That’s what struck me. He won’t say who he fired but he claims he fired someone. I mean, in the 80s it was the big thing to claim “Heads Will Roll!” in a vague attempt to restore customer confidence. (Hint: nobody ever got fired.) Even if they did fire somebody that means the refund was easy: they just don’t pay the…

The WTF to me is the manufacturer is afraid of their dealer and refuses to help. What kind of BS is that. I think Ford should just step in say here’s a new clutch, we’ll cover a check on your brakes. Maybe new pads that’s about it. Also $380 for an alignment?! My BMW dealer only charges like $150 and even that’s…

I take it you’ve never negotiated for anything in writing. It’s more than he should or will end up with—probably more than he actually wants—but it’s also a demand that might be supported by the law, and thus a useful starting place.

They offered to refund him the $380 cost of the alignment the car was in the shop for, which is a slap in the face.

Um, the clutch that they burned?

I agree that a clutch replacement is reasonable. The employees fucked up. They talk about roasting the clutch and riding the pedal. The clutch is likely fine, but who really knows how badly the life is impacted? All four tires and brake pads? C’mon. Maybe the rear two, but I think even that is pushing it, though I’d…

That’s a bit excessive.

Martin concluded our conversation with: “At the end of the day, the people lost their job...he’s asking for extreme demands, and there’s only so much we can do.”

Debatable, absolutely.

Such BS about Ford not being able to intervene. They can do whatever they want. The dealership is compensated based on customer satisfaction!

When I was in high school in the 80's, there was a guy who stood out front of the Honda motorcycle dealership with a sign stating that the dealership had broken his motorcycle when testing it after a repair and was not willing to step up and fix the issue. At first the dealership just ignored him, but when there…

The car owner has the right to ask for anything he wants. “Reasonable” went out the door the second the techs took the car out and went on the joyride. There is 100% reasonable expectation that when you drop your car for service that this will not happen. So if it does?  He has the right to make them do anything. The…

Too bad this didn’t happen in Michigan, would love to see how Steve Lehto would handle this.

I’m starting to think that just “making things right” for the customer when incidences such as this occur is not enough. Because this shit keeps happening.

If they compromise and wind up on clutch replacement only, I think the owner could walk away without feeling cheated. Clutches that can tolerate torque from a 5.0 V8 are not the cheapest in the world, and it’s clear that the joyriders messed it up somewhat. I agree that brakes and tires would be debatable. 

I’d take cash and replace the necessary items when they actually need to be replaced.

I can agree on the clutch job and maybe tires but 4 new tires seems a bit much, the dealers view that he punished the wrongdooers sort of ignores the fact that the dealership is liable for their actions. I think the dealership should cut their losses fix the guys car and call it a night

$380 for a fucking alignment?

And people still wonder why I do my own maintenance. 

Right on! I only used the manufacturer web site for its allegedly real time inventory info for the last car I bought, but didn’t look at it for any other information.