Customer feedback to Ford from the owner of a 14-year-old Lincoln

I drive an old Lincoln MKZ with 171,000 miles on it. Like many people, it has always made more financial sense for me, in the moment, to fix the car rather than buy a new one. I bought it used in 2014 with around 70,000 miles on it. My first car, in 1979, was a yellow 1970 Ford Pinto.

Lincolns are tarted up Fords: The MKZ is a Fusion, the Navigator is an Expedition, the Aviator is an Explorer and the Corsair is an Escape. Generally I have a good impression of Ford reliability and price and innovation versus other manufacturers. In this note I would like to give Ford some constructive feedback which I hope it will take to heart.

Sales

I won't buy a new car from a dealer when the salesman prints up a quote, tells me he is offering me below his wholesale purchase price, and then tells me I can't take the paper home because it is confidential and proprietary.

I won't buy a used car from a dealer in North Carolina who advertises on the web an attractively priced, high quality vehicle, and when I ask to see it, I'm told it is in Florida.

The "Certified Pre-Owned Vehicle" designation is commonly understood to be a certification from the manufacturer, not the dealer, coming with papers from the manufacturer, not the dealer. If the dealer counterfeits the manufacturer's CPO designation with their own, dealer-specific concoction, and the manufacturer accepts this practice, then the manufacturer inherits the reputation of that dealer.

I won't buy a new car from a dealer who has any car in the showroom with a markup on the sticker, even one I never intend to buy.

I won't buy a new car from a dealer who takes a car that a customer has ordered on the manufacturer's website and, once delivered to the dealer by the manufacturer, sells it to another customer for a higher price.

If the marked up price is the true market price, then Ford should dynamically alter the MSRP so that all customers see the same MSRP. Ford can then pass the whole price increase to the dealer if they feel like. All customers should see a consistent price. Tesla has dynamic pricing, so it's kind of OK. Except when customers get really mad when they think they can get something for a recently advertised price and they can't.

Used cars should never be sold with an As-Is/Good Luck To You warranty. There's a reason CarMax has a solid business.

Service

If a dealer service department takes my details, orders some parts, but doesn't bother to take down my address or phone number, and then they call me 2 months later after tracking down my name to tell me the parts are ready...sorry, I already got the job done somewhere else. You can return the parts or stock them for the next customer.

If a dealer adds a 3% surcharge for my use of a credit card to pay for a repair, without telling me, then they've pocketed an extra 11 bucks, but I'm not coming back.

If the guy in the QuickLane tells me he can install my trunk strut for $60, and then my service advisor comes out and, using a butter knife, pops it in in 20 seconds for free, I will come away with good feelings towards the service advisor and bad feelings toward the dealership.

If a service advisor quotes an expensive job, then later realizes that the quote is under market, and the dealership starts sending all my calls to voicemail. I get it, you don't want me anymore, I'll move on.

This happened: A service advisor quoted a transmission rebuild, said it would take a while, and then got fired for reasons unknown. A new advisor called me back a month later and doubled the quote, saying the rebuild shop was gone and they had to put a lower mileage salvage unit in. I sucked it up and they did the job. I drove home and the ABS failed a day later, which was not a part I had any trouble with before the salvage unit was put in. They charged me another bundle to fix the ABS. They didn't charge me to fix a transmission installation error in engine mount torquing that caused the steering to pull sideways. Then something else went wrong, that sounded to my ears like a transmission problem (in the end, it was the #2 cylinder ignition coil), and I asked the new service advisor what the warranty was on the salvage unit. He said he'd call me back, then he didn't, and then the dealership starting sending all my calls to voicemail. I get it, you don't want me anymore, I'll move on. To a local, in-town mechanic. Which I should have done many years sooner.

Suggestion for Ford: When a dealer does repair work in your name, that work should go in a Ford-maintained database, accessible to all other dealers. Any repair should come with a clear timed warranty. If the repair needs to be redone within that time, any Ford dealer should be able to access the repair history, do the fix, and get paid for the time and parts from a manufacturer-maintained cross-dealer warranty pool. It should never be the case that one Ford dealer can't uphold another dealer's repair warranty or see the detailed history of the work done. I realize that nobody does this, but when I get ghosted, I wish it were the case. Manufacturers have recently proven their ability to track the post-delivery status of their cars in minute detail. So it's not like it's that hard to make a database of service invoices or to administer a warranty pool fund. It's all doable.

My impression: Ford dealers really do not like working on old cars, even if you pay them whatever sum they ask for.

Suggestion for Ford: Certify local mechanics to do Ford-branded service. Don't leave this to dealers. There is a conflict of interest. Dealers want to sell cars. They apparently don't see service as a profit center. It is better to decouple car sales from car service. Ford should want Ford customers to love and maintain their cars for as long as they want to. Durability and repairability are the marks of a well-built, investment-quality car. Let the customer decide when the car is obsolete or they want more features. Don't force them to buy a new car by building a car which will fall apart soon after it goes out of warranty.

Durability

The 2023 Ford F-150 Tremor costs around $75,000. It is full of the latest technology, can easily drive over an assortment of carefully placed rocks, and is very comfortable. Is it also big. It's not that hard, when backing it out of a garage it barely fits in, to bump into a pole holding up a basketball net, at 2mph, creasing the plastic holder for the license plate as a result. Cost to repair? $1200. Can these fancy, off-road, overland machines really survive a typical off-road driving trail? Don't bet on it for a Jeep. Maybe don't bet on it for a Ford.

