Battlefield Ford, Manassas VA

[03blackvert]

I just got back from Battlefield. Good people over there. I bought an F-150 from them a few years ago, and ordered my Cobra from them. After polishing it I found a few minor scratches. Took it back today they buffed two out, are ordering a new taillight (lense is scratched), and when I bring it to them (my choice) they are going to repaint the right side sidescoop, which has a scratch on it all the way into the plastic. I don't blame them for any of these issues, I was there within an hour of it coming off the truck, these were all Ford or the shippers fault.

Anyway, no complaints, willing to fix it the way I wanted it fixed, willing to do the job right. Just the way it should be. They don't play the stupid ADM games the rest of the dealers around here play either. All in all, I couldn't be happier with the dealer right now.

If anyone is interested in a car, they have a Sonic Blue vert, Black top charcoal interior, and a black coupe with parchment interior (which I like, but then I have that in the 'vert :lol: ). They also have 6 or 7 lightnings on the lot, including a 2002 they will deal on and some 2003's. If you go ask for Raymond in sales, and/or say hi to JR, the sales manager. Tell them the black 03 convertable sent you, they'll know who I am.

If someone can put them in the FAQ, they definately get a thumbs up.
:beer:

 

[KevinB120]

Battlefield is right down the street from us(Ted Britt), we do a lot of business between the two dealerships(its owned by our gm's brother in law) They're good peeps, glad to hear they took care of you, i really like those guys:thumbsup:

 

[GreyGhost]

03blackvert - glad to hear the kind words about Battlefield Ford. I had my car on order with them (without any money down)but went to another dealership because they received the exact car I ordered. Battlefield completely understood.

I couldn't agree with you more about the Ford dealerships in this area. The one I bought the car from put 19 miles on it when it was in for a front end alignment. And, sorry KevinB120, Ted Britt in Chantilly told me that they didn't care about my business after I questioned the 1.5 miles they put on it when it was in for an oil change.

 

[KevinB120]

I was there man, that car never left the lot, i saw you come back in and was gonna say what.....mileage? I saw it get moved 3 times across the lot, no one messed with it. They rotate the cars around the lot constantly to make room, We just recieved 34 units this monday that need prep, cleanup, and inspections by thursday evening....everything back there will move constantly. Jim, your service writer is known company-wide as one of the best in the business, we had to steal him back from lincoln to get him here this year, hes been with us for 15 years prior to lincoln.... you were the first one ive seen to ever make him upset, he is respsonsible for every car he takes in, he knows every time its started....

 

[03blackvert]

I'm not saying you should have to do this, because you shouldn't. But if you care about your car, don't leave it with them. Like today with my paint work. I drove the car there. Waited for the paint guy. Drove it to the service door. Drove it to where the paint guy was set up. Etc. They never got my keys.

Now, it's not that I don't trust them, I just drop off my truck there no problem. But with a car like this, if you want it to be perfect, you have to watch it. As Kevin said, these guys deal with many cars a day, you're just another car. I think they are careful, but many owners of these cars are, well, paranoid. I won't use dealers with porters -- the mechanic can take the time to drive the car in. I want to meet the mechanic first, make sure he has a face to a car. Don't want to be just another service order.

I will leave my car with Curry's Auto (Chantilly / Sterling). They have earned my trust, and many of my friends and co-workers trust. They work on many high end machines costing many times what my cobra does with much more anal-retentive owers, and know how to take care of a car. If they test drive it, when you show up to pick it up they not only tell you, they tell you exactly what route they took and why. That makes many of the questions go away.

IMHO garages are the most dangerous place for your car to be. Too many cars, too many overworked people. Things going on near them by chance that shouldn't be (ever see a guy grind a brake disc right next to your car in the next bay covering it with metal flakes?). If you care, stay there with it, watch it, introduce yourself, and then you'll be happy.

