quote:

Originally posted by GWbiker:
Dealer is full of it. Truck is unsafe to drive. Owner needs to contact Ford regional manager ASAP.

Not to mention the FEDS, at least one attorney, several tv news outlets! Having a stealer tell a customer that such shit is "normal" in inexcusable and the asshole should be put out of business.

Was it not Ford products some 35-49 years ago that kept going up in a ball of fire when hit at relatively low speeds? Ford kept denying it was a design problem. My son in law bought a ford pick up about that long ago, and had constant problems with the transmission acting up. Turns out that the transmission was not properly sized or designed for use in a load bearing vehicle.

Or the wife's brand new Taurus that had to have new brake disks replaced (at her expense, until I told her to tell them that her husband was going to hire a lawyer.

Then the oil pump crapped out while we were in Florida, cost us more than $1000 for the repair + rental car for 3 weeks, and a round trip from here in Manassas to Florida to return the rental car and pick up her Taurus.

We traded the Taurus in on her 2000 LeSabre which she still has, with about 65K miles on it.

Anybody wonder why I don't like fords?

Followed a guy a couple of weeks ago who wss driving an older Ford Pickup. We were in a construction area, doing thw 55 mph limit, when his truck went in to a Death Rattle so bad the rear tires were actually lifting off the road. I don't know how he kept it under control, but it scared the crap outta me,

quote:

Not everyone test drives a brand new vehicle.

I didn't want a test drive. but the dealer had the Escape I was looking at fueled and washed sitting in front of the dealership when I arrived. He let me drive it as far and long as I wanted.

But that probably was a benefit of having one of my shooting friends as one of the dealership's top execs.

Can't go over 65mph??? First, whoever said that should be fired for embarrassing the dealership with such a stupid statement.

I have had Ford SUV's since 91. Never had one that had issues beyond normal maintenance.

I've tried to find the source of that video and it has been posted and reposted multiple times on youtube. I believe any part of the story that is not mentioned in the video is just pure embellishment and not fact. If anyone knows of any actual news story or person actually claiming it's their truck, I'd like to see a link.

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Originally posted by stoic-one:

quote:

Originally posted by 64dodge:
Here in Michigan, we have what is known as the "lemon law". Four unsuccessful attempts to repair a defect within a set time period and the manufacturer buys the vehicle back. Hopefully, this guy is in Michigan.

Well yay Michigan! EVERY state has a lemon law.

https://www.carlemon.com/lemon-law-summaries.html

Wow, guess I better start keeping up with laws in all 50 states from now on, less I offend the masses. Thanks for your sarcasm. It made my day.

quote:

Originally posted by ptb351:

quote:

Originally posted by sig229-SAS:

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Originally posted by old dino:
Why wasn't this shaking noticed during the test drive before making the purchase ?

I expect everyone does a test drive but not at 65 or 70 mph?

I hit the interstate as soon as possible on a test drive.

Yup.

When the sales guy brought the Jeep we were looking at up for a test drive I asked "Expressway's right over <there>, innit?"

I did a good deal more than 70 MPH during that drive.

quote:

Originally posted by Elk Hunter:
Not to mention the FEDS, at least one attorney, several tv news outlets!

If I bought a POS that did that, I would take the investigative news guy and cameraman for a ride in it.
Call the dealership while they are filming.
Then let the news guy visit the dealer.

He may not like driving, but the Mrs. always has a smoke after she gets out...

2015 Silverados had this, "Chevy Shake", not to this extreme though. Suburbans of the same vintage had a buffeting if you had 22" wheels and Magnaride suspension, right at 40-45 and 70-75 mph. I had a loaner 2017 $75K Premium trim one with 22" wheels and Magnaride that still had it. We were doing a dealer swap from 3 hrs away for a much lower spec and cheaper one with 18" wheels and regular suspension. I get there to take delivery and it is inside their showroom. I ask them to back it out so I can drive it. I had told the salesman I won't take delivery if it does that, so he tagged along. I got it up to 80 on the interstate and everywhere below and she was fine. We have CAFE standards to thank for this.

Damn that video is the funniest thing I've seen this year so far.

