Ask the Expert: Why is it taking so long to replace my Ford’s battery?
Dear Alex,
We have been without my wife’s Ford Mustang Mach E for two months. The dealer said that the main traction battery needed replacing and that one had been ordered from the US. However, we were also told this was the first instance of needing to replace a battery in the UK and, as such, they couldn’t give us a timeframe for the repair.
Two months later, we are still waiting; Ford has suggested it may take another five months. We explored the idea of replacing the car with a similar one, but Ford says this is up to the dealer. The dealer will not consider it until our car has been repaired, which seems illogical. We have been provided with a hire car, but this is not all-wheel drive, which we need in our rural location. What should we do?
– RG
Dear RG,
I agree it seems bizarre that the dealer will not discuss rejection and replacement with you until the car has been repaired – after all, what would be the point of rejecting the car once it was fixed?
This also seems like a particularly long time to wait for a new battery, given Ford is presumably punting them out left, right and centre for production cars. I wondered whether they simply didn’t want to pull a battery from the production line for your car.
So I got in touch with Ford to find out what was going on. I heard nothing back for a while, but when I tried again after a month or so I was told the case had been closed as resolved, three months after the car had first been taken to the dealer, and that a goodwill payment had been offered and accepted.
You confirmed that Ford had offered a free service on your Mustang as a gesture of goodwill, though you added that you’d also managed to get Ford to agree to pay the cost of fuelling your hire car, given your wind turbine and solar panels at home mean powering your EV would largely have been free during this period.
Crucially, you also told me that within a week of my contact with Ford, the estimated timescale they had provided dropped from five months to only two weeks, with Ford agreeing to source a battery from Germany instead.
I’m not certain why this couldn’t have happened in the first place, but I am glad to hear the situation has been resolved to your satisfaction and that the car has been trouble-free since the new battery was fitted.
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