We purchased a 2020 Ford Explorer from another dealership and then moved to Central Texas, and our nearest Ford dealership is Johnson Brothers Ford. During a standard oil change, the technician mentioned that our battery was low and soon after we started getting some odd warning lights on the car. So we decided to take our car in to Johnson Brothers to get it checked out. I mentioned to the service advisor that we knew the battery was low and I would like them to check the battery first and then diagnose the problem. The next day, I received an invoice and a call telling me that I needed a repair done that totaled roughly $3,400. I am not a mechanic, so I trusted the dealership to make the repairs. Once the service advisor let me know that the car was ready, I double-checked that the battery had been checked. She told me that it has not been checked, but they would do that immediately. I felt uneasy about the repair that I had paid for but I again, am not a mechanic, so I trusted them. The Quick Lane advisor reached out and let me know that the battery was fine and good to go, so we picked up the car and assumed it was repaired. The very next day, while out grocery shopping, we tried to start the car and got nothing, but we noticed a strong electrical burning smell and some smoke coming from the engine compartment. We contacted Johnson Brothers and let them know we needed help, to which they responded "you can have it towed here and we can reimburse you later". I didn't think this was an appropriate response for a shop that had the car the day before, so we requested they had someone come look at the car and have it towed themselves. The Quick Lane manager came to meet us, looked at the car, and agreed that there was a strong electrical burning smell and that he did not feel safe putting a jump on the car to get it back to the shop. The car was taken back to the shop and upon inspection, they let me know that the battery actually was bad and "the testing device at our Quick Lane must be faulty". After a couple days of looking over the car, they were unable to duplicate the smell and felt that it had just been the battery. So we go and pick up the car for a second time. We had the vehicle parked in the garage for 2 days and took it out to go to dinner on Saturday night. We pulled up to a stop light and the car again dies, and is unable to start. We had the car towed to our residence and waited for Monday morning to contact the Johnson Brothers service department. After letting them know of the continued issues, they picked the car up and towed it to their shop. After another few days, they let us know that the starter was now out. At this point, I had lost confidence in the workmanship of what the mechanics had done but was assured that the mechanic that was working on the car was a 35-year experienced mechanic and he knew what he was doing. After roughly 6 weeks from start to finish we did receive our car and the repairs were supposedly completed.
While the car was in Johnson Brothers possession, there was a dent put into the back lift gate of our car, which we noticed and had to request repair of and the plastic surround piece of the drivers seat was damaged and we also had to request repair of that as well.
I do have to give them kudos for being willing to cover the cost of the battery and starter, but I do not have confidence that the repair that cost $3400 was necessary or warranted. We will not be taking any other vehicles to their service department in the future. I hope nobody else has experiences like this, but I thought it was worth sharing our experience. We do have an active formal complaint with the Ford Motor Company for how this repair was performed. read more