My daughter bought a ford Maverick hybrid just less than a year ago. She recently took it to Heritage Ford in South Burlington Vermont for service, it has about 9,100 miles on it, for the yearly inspection. They failed it and said the brakes were bad. Then they refused to fix it under warranty. It said brakes aren’t covered under warranty? I realize if the car is older, but brakes should last more than a year and 9,100 miles. What course of action should she take?
a different dealer? Call Ford directly? Or just junk the damn thing?

 

The first thing I would suggest is what is she doing that caused the brakes to become a problem IF there is one ?

Does she drive with 2 feet, one on the brake and one on the throttle all the time? Where is most of her driving , city country ?
Get another opinion from from a reputable shop, if possible..
Certain parts are considered normal use wear items and brake pads and linings fall into that category.

We can understand your concern and need to have more info to offer hopefully better suggestions.

 

My daughter has been driving for fifteen years. She started with my mini cooper that was almost new. It was a 2009 and started driving in 2009.
she drove it for over 150000 miles and only quit because she bought the Maverick. So no, she doesn’t ride the brakes. She also doesn’t use the hill holder on the Maverick. The brakes have always been grabby since new. There was a recall done on it for the grabby brakes, it made it only marginally better.
the rear shoes are under limit for the inspection. I have been a Mechanic for most of my life, and have never seen a car wear brakes this rapidly, even on cars with sticky calipers. Heritage Ford also tried the victim blame game on her, but she is smart enough not to have them fix it for a charge. I can fix them with brand name quality parts for a lot less than would charge to use the same junk that wore out in 9100 miles. There is no reason beyond poor quality parts or bad design to blame for this.

 

What did the recall replace?

I have never had any problems with OEM parts.There still must be something going onto wear the parts that fast.
Do we know if the rear shoes are completely releasing?
Did you take a look at the brakes to see if what they said is true?

 

The recall was a computer update only. I no longer do much mechanic work as I am up in age and my hands no longer work as they should. A vehicle as new as this, with miles this low, should have been investigated by the dealer for problems when it failed inspection. Instead they tried to make money on her by charging her to fix the issue. And they justified this by saying brakes pads aren’t covered under warranty. An answer to avoid any responsibility for the problem,
just like they tried to blame her.

 

Not too many shops want to work on hybrids.
You are kinda stuck with a "Dealership" for now, but you might try a different dealership. What do you think ?

I can understand your situation, and finding a good dealership is not always easy. There are good ones and there are "Others". The hope is to find the one that wants to keep customers..

 

I told her the same thing, there are alot of Ford dealerships in our area, I can think 10 off hand. Thank you for you interest in this, and for your imput.
Always drove fords exclusively until a Ford taurus electrical system and started on fire. The fire investigators found out almost immediately that it was the car. I
contacted the Ford factory representative, and I told him what happened. He denied any Ford Taurus problems that would’ve caused this.
Then he told me to contact my insurance as it was nothing to do with Ford. Two years or so later I received a recall on that Taurus for the exact thing that caused my fire. I never have anything to do with Ford since then, and tell anyone that will listen not to buy any Ford. Unfortunately,my daughter did not listen.

Ford has only gotten worse with honesty and customer service. Thanks again.

 

Does the fact that there are so many imported vehicles on our roads tell you anything ?

 

Any idea how to put ford maverick in “electronic parking brake service mode”. It’s a 2023 hybrid.