My purchase and tale of woe

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tahlpaul

New member
Joined
Oct 13, 2012
Messages
4
After months of research of both the FFE and the Leaf, I purchased a 2013 from FFE off the showroom floor of my local dealer on Thursday, October 25th at around 8:00 PM. I drove it home and spent from 9:30 PM till midnight playing with the settings in Sync and otherwise moving into the car. I already have a Schneider EVSE, so I charged it overnight and woke up Friday morning ready for my first drive into the office. As you can imagine, I was happy and ready to show off the car to the people in the office.

I made it about 15 miles into my 22 mile one way commute to the office, when the "Stop Safely Now" message appeared on the dash. When it says this, it is not a choice... You will be stopping, safely or not, because the accelerator no longer functions when pressed. Luckily I was in a residential area on a lightly traveled road and made it onto the shoulder. I remembered reading some posts about getting this message and people just needing to "reboot" the car and they were fine. I did so, now frustrated that I've got to drive to the dealer to see what is going on. About another half mile later, this time on a busy 40 Mph road with no shoulder, it happened again! I was in a bad spot and now powering down and back up didn't seem to help. Finally after letting it sit for a moment, there was a break in the traffic and it let me start rolling enough to get off to a safer place to be before the "Stop Safely Now" message appeared again. It is now 7:20 AM, less than 12 hours since inking the deal, and I'm already calling roadside assistance to have the car towed to the dealer I purchased from. I am not a happy camper.

At noon, tired of waiting to hear from the dealer, I called and was told that because the car sat on the showroom floor, with people going in and out of it so much, that the 12v accessory battery was dead. They were sure that is what caused the issue, but they are also not able to get the car to pass some performance tests. At this point, they are waiting to hear from Ford as to what to do next. Ford never got back to them by the end of the day, so I get to keep the 19 MPG Ford Taurus loaner boat over the weekend!

I left them alone today (Monday) until I could no longer stand not hearing from them at 3:00 PM. I called them, and they claim that they ran some more tests and sent the reports to Ford and have been waiting since 2:00 PM for Ford to get back to them. Now it is Monday evening, and I still have the Taurus. So far owning a FFE isn't what I was hoping.

To add insult to injury, there is other bad news. When I negotiated the deal, I got the dealer to agree to install the HomeLink visor that was available on the 2012 FFE. When I negotiated the deal, the service department was closed, so they said that they would get back to me, as all I needed to pay for was the dealer cost of the visor itself. On Friday, they could not find the part number for the visor, so I, the customer, gave the Ford dealer the part number from about 2 minutes of internet research time (thanks Charged Up). Today when I called them for the status of my car, they are balking on the install of the visor. Apparently the only thing they do hear back from Ford is that the HomeLink visor is not officially approved on the 2013 FFE. They went so far as to say that the power or cabling is available in the area needed, but would not say it is supported. So now the dealer is hinting at that installing the HomeLink visor would void the warranty on the electrical system if they can't get Ford to approve the installation. They are still looking into it though... gee, what do you think their answer will be in the end?

Anyway. Just thought I would share my experience. I hope everyone else that decides to pull the trigger on a FFE has a better experience that I have had thus far.

Tahlpaul
 
Tahlpaul,

I'm very sorry to hear of your experience. I can't imagine how disappointed you must be.

As far as the "Stop Safely Now" message, on this and other forums I have seen as many as 5 users report this problem out of probably around 250 cars sold. Unfortunately, in most cases Ford dealership mechanics were not much help as they have just been trained and Ford Engineers were called in to help either by phone or in person. The 12V battery was initially blamed in one case but that was incorrect. In that person's case, I believe it was a single pin on one of the high voltage battery connectors that wasn't fully inserted. In another case, the high voltage battery needed replacement. Because the FFE is a new technology type built with new manufacturing steps (although it's built alongside other Focus models, the electrical additions and parts are new) debugging manufacturing issues appears to be slow. Your patience may continue to be tested while they work through the process. Please keep us informed as you go so that others can learn from your experience or perhaps help.

I hope that Ford can fix your FFE in the shortest possible time and make their promise on the visor good.

Tim
 
Okay, early on today I got word from the service department. They said that normally when they work with Ford engineers on an issue it is just one person they are dealing with. They are now working this issue with a whole team. They wanted to keep me in the loop, and let me know that they ran another battery of tests and have submitted it up to the team for review.

Later on I got a call from my salesman. The bottom line was that a Ford engineer was coming out to look at the car tomorrow.

Regarding the HomeLink, I don't agree with it, but I now understand the dealer's stance. Ford won't come out and say that adding the HomeLink visor is an approved accessory/add-on. My salesman showed me the correspondence from Ford that basically said, yes that is the right part, and yes it will connect nicely, but they were very intentional about not saying it was an approved accessory or add-on. With that being the case, installing the HomeLink visor could void the warranty for some electrical components on the car if Ford hasn't blessed it. The dealership is not willing to perform the work if it means potentially voiding the warranty of a customer's car. Like I said, I don't like it, but I can see why the dealer won't do it at this point.