High mileage/use combined with poor maintenance usually causes the death wobble in solid axle trucks and SUVs. A neighbor had this start up in his 2006ish F-250 a year ago, about 9 months after he bought it used. In his truck the shaking started up about 55-60mph, and I can tell that it was NOT a pleasant experience as the helpless passenger as I was. The shop he took it to said this is most common when owners run their trucks hard and is typically due to a combination of worn and/or damaged parts that have gone bad in conjunction with one another. It's also not limited to Fords, as the shop had recently done a high mileage Tundra that had the same problem and was finishing up a Ram about the same time as my neighbor's Ford. A GMC Sierra is just as likely as a Jeep Comanche or a Ford F-150 to develop death wobble if the vehicle has lived a hard life and its suspension care and upkeep ignored and neglected.

After changing out a lot of bushings, bearings, a bent sway bar, rubber boots and probably a few other things in the front end, his truck is back to driving like a vehicle should. No more edge-of-death shakes. But to be honest I still get the creeps the couple of times that I've ridden in it since it was retrieved from the repair shop.

As for the video: it's damn hard to believe that a NEW truck should be experiencing this. Maybe it's due to mods, but who knows for certain? However it's NOT hard to believe that the dealership would try to pass this shit off as normal. Whether it's a $30k truck or a $92k rig makes zero difference; this should not be happening and certainly not accepted by the truck owner as "normal". It doesn't matter that it's a Ford store; most dealers of all brands are all part of multiple-brand networks these days anyways (AutoNation anyone?). Car/truck stores of ALL brands do this kind of bullshit, especially the sales staff (fear of losing that commission, I think). Here in this state all a consumer has to do is say that he's going to be contacting the state AG's office and file a claim for arbitration, or threaten to contact one of the local TV news consumer advocates; usually that will get the dealer to rethink their stance.

As for the price...for kicks (and sheer boredom) I went to ford.com and tried building a fully optioned F-250 with no accounting for taste or knowing exactly what the hell I'm adding to the build...I chose the SuperDuty F-250 Limited (MSRP $79,540(!) base, $80,335 with destination charge less $500 "incentives")

Starting price $80,335

plus the following standard factory options and a running total impact on the price:

White Platinum paint $80,930
Off-road package w/ req'd LS diff $81,720
Heavy duty front suspen. package $81,845
High capacity tow package $82,975
5th wheel package $83,475
Heavy duty dual alternators $83,590
Spray bed liner $84,130
Engine block heater $84,220
Back-up alarm $84,360
Hitch kit $84,610
Hood deflector $84,740
Trail cam kit $85,465
Roof lighting markers $85,560
Line-Drive power take-off provision $85,840
Splash Guards $85,970
Stowable loading ramps $86,665
Wheel locks $86,740
Wheel well liners $87,065
Ford Telematics (telemetry system) $87,865
Vinyl floor mats $87,980
Rapid supplemental cab heater $88,115
Rear inflatable(!) seat belts $88,300
Vehicle safe $88,630

Tax and license...anyone's guess

So yeah, $92k is VERY doable...without a single aftermarket or dealer "special" add-on.

I saw this video a little while back. The story with the video had a little more detail, I don't remember where it was from though so I can't link it here.

Apparently the truck isn't showroom new, it was purchased new and now has 20k miles on it. The truck did not do this initially. The death wobble is a new issue, and the dealer started blowing smoke saying nothing was wrong with the truck. The price of the truck was stated to be 90k.

I've had death wobble in my Jeep, it's actually a fairly common problem in a lot of vehicles with straight axles. It has a number of common culprits, but it can be hard to track down sometimes because it can be a combination of things rather than any specific component.

It's not Ford's (the company) fault, this just seems like a lazy dealer that doesn't want to take the minimal effort to figure out what's wrong with this truck. It's one thing to be that lazy, it's another thing entirely to try to bullshit a customer like that, regardless of whether it's a 100k truck or a 4k beater off the used lot.

My 2014 GMC Sierra had a bad shake. You should have heard the crawfishing from the dealer when I bitched about it. I dumped it after 6 months and took a huge loss.

For a minute I thought I was watching this episode of Mythbusters