The Nightmare of Buying A Ford Focus RS

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
07/19/2016 at 11:19 • Filed to: ford, rs, fomoco, focus

In early 2015, I began hearing rumors of the new Ford Focus RS. I had been toying with the idea of buying a new daily driver, since my bright idea to daily driver a Lamborghini was not turning out the way I had planned. The rumors slowly became facts, and the car hit many of the things I was looking for. It was fast (I can track it!), it had all wheel drive (for the Seattle rain), it had four doors (great for hauling my pug around), and most importantly it was going to be cheap enough that I could justify giving away our other car to my wife’s parents, who desperately needed a new vehicle.

In September 2015, before the order books were open, I began searching for a dealer who actually had an allotment. I had heard stories of people who ‘ordered’ other high demand cars such as GT350s only to find out, months later, that their dealer in fact was never going to receive one. Luckily, a friend of mine knew the General Manager of a Ford dealer located 4 hours away who not only had a single allotment, they would sell it to me for MSRP! I want to stress that this dealership has been GREAT through this whole process. They are also victims in Ford Corporate’s horrible bungling of the situation and I’m sure they want nothing more than to get my car to me.

The order books officially opened on October 12th of 2015 and I placed one of the very first orders for a fully loaded Nitrous Blue Focus RS. My dealer commented how, due to how fast we placed it, this could be one of the first 5 delivered on the West Coast. We tentatively thought it could arrive as soon as January, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath.

January came and went with no car. This wasn’t a huge surprise to me as they had just started building them. My dealer kept insisting my car should enter ‘Production’ status any day now, so I still kept tabs every couple of weeks. In February is where things started to go wrong. The factory was shut down for 3 weeks to fix something on all the cars produced to that date, and to change the tooling to prevent whatever issue was plaguing them from happening any more. Ford never officially communicated on this, but rumors were that it had something to do with the Rear Drive Unit (RDU) on the car. The RDU unit was brand new, cutting edge technology so some hiccups were to be expected.

Cars were being built, but mine was nowhere in sight. We obviously weren’t going to be one of the first 5 on the West Coast, but I was sure I’d get my car in due time. The only problem was this — Ford wasn’t giving anyone any information. The production process was and still is a complete mystery. As of this writing, there are people that ordered the same day as me (October 12th) whose cars have STILL NOT BEEN PRODUCED.

The savior of both myself and everyone else on the Focus forums were two anonymous Ford employees who, in their spare time, were secretly giving us information of our cars. It was through these two heroes that I was told the day my car started production — March 13th. My car’s production was halted at one point (as were others) to fix yet another issue, but it was ready to be shipped out in April. Along with a couple hundred other cars, it was loaded onto the Grand Legacy late April and made way for Newark, New Jersey. The Focus forums had a lot of fun as we all tracked the ship in real time — and one fan even snuck on to the boat to take pictures once it docked!

And this is where the fun stops. Ford found out about the employees on the forum and told them to cease all information exchange. My car was unloaded in Newark, New Jersey on May 6th and that is the last time I’ve heard anything. Seriously. It has now been 10 weeks since my car has been unloaded and I don’t have it. I don’t know what it’s doing at the docks. Ford won’t tell me. I don’t know when it will be delivered. Ford won’t tell me. Ford told all RS owners to start contacting Ford Service on Facebook (seriously), who are outsourced customer support who read off scripts.

And that’s where we are today. My dealer can’t get any information — literally. His calls to Ford Corporate go unanswered. I tried emailing up the chain and received this absolute gem of an email from their crack support team:

I tried contacting them on Twitter. On Facebook. I even e-mailed Mark Fields, the CEO. I thought that was going to get the ball rolling as I received an email response from a real human, but it’s been 3 weeks and my car is still missing. I’ve offered to fly in and pick the car up, they won’t allow that. They can’t even give me an ETA. I had registered for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! after the car docked in May, figuring 5 months was plenty of time, and now it looks like I’m going to miss it.

What’s even worse is I’m not even the worst off. As I previously mentioned, there are people who ordered the same day I did who don’t even have production dates yet. I’m hoping Ford sees this and begins to fix their atrocious customer support system, and actually gives information to consumers. It’s insane that in today’s Same Day Delivery world, we can’t track something as major as a car.

To end on a funny note, there was someone in my position who got tired of waiting. In the time his car has been sitting in purgatory in Newark he went out, ordered a new STI, they built it, shipped it to him, and he took delivery before his car made it out of Newark. Maybe I should do that instead.

You can read the story on the original site by Kevin Flynn !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

Users tracked the Grand Legacy in realtime

Someone even snuck on the boat. My car is somewhere in there!

This helpful nugget was after 8 weeks sitting in port.

