Ford vehicles recalled, but replacement parts aren’t available for months | Behind the Investigation

[Music] welcome to Atlanta news first behind the investigation I'm investigator reporter Andy parate and joining me now is Harry as you may know him as better call Harry your investigative consumer reporter in metro Atlanta for 20 plus years how you doing Harry you're telling people how old I am can we can we start over yes I I've been doing this for for a long time actually I think i' been I'm here in Atlanta 28 years now so I think officially that makes me a native I think so just barely well uh your investigation is uh is going to take us on the road you're going to tell us about this issue involving a car multiple Vehicles where there may not be a fix there's a problem with these vehicles but there may not be a fix until next year tell us about it yeah you know when recalls go out from uh from a in this case it was Ford you expect when the recall goes out about a problem with the car that there's a solution or a replacement part or bring it in because the airbag is bad but in this case and this impacts over a 100,000 Ford owners um who own the ecosport uh with with the one liter engine so we were contacted by this woman who said yeah I knew about the recall and then my car broke down but they don't have the replacement part yet for it um I can't get it fixed I can't sell it I can't trade it in so it's basically just sitting in my garage and yet I'm still responsible for car payments and I'm thinking somebody's got to do something about that Vanessa Stevens 2019 Ford ecosport is not supposed to be here it's a NIC looking car it's clean and wellmaintained I've always had Fords cuz I I think they're reliable and it should be on the road but the engine is shot it happened 3 months ago as Vanessa drove to work it's slowing down ever so slowly and slowly and slowly and slowly so now my oil light pops up so I'm thinking I need a oil change she'd need more than that Ford issued a recall about the one lit engines in its 2016 through 2022 Ford ecosport and its cousin the Ford Focus the oil drive belt tensioner arm may fracture or separate causing a loss of vehicle power and power breaking assist increasing the risk of a crash that's what happened you know what else happened Vanessa lost the only Lifeline she had to her mom 300 miles away in South Carolina yeah yeah the stress is my mother she's 88 years old she's in fullon dementia um progressing so that's where my fear lies not being able to get to her in a timely manner so she depends on me for everything even though I'm here in Georgia 4 hours away oh she got there hey Mr Harry good afternoon it's Vanessa just letting you know that I'm on my way out with my auntie and my mom Vanessa spent $700 on a rental back home she pays for ride shares the total with rental cars $22,000 it adds up it adds up what about repairs Ford doesn't have one the recall says replacement parts won't be available until 2025 and there are no loner cars for this situation they don't give out laner cars because they don't know how long it will take for them to receive the the part she can't trade the car can't sell it but she has to make her car payments so how many vanessas are in the same car Ford did not respond to us however a Ford representative called Vanessa the same day to offer a resolution and five-star Ford and Stone Mountain confirmed that Ford Motor Company would pay for a new engine the dealership tow her car back to the shop and 3 weeks later returned it with a brand new engine courtesy of Ford Motor Company this is a trick question do you think this would have happened if we hadn't gotten involved no absolutely not not at all nope mm no I still would have been stressed out so calling them every day getting updates trying to speak to someone in the higher up so no mm-m not at all plus Ford offered reimbursement for the rentals and ride shares add it up and it equals relief you said you wanted to hug the car did you want to do that now yes this is my car got missed my baby glad to have her back it's a blessing it's a true true true blessing well geez Harry well look she's look she's happy that the car that she's got the car back and it's got a new engine I do want to point out in Ford's defense they did not respond at first and then right before the story aired after we emailed them and contacted them through their media press relations office uh they responded 12 days later after we said hey the story is running tomorrow and then all of a sudden you know everything was changing and then all of a sudden you know the the car is back at the dealership and uh they also pointed out that they issued aex technical service bulletin so that's not something that you and I would see that goes to the dealership and they were saying to us that hey look we sent out this technical service bulletin to the dealerships back in June telling them as a temporary repair we'll give you a new engine for this car and I'm like okay but what about the website because on the website it just says Parts won't be available until next year and they were supposed to be available this year and it just kind of got pushed back and now on top of all of this Andy you know there's a lawsuit there's a class there's a class action lawsuit over this where's that stand uh right now uh Ford tried to have it dismissed we do have the lawsuit on our website but as of today that case is moving forward and it's all over the design flaws with the engine and people complaining about how you know if the oil pump goes and the belt goes and the the belt tensioner uh I believe this one I'm sure they'll correct me if I'm wrong is inside the engine I know when we went looking for it's like where's the belt and I believe it's inside so the accusation is that there is some sort of defect yeah Ford is addressing it however we still have situations like this and it it's really frustrating for people you know one of the most memorable parts of the story was hearing from Vanessa Stevens talk about how she simply can't can't go see her mom without spending hundreds of dollars I mean I think you added it all up it was around $2,000 but that moment where she says I I can't see my mom that needs me she has dementia she's several hours away I think that really hits at home of the impact when these things happen it's not just an inconvenience it's a situation where this woman may not have been able to see her mom who may not be around very much longer um I imagine that really was a strain that was tough I mean that was really uh you know as we sat down and talk and then she kind of revealed that during the interview you never you kept that in yeah you you never know what's going to happen until you kind of get into the interview with somebody and so she starts bringing up her mom and I'm like so are you going there how are you getting there and she's like I'm R in a car wow um so she did and we asked her to send some videos to us from uh the the town in South Carolina where she lives tiny little town and um she was able to get there but she was also talking about having to rent a car to go to her son's college graduation so there was another three or $400 and you kind of understand the dealership's point of view on this one in that they don't they're not a rental car agency yeah they have a certain amount of loners right but they can't give somebody a loner knowing that there's no date on the fix how'd you hear about this story it was an email that came into our investigative unit and just like anything else you you take a look at it and then once you start diving in you realize there's a whole lot more there because again uh at least 135,000 vehicles on the road with this one lit engine you've done dozens probably hundreds of stories similar to this one where it it involves a car company they're not doing the right thing I mean other than calling you and circumstances like Vanessa what would you tell people to do that's a tough one uh on this one I I kind of felt like the the only answer to this story is Media involvement um or hiring an attorney or or getting in on the class action lawsuit but you know you get into a class action lawsuit years you will take for you to get a resolution and then what's what's the resolution how much are you going to get versus what goes to the attorneys and and how it's all set people can't wait and you also have to remember that you also have to pay insurance MH um all during that time all during that time so I'm glad we were able to help even though a fix was already issued it just took us pushing a little bit you know I I would say to somebody keep fighting if if you have this issue you can ask the dealership and also get online and start doing your research because we found out about the lawsuit just by Googling it oh wait there's a class action so the more the squeaky wiel eventually gets the there's my point it is true document document document Harry hler thank you so much uh for taking us behind the curtain on another one of your fascinating investigations you can watch more of Harry's investigations and listen to our podcast um you can find all of that with links on our website atlantan [Music]