 

[KevinB120]

lol yea, actually now that i think about it, I work here and i still hang around the entire time its being worked on, kinda a habit of mine I guess.........I get "good pricing" on labor , and feel kinda guilty bout leaving the tech alone anyway

 

[03blackvert]

While we're on the Ted Britt thing, I have a couple of questions. Really, I'm not trying to be evil, but more than one person has told me both of the following and I've never delt with Ted Britt, so I'm curious.

First, I've been told on all GT's and Cobra's that sit on the lot they install some sort of aftermarket anti-theft thing, I believe it's the "immobalizer". That true? Second, I've been told the service writers are, well, less mod friendly than some other dealers in the area. Care to comment?

 

[NastyWS6]

Glad to hear they took care of everything for you

 

[KevinB120]

they used to call that the "silencer", we havent used those things in a while, used to be for test drives and such, securilock has done away with lot theft for the most part(other then wheels and stuff). Although I dx'd a Exped from delaware last week and it had one on it:shrug: The idea is if you get out of the car with a customer on a test drive, youre supposed to pull the "key" from it. It was kinda pointless, so we stopped using them(also half the time they forgot to take em out before delivery and half of those customers would come back in a couple days, the other half LIKED em:shrug:, we get trades with them all the time(regardless of brand). Were relatively "mod friendly", weve put gears and springs in for customers, we even mod vehicles for the dealer....weve got 2 expi's with 22" rims and custom paint, and were putting lift kits and 35's on 2 f-150's and 2 f-250's, and we have a lowered new supercrew with lightning rims on it out front, oh yea, we even put 20" evos on a new tbird. I mean if someone is running 20lbs of boost and blows something up, dont expect much, but usually cat backs wont keep you from getting your cars alignment fixed:thumbsup: I said it before, today actually, dealers dont often miss the opportunity for warranty work.....

 

[KevinB120]

we were going to do two mustangs at a time up with cervinis body kits/style bars/lowering springs/cat backs/corbeau seats and some other stuff, but the supply of new mustangs are thinning rapidly now, so well wait till new 04 stock comes in

 

[03blackvert]

Do you ever come to the northern virginia mustang club meetings? If so look for the black '03 'vert and say hi.

 

[KevinB120]

Ive been trying, I rotate early off the same saturday nights, but either the weather on has stunk, or i get a customer at like 5:30 that goes Till 10 (not that thats a bad thing), Im gonna start at least making burger king afterwards:thumbsup:

 

[03blackvert]

Yeah, I'm worried about the weather for saturday. Don't like to take the car out in the rain if I can avoid it.

 

[CobraEd]

Battlefield is great

All the folks at Battlefield are great. JC Sprigg Is our sales guy. One of the nicest guys you could ever meet.

BTW, We are taking my son's 03 sonic blue Cobra Mustang and my 66 replica Cobra down to Old Dominion drag strip tomorrow evening (Friday) to do some runs. One of my son's friends with a supercharged 5.0 mustang will be there too. If any of you guys in the area are interested come on down. Old Dominion is right on 234 just south of old town manassas.

Ed

 

[KevinB120]

I gotta work late shift on friday:mj:

 

[GreyGhost]

KevinB120 I appreciate your response about my incident at dealership, your clarification about car’s being moved due to incoming inventory is the first reasonable explanation I’ve heard about why my Cobra had an extra 1.5 miles on it when I picked it up. I may not have liked it, but I can understand it. Too bad Jim and his Manager (Alan?) couldn’t have provided the same sort explanation. Specifically, your man Jim was insulted that I asked citing the same phrase you used “it never left the lot” but never explained the miles. If he had his eyes on it, seems reasonable to me he could have provided this response. Bear in mind, I wasn’t even mentioning the rap music cranked to the hilt or both seats and mirrors completely out of position, not only irritating and stupid, but lends credence that car was driven unnecessarily. I questioned him if Escorts and Focus’s has similar mileage when the came in for oils changes. He couldn’t answer that either. I gave your boys another crack at trying to make this right; me and my car were babied in January, they wouldn’t let it go until it was right…keeping it for 2 weeks, fixing every problem, pulling it into the bay each night and not letting it go until it was right. Even then the service manager wanted me to test-drive it before he released.