They flat out tell a customer buying a $40,000 car they will no longer respond to them

DISCUSSION (23)

bob and john > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
07/19/2016 at 11:28

holy shit...

Brian Silvestro > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
07/19/2016 at 11:31

From what I’ve heard, Focus RSs were supposed to start delivery in March, but thanks to VW, the EPA has to test every single new car now.

So it got delayed, a lot.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Brian Silvestro
07/19/2016 at 11:33

That sounds ever so slightly inconvenient. Every single car? Geez.

DynamicWeight > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
07/19/2016 at 11:34

*The Nightmare of Selling A Ford Focus RS

Seriously, climbing onto the ship? The fuck is wrong with these people. This reads like one of those guys who whines some girl won’t fuck him even after he asked her out like a thousand times and is so nice to her .

Brian Silvestro > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
07/19/2016 at 11:34

Not every individual car being sold in the country, but every new model.

They relied heavily on manufactuer ‘self reporting’ up until now to determine EPA estimates.

crowmolly > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
07/19/2016 at 11:36

I would guess that it’s held up by a government procedure of some sort.

TheHondaBro > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
07/19/2016 at 11:37

This could be a good Subaru commercial.

*Ford commercial shoot, slowly revealing a film set*

Narrator: “You’ve seen the ads, you’ve felt the hype.”

*cuts to shot of drifting RS that stops in its tracks*

Narrator: “but when it actually comes to delivering...”

*WRX STi drifts into the frame and begins drifting in circles around RS*

Narrator: "That's why you get a Subaru."

crowmolly > DynamicWeight
07/19/2016 at 11:39

Climbing on the ship is probably all kinds of illegal and is no doubt nuts.

But dropping $40k on a car and getting no answers as to when you will get what you paid for is horseshit too. Periodic updates wouldn’t be too inconvenient for Ford.

TheHondaBro > crowmolly
07/19/2016 at 11:41

Do we know if Burgundy Castaway there has ties with the Islamic State?

jariten1781 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
07/19/2016 at 11:51

Every single first year production car has a thread like this on their respective forums. If they expected moment by moment tracking like a 5lb already produced item sitting in a warehouse they were fooling themselves.

Birddog > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
07/19/2016 at 12:08

If this is how they act for Cotumer Sevis on a $40,000 “special” I can’t wait to see them handle a $400,000 one.

MPA > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
07/19/2016 at 12:17

All kind of nuts, the fact that they can’t tell him what the deal is with his car, that people are sneaking on to ships.

I don’t think I’d ever have the patience to order a car.

One local dealer is supposedly waiting on 4 RS. My Ford dealer had 4-5 GT350s sitting around when I went in for service last week

Textured Soy Protein > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
07/19/2016 at 12:19

And yet, a few months ago, I could’ve walked into my local Ford dealer and put a deposit on the one and only one Focus RS they had incoming. I’m cool with the other, fun, 300-ish hp awd turbo car I ended up with instead.

Kinja'd!!!

BREADwagon > Brian Silvestro
07/19/2016 at 12:19

If that’s the case, why wouldn’t Ford tell their customers that? Instead of this horrendous customer service and radio silence which destroys any good will ford may be earning from producing the RS, a simple “because of EPA” would take the heat completely off them.

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > Brian Silvestro
07/19/2016 at 12:27

Can you confirm Road&Track will pick up Oppo when Jalopnik/Gawker is binned?

I mean, you're back here talking with us, so that's got to count for something...

Your boy, BJR > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
07/19/2016 at 12:27

Moral of the story? Ford sucks and is stupid.

Any updates on this?

Should I have friends of mine go onto the ship and take the cars?

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > MPA
07/19/2016 at 12:31

Yeah, I’m not at all surprised that the cars were delayed, but I am disappointed that Ford is handling it so poorly, and that people are desperate enough to sneak onto a damn SHIP.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Textured Soy Protein
07/19/2016 at 12:31

That is far better looking than an RS.

Brian Silvestro > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
07/19/2016 at 12:56

I’ve picked up some news here before anywhere else, Oppo’s a good resource for breaking stuff sometimes. That’s why I’m around.

Brian Silvestro > BREADwagon
07/19/2016 at 12:57

Because I might be completely wrong

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > crowmolly
07/19/2016 at 13:15

Yeah, but then all they had to say was that the shipment was delayed. Even if they cant say why, they can say a whole spiel about how the car is fine but we cant tell you for security what the exact status is. Then they should at least say when to expect an update. Just leaving people in limbo is ridiculous.

Tim (Fractal Footwork) > Brian Silvestro
07/19/2016 at 15:41

Funny thing is, I've started visiting R&T more than Jalopnik recently. Hope all goes well over there.

Brian Silvestro > Tim (Fractal Footwork)
07/19/2016 at 16:59

Thanks!