While the engineer is in, they are going to see what he says on this subject. I imagine this guy probably won't have the authority to make that call. If Ford is watching this thread, please weigh in! It would be such a simple thing to approve, especially since it was just there in the 2012!

Tahlpaul
 
Yikes TP...

I was hoping that Ford was getting on top of this problem, sorry to hear CLUB SSN has another member. Right now I am riding around with a flight recorder in the FFE in the hopes that it will catch the problem. So far, it ain't happening. Let me ask you this, what was the approximate temperature on the day you had your issue?

" I already have a Schneider EVSE, so I charged it overnight and woke up Friday morning ready for my first drive into the office. As you can imagine, I was happy and ready to show off the car to the people in the office."

Did you get the Schneider specifically for the FFE?

"At noon, tired of waiting to hear from the dealer, I called and was told that because the car sat on the showroom floor, with people going in and out of it so much, that the 12v accessory battery was dead. They were sure that is what caused the issue, but they are also not able to get the car to pass some performance tests."

A lack of communication is not acceptable. Even if there is no news, call and let the person know.

"To add insult to injury, there is other bad news. When I negotiated the deal, I got the dealer to agree to install the HomeLink visor that was available on the 2012 FFE. When I negotiated the deal, the service department was closed, so they said that they would get back to me, as all I needed to pay for was the dealer cost of the visor itself. On Friday, they could not find the part number for the visor, so I, the customer, gave the Ford dealer the part number from about 2 minutes of internet research time (thanks Charged Up). Today when I called them for the status of my car, they are balking on the install of the visor. Apparently the only thing they do hear back from Ford is that the HomeLink visor is not officially approved on the 2013 FFE. They went so far as to say that the power or cabling is available in the area needed, but would not say it is supported. So now the dealer is hinting at that installing the HomeLink visor would void the warranty on the electrical system if they can't get Ford to approve the installation. They are still looking into it though... gee, what do you think their answer will be in the end?"

You are welcome. And I'm calling BS on this. They didn't replace the wiring to the vanity visor from 2012 to 2013. All they did was decide to save a buck by deleting the HomeLink visor, and now they want to baulk if you pony up your own money for the Homelink? ...BS.

I had intended to install it myself, but since my vehicle was in the shop already Richmond Ford agreed to install it for me. There was no mention of it not being Ford approved. The Service Tech did say that the connection is up in the headliner and it can be tricky to get at.

Yes definitely keep us posted.

What state are you in?
 
Hi Charged Up,

Here are the answers to your questions:

"what was the approximate temperature on the day you had your issue?"

It was around 36 degrees F that morning.

"Did you get the Schneider specifically for the FFE?"

You could say that. I originally was dead set on the Leaf, and that is when I priced it out. Then I turned my attention to the Focus. I was down to waiting on the 2013 Leaf to start deliveries, or the Focus. I like the Focus better, the only things I wish it had that the Leaf does is the Level 3 charger, and the HomeLink. Once I decided to pull the trigger on the Focus, I had the EVSE installed. The next day I got the FFE.

"A lack of communication is not acceptable. Even if there is no news, call and let the person know."

I totally agree. Actually, after that call they realized that they needed to communicate more and did a good job of keeping me informed. Could have been better out of the gate, but I'm happy with their communication after I set the expectation with them.

"You are welcome. And I'm calling BS on this. They didn't replace the wiring to the vanity visor from 2012 to 2013. All they did was decide to save a buck by deleting the HomeLink visor, and now they want to baulk if you pony up your own money for the Homelink? ...BS.

I had intended to install it myself, but since my vehicle was in the shop already Richmond Ford agreed to install it for me. There was no mention of it not being Ford approved. The Service Tech did say that the connection is up in the headliner and it can be tricky to get at."

I think they are being overly cautious. This was their first FFE they have sold. They claim it is the first to be sold in the midwest region, but I know that not to be true. Just look at the this forum and you can see others have been sold. Anyway, like I said in my last post, I don't like it, but I understand their hesitation.

"What state are you in?"

I'm in Chicagoland.

Tahlpaul
 
Well all, I now have a new Ice Storm FFE. The dealer received another FFE earlier this week. The Ford engineer has not found anything yet with the orginal FFE. So the dealer cancelled the original deal and gave me the same deal on the new one, plus an addition or two for my trouble. I belive this original FFE may find its way back to Ford HQ for a closer inspection. I can't say that for sure, but that was the impression I got from them.

So the good news for me is, I've got a new, new FFE. The bad news is, I'll be loosing contact with the original one, so I can't report back on what, if anything, they find that caused the SSN on that car.

Hopefully, this is where the sad story ends.

Tahlpaul
 
After charging my FFE at work today, I got in to go home and pressed the start button and got my first stop safely now message. I tried restarting the car numerous times to no avail. The car was towed to Downtown Ford in Sacramento. I will update my posting as I get information from the dealer. After driving the FFE, I was not to impressed with the rental Mazda 3; it is pretty noisy and Japanese utilitarian - prefer my Honda Accord. Ford is paying for the rental thankfully, but I'd rather have my Focus back.
 
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