Poor service and poor quality products

Extraordinarily bad experience with Ford, Ford South Africa, Lazarus Ford Centurion, and the Ford EcoSport…. The Ford Ecosport 1.5 Titanium ‘Automatic’ is a great car, but definitely not ‘Built Tough’, nor ‘Go Further’, on the contrary, will only go half way!! In March 2015 we bought an Ecosport 1.5 ‘Automatic’ Titanium, and have had issues with the gearbox from within the first couple of months. The vehicle went back and forth to Lazarus Ford in Centurion, and in 2017 the pressure plate\clutch had to be replaced. (Two years and already replacements?). Now the vehicle is 6 years old, and has 43,000km on the clock, and the gearbox completely failed after being parked in our garage for two weeks whilst we were on holiday (somehow it broke down whilst standing still the in garage?). Lazarus Ford quoted R107,000.00 to have the gearbox replaced. I would like to know from Ford, how does an ‘automatic’ gearbox fail after just 43,000km, driven by a 63 year old lady? PS: There is a tracking unit in the vehicle which records routes, speeds, G forces etc, so it can be proven the vehicle was not abused. The bad experience started with Lazarus Ford Centurion, to highlight but a few issues: we were told the battery was faulty, and this impacted the issue of the vehicle not engaging into reverse gear, so we have to replace the battery (which we approved, but obviously this did not solve the problem); after requesting an updated quote, the service consultant responded via e-mail with a single line “OK, we will send it then” (PS: extremely unprofessional and still have not received the quote), attempted to phone the service manager, Tony da Silva, without any success being forwarded from one person to another still unable to reach Tony, attempted to go and see Tony but was referred to someone else, and lastly attempted to contact Tony directly via the Lazarus Ford website, but no response or feedback to date. Additionally, Lazarus Ford Centurion wants to charge R12,000 to have the vehicle moved 25km to a third party to replace the clutch (the second time the clutch is replaced in 6 years) and replace the transmission with a reconditioned transmission unit. This entire situation was then escalated to Ford South Africa, and a request for assistance was sent to The Ford Motor Company. Why in an abnormal situation like this, does the client have to contact Ford South Africa to log a case (Case number ***), is this not the duty of the Lazarus Ford staff to escalate issues that is out of the ordinary? Ford South Africa admitted that these vehicles had issues with transmissions, admits that what is happening with this specific vehicle is abnormal, and admits that certain components have extended warranties of 10 years due to issues with the transmissions. However, in our case it is not their problem, and we have to resolve the issue ourselves, they cannot do anything. Our only conclusion is thus that Ford vehicles are built to last no more than 43,000kms. The Ford Motor Company could not even be bothered to respond to my request for assistance and advice. Since this process started, it seems Ford just wants to pass this problem on to someone else, and does not want to deal with their own lack of service and poor quality products. My question from the beginning remains; how does an automatic gearbox fail within 43,000km and do I now have to replace either the clutch or the gearbox every 22,000kms? This is not just a worn window switch, or a failed indicator flash unit, something like an engine or transmission are major component failures. If this happened within the normal service intervals, this issue would have occurred within year 3 of this vehicles life, but because it is well looked after, and does less than the assumed distance per year, Ford refuses to take any responsibility. Considering the information and articles in the public domain regarding the EcoSport’s automatic transmissions, the Ecoboost engine, and the Kuga’s engine, it is my opinion that their products are substandard. Based on our experience, I am definitely not interested in buying a Ford ever again nor deal with Lazarus Ford due to their bad service, poor product quality, and reluctance to take responsibility for their failures. For those interested in buying a vehicle, I am posting our experience to assist you in making an informed decision of what level of service and support you could expect if you ever experience issues with your vehicles. Do not expect vehicles to last more than 50,000km without issues. From an extremely disappointed Ford customer