Ecosport's AT gearbox fails after 5 years; Ford refuses warranty claims

No updates after multiple follow-ups, hence we might file a complaint at consumer court against Ford India.

BHPian Utkarsh1907 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The car had been running smoothly for the last five years with my dad driving it mostly in the city of Ranchi, when all of a sudden while driving on a pretty smooth road, the transmission made a horrible sound and then the vehicle stopped running altogether. The car has been serviced at the Ford Ranchi workshop only. We had purchased an extended warranty, so any mechanical breakdown has to be covered under the extended warranty.

On 8th November at 10:45 PM, while driving on a pretty smooth road at 30-40 km/h, the car suddenly made a loud metallic sound accompanied by heavy jerks from the underside of the car and completely stopped with a Red service sign. It got stuck in the middle of the road and did not shift to neutral. It shifted to neutral after a few minutes and then with the help of some good samaritans, the car could be pushed to the side of the road for parking. My dad immediately contacted Roadside assistance to tow it to the Ford workshop. It seemed as if the automatic transmission had failed.

The damaged car was then transported safely through a tow truck sent by the HDFC Ergo RSA team to the workshop. The next afternoon, my dad went to Diara Ford Ranchi. We were pretty sure that the damage would be covered under the extended warranty that we had purchased earlier. However, we were told that the breakdown was not due to any mechanical failure and the repair cost had to be covered through insurance treating it as an accident. My dad explained everything to the SA as there was no mark on the external car surface to warrant an insurance claim. But the SA was in no mood to listen to any logic. He tried to show some old minor scratches on the front bumper to justify his hypothesis. My dad asked him to contact the Ford Chennai technical team and involve him in the discussion as he is a practising Mechanical Engineer.

On 14th November 23, we got a message from Diara Ford that the estimated delivery for the car is 17 Nov 23 and the estimated cost is Rs 590. On receipt of this message, we thought that maybe after discussion with the Chennai technical team, Ford has agreed to honour its warranty, but alas, we were told that the Chennai team is not agreeing to consider it as mechanical damage. My dad just wanted to discuss it with the technical team and they have not honoured it to date.

Many times Diara Ford called to agree to the damage claim against insurance and not through extended warranty, which my dad refused because he felt that it was a trap by Diara Ford to make us file a fraudulent insurance claim and in the process bear all the expenses of the repair on our own. The insurance will be flatly rejected, as there is no external damage mark on the vehicle to justify such a huge mechanical failure. Whatever damage is there is only in the underbelly of the car. Diara Ford / Ford India's contention of accidental damage can only be possible if the car was physically lifted by a crane and then it was dropped on some object causing a serious impact only on the underbelly of the car without any external damage. It's absurd.

Now, after months of following up with Ford India, we are still nowhere and don't know what to do next. We plan to file a complaint in the consumer court against Ford, but I think it might take a long time.

Extended Warranty details.

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