mixture coming into the engine.
- What do you think? Is it possible that this car could be repaired without replacing some parts (we are having an independent mechanic check out the car when Ford give it back to see what has been done to it)
- isn't it a bit strange that there was a leakage of coolant fluid in a one-year old car with 15k miles on the clock?
One more strange thing - the service on this car is at 15k km intervals. After about 8k km the service indicator told me it was time to put the car in for servicing. The garage said "your computer's so intelligent, it adjusts the service interval to the driving style". Is this true or utter rubbish? If it's rubbish, could this mean I've been sold a used car instead of a new one?
I would appreciate your views and advice, and also if you could point me to any other sites or discussion groups where I could post this story. I think Ford's behaviour is disgusting and I would like others to know about it (by the way, this is my fourth Ford and second Galaxy V6 in a row, I was a big fan until this car and this reaction from Ford)
Many thanks Adam