Ten months after launching a new diesel engine for heavy-duty pickup trucks, Ford faces a chorus of quality complaints from owners who are among the company’s most loyal customers, Reuters reported.
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The six-litre Power Stroke diesel V8, built by a unit of Navistar for Ford, commands nearly half the US market for diesel pickups but a range of problems and repeat trips to dealerships for repairs has left some owners upset, threatening Ford’s efforts to rebuild a reputation for quality vehicles, the news agency added.
Soon after the new engines went on sale last November in heavy-duty Ford pickups and the Excursion sport utility vehicle, owners started reporting problems – among the costliest is diesel fuel seeping into the engine’s oil supply in amounts large enough to ruin the engine, Reuters said.
Other complaints included engines that ran rough or stalled, lack of power at low speeds and harsh gear shifts, and the complaints caused Ford to announce a recall of the Power Stroke in April to re-programme the engine’s computer controls and replace a fuel injection sensor, the report said.
Even after the recall, several owners continued to suffer problems, Reuters said, adding that, after promising fixes in April, Ford now contends the problems should be solved soon, and that only a small fraction of Power Stroke owners have suffered any trouble.
Ford has even taken the step of buying back an undisclosed number of trucks – a rare move that vehicle makers usually don’t take unless forced by state law – to sooth angry customers, Reuters said.
“We’re sorry that it happened,” Roman Krygier, Ford’s group vice president for manufacturing and quality, told Reuters. “We think those problems are behind us.”
Reuters noted that pickup trucks are the only part of the United States market where diesel engines have been popular. In the past couple of years, General Motors and Chrysler have beefed up their diesel pickups to better compete against Ford while Nissan is considering a diesel version of its Titan truck due out in December, the news agency added.
Reuters said Ford expected to maintain, if not build, on its market share when the six-litre Power Stroke was launched – the engine produces 320 horsepower and 560 pounds-feet of torque, giving some pickup models enough power to tow nearly seven tons, while meeting tougher federal emissions rules ahead of schedule.
This year, Ford expects to sell about 260,000 Power Stroke-equipped pickups, which start at $US27,000 and can reach nearly $50,000 when loaded with options, Reuters noted. Ford division head Steve Lyons reportedly said in July that Ford’s incentives on its diesel trucks are well below competitors’ “because our diesel engine is as well received in the marketplace as it is. We dominate this business, and it is because the product is extremely strong,” he reportedly said.
According to JD Power & Associates research, heavy-duty truck customers place a higher priority on reliability than any other type of vehicle buyer, Reuters said.
Two Power Stroke owners who asked not to be named because they were still negotiating buyback deals with Ford, told Reuters their trucks had a string of problems that couldn’t be fixed. One owner in the western United States had his truck in the repair shop for more than six weeks.
According to Reuters, Ford has issued three updates for the software in the engine’s computers since February. It has two more updates planned in a few weeks to address rough idling and how the engines adjust to air conditioning loads.
Ford spokesman Glenn Ray told Reuters the company believes the updates will cure most of the “drivability” complaints from owners, and that the earlier recalls solved larger problems such as diesel fuel mixing with oil.
But he also reportedly said some had complained about engines that were later found to be running up to Ford’s standards, and said some owners may simply be unfamiliar with how diesels run.
Several customers who got buybacks appear to be replacing their old models with new 2004 versions, Reuters noted.