I go in for an oil change and I’m treated like a turd in a punch bowl.

In my mind there’s 2 issues here; the extra miles on the car and the way I was treated. All I was after was simple explanation; your man couldn’t answer and became more flustered the more I pushed him. Can I be an SOB? You bet, particularly when it comes to this car, considering the premium I paid, and the experiences I’ve had. This car is both a pleasure and a curse, and the privilege of ownership has made me paranoid – I openly admit that. But, I don’t care if your selling goldfish at the pet store or premium vehicles, you never tell a customer that you don’t care about their business, unless, maybe, you have a gun to your head. Where I work that’s inexplicable and would warrant immediate termination – I’ve done it. At a bear minimum, it’s inconsistent with Ford’s Customer Service policy, potentially putting at risk the values and certification behind the Ford’s Blue Oval program.

My perception, right or wrong, is some bad stuff went down that day. It’s both my pleasure and responsibility to tell folks of my experience. I’ve written letters to Gardner Britt and Ford, and every survey will echo these sentiments. Folks that buy Fords and the folks that sell and service them need to know about this.

Some friendly advice, 03blackvert sounds like he knows his cars and some folks that know how to treat customers that are particular about their cars, spread that around Ted Britt Chantilly. I know that the way that he detailed the service at Curry’s Automotive is how I want to be treated, I’ve never heard of them but I’m stopping by now.

Sorry for the rant. I belong to the NVMC (at least I think I do never attending a meeting) so if you want to hook up sometime let me know.

I’m ready for the flames….

 

[Joe D]

Originally posted by 03blackvert
While we're on the Ted Britt thing, I have a couple of questions. Really, I'm not trying to be evil, but more than one person has told me both of the following and I've never delt with Ted Britt, so I'm curious.

First, I've been told on all GT's and Cobra's that sit on the lot they install some sort of aftermarket anti-theft thing, I believe it's the "immobalizer". That true? Second, I've been told the service writers are, well, less mod friendly than some other dealers in the area. Care to comment?

I had a bad service experience with Ted Britt on the tranny in my '96 Cobra. The infamous 1-2 shift grind. Took the car in at 8k, 12, and 15K for the grind. Told them about the TSB, was told "when it gets worse, we'll take care of it". At 18K miles, and 15 days out of time warranty, they told me to go pound sand. The service manager walked away from me like I was an 18 year old.

At 18K miles they pulled the car in and looked at the Griggs GR-40 suspension that was recently installed, and said "you must be racing this", not only aren't we honoring any warranty, they told the district ford rep I had been racing the car so he refused to even talk to me. The truth was, I had never even had the car to an autocross.

I wrote letters to ford, SVT, and the district ford rep to no avail. I finally gave up and had a T56 installed and never went back to Ted Britt again.

However, I have to tell you all that the parts guys at Ted Britt have been great to deal with. They always take the time to help no matter how strange the request. I'm always taken care of when I go there. But I wouldn't go near the service department with anyone elses car!

Joe

 

[03blackvert]

Thanks for the post Joe. You're now the second guy who has relayed a story to me about Ted Britt going out of their way to cancel a warranty. Another person relayed a story to me about going in for a transmission problem and because of a full setup of subframe connectors, kmember brace, and strut tower brace being given the runaround that they must be racing it and Ted Britt notified the district ford people as well. I don't go on one story alone though, there's got to be a pattern and you're starting to show it.

Ah well, it's not like they lost my business as they were never on my list to begin with. It's Battlefield if I need warranty, Curry's for routine work, and Excessive Motorports for all my mustang modding pleasure. I'm going to be doing everything I can on this car myself, anyway.

 

[Joe D]

The District ford people notification was exactly what they did to me as well. What was really bad was I reported the problem 3 times before, and there were no modifications to the car at all. It was bone stock the first 3 times I took it in for the tranny grind. And to make matters worse, they assured me that even if the car was out of warranty, since I had notified them several times about the tranny problem while it was under warranty, they would still honor the problem. Once they contact the district ford people, you're hosed..... you never even get a chance for a rebuttal.

Joe