There are other vehicles out there with more protection for routine bumps and scrapes that can be repaired affordably. A Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness, for example

or, in my dreams, the Ineos Grenadier:

Ford and Lincoln vehicles do not seem to be designed for long-term use. Of course, with the impending transition to electric vehicles, I guess long-term durability of gasoline powered vehicles is not really an issue. They will all be gone in 10 years. Still, I have always valued durability very highly.

In 1999 I owned a 1982 Mercedes Benz 300SD (used, of course, with 250,000 miles on it).

The engine on that car was built like a cast-iron pot.

I can't vouch for more recent models: I saw an E-class coupe a few months ago in a hotel driveway with a shredded plastic lower front bumper fascia. They don't make their bumpers out of steel any more.

Parts

The 1982 Benz was built to last, and every part on it is easily accessible and replaceable. If I needed a replacement part, Mercedes had the exact original part in a warehouse. Mercedes keeps parts for at least 15 years back. I wouldn't be surprised if they go much farther back.

Ford doesn't keep parts that far back. For my 2010 Lincoln, the driver's seat is air conditioned. The fan for that is no longer available from Ford. My dealer at the time had to get a salvage part, and then charged me quite a lot of money to install it. Then it broke. I would have called them on it, but they were ghosting me at that point, so I sucked it up.

Technology

Up until recently, a quality car was an investment. Now car manufacturers are like Apple, where a new iPhone is 3 months out of date the moment it is delivered. They want you to buy and rebuy as quickly as possible. Leasing has typically been the financial vehicle for this, but it comes with a duration. Volvo has refined the lease into a pure subscription product, with only a month to month obligation. Prior to this, I would have named Volvo as one of the few brands, like Mercedes, that see cars as an investment.

Car manufacturers want to extend the subscription model into purchased cars in smaller ways. BMW wants you to pay monthly for the seat warmer. This is not popular with car buyers.

Ford will charge you a subscription for it's driver assistance package. Tesla is famous for charging high prices for it's similar package. These are Level 2+ packages with stop and go and some highway hands-free driving. They typically come with an additional hardware cost of around $3500. Hyundai has stop-and-go which it shares with Kia and Genesis. They don't break out the cost, so there is no subscription. Subaru has comparable driving assistance, no subscription, but they don't do stop-and-go. The subscription cost seems mostly to do with highway hands-free driving with an itinerary. I don't entirely blame them for that. It's hard, and evolving. But I would buy a car with no subscription and forfeit the highway self-driving feature.

Style

My 2010 MKZ has a lot of grey, dull, easily scratchable plastic on the dashboard. The interior looks custom made for a US Government car pool. It's just not fun. There are wannabe-fun touches (driver-selectable colored lighting!), but the overall feeling is cold. I bought the car for a bundle of features: I wanted all-wheel drive, premium audio, leather air conditioned seats and a sunroof, in a sedan. I got all that. What I didn't get was soul. The car is dull. It is a base model.

In Starbucks, you can buy a demi, a short, a tall, a grande, a venti or a trenta-sized coffee. You can never buy a small coffee.

Similarly, car manufacturers should never, ever sell a base model of a luxury car. Every model should be special in some way. Call it the Sport model, the Trail model, the Elegance model: Never ever call it the Base model. I got a base model. I bought it over a sportier model from a non-Ford dealer because of the CPO designation (see above). It was a stupid decision. If you're going to spend money, don' buy a list of features, and don't buy in a hurry (when I bought it, I was a week into 10 years in North Carolina). Buy a car you absolutely love and plan to love for a long time (unless you like leases and subscriptions). That's how I feel now. I've adopted this car. I don't really love it. When I can find a new home for it (say when my son goes to college), I will move on. Probably to a Volvo, because it has that quality interior feel, but maybe the parts and service will be cheaper than on a BMW or Mercedes.

I don't know what it is about Lincolns, but they just don't have a soul. They could have, but they don't. When you get in an American "luxury" car, they never have the solid feel and the firm fit and finish of a Mercedes or a BMW. They don't have consistent style or quality of interior. They don't have design freshness. But they could. The problem is in follow-through. Look for example at the concept model for the Lincoln Continental:

Now look inside the production model:

Do you get the same vibe? I don't. The dream promises a day at Lido Beach. The reality promises a somewhat cramped ride to Kennedy Airport. A car doesn't have to be dull to be produceable. If you render suicide doors in the concept, bring them on in production. If I'm buying the concept, I want the concept. Don't disappoint me.

Compare this with a few cars I have dreamed about where the production model really delivered the fantasy. The Honda Element:

The Toyota FJ Cruiser:

These are cool camper cars. Ford has a cool camper car. I actually tried to buy one. They printed up brochures, they advertised them. And then...nothing. And they never even bothered to take down the website. Why, Ford, why? (See note at bottom of photo: "Preproduction and computer-generated images shown throughout. Aftermarket equipment shown throughout.")

For some reason, Lincoln has decided to sell its most exciting sedan only in China.

I don't get it. Lincoln could go the way of Mercury, Pontiac, Saturn, Plymouth, Saab, Chrysler, Suzuki, Scion, and Eagle. Maybe Ford is throwing in the towel on Lincoln, to just be a pure truck company. The last Ford salesman I talked to said the F-150 was the solution to all of my wants and needs. I could sure go for one of those Max Recline driver's seats (available only on the F-150), when I need to take a nap:

And I love the fold-forward work table and storable shifter on the F-150:

I just don't need that in a pickup truck. I'll figure it out. Maybe I'll be able to afford a hybrid 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser in the used car market in a few years.