Blue View – Blue is Back in Town

He’s feeling a little dirty and shat upon, but at least Blue is back home

After almost seven weeks (47 days to be exact), Blue is back with us. It took 1-1/2 days to find the problem, five days to get the parts (partly due to the Thanksgiving holiday), and two days to make the repair. Blue spent the other 38-1/2 days waiting patiently in the Ford dealership lot for the mechanic to get to him, while the local crows evidently used him for target practice.

The problem turned out to be a cracked flywheel. A cracked flywheel? How does this happen? Neither the mechanic nor the service manager had any idea. What they did know is that the flywheel is not considered part of the engine, so it’s not covered under the 100,000 mile diesel engine warranty. And since we are 3,000 miles past the 60,000 mile power train warranty, it isn’t covered by it either.

We talked at length with the service manager, made many calls to Ford’s “Customer Care” department, and sent half a dozen emails to whomever we could think of, but no one was the least bit interested in giving us a break. “Since it’s just a skosch out of warranty, how about going halfsies on the labor?” Nope. “Maybe charge us wholesale on the parts?” Uh-uh. “Give us a break on the rental car rates?” Sorry. “How about comping us a cup of coffee?” That they were willing to do - if only the coffee maker wasn’t shut down for the duration of the pandemic. At least they didn’t add storage charges while he was waiting to get worked on.

The total repair cost was just under $2000, plus a little more than $1000 in rental car expenses, not to mention the innumerable hotel rooms we stayed in until we finally gave up on our camping road trip and headed back to Las Vegas. And they didn’t even include a car wash. We’re not real happy with Ford nor several of their dealerships right now.

But Blue is running just fine again, and the trip back from his incarceration in Camp Verde, AZ was smooth and uneventful. We’ll give him a nice luxurious bath later today to wash off all the accumulated dust, dirt and crow poo… and maybe even add a coat of wax.

Meanwhile, we’re going to take a short break from the blog during the holidays. Marcie, Blue and I all wish you a very happy and, more importantly, healthy holiday season. See you in January!

P.S. Keep an eye out for our holiday newsletter which should be done… well, sometime before Christmas.