Hi Champs.
Our CMaxwas a Ford Direct supplied car, 2.0 TDCI Titanium with Sport XPack, 5000 miles. Looked good to start with. Wasn't very well prepared on the valetting front, but very few cars I've had measure up to my standards, I always give them a really good going over as soon as I can. It was also handed over with no mats which are part of the standard spec. Eventually got some after a deal of moaning, not the top spec as they should have been, but did the job.
Unfortunately, that's when I started to notice the odd little thing, like what I thought was fading on the Ford centrecap badges on the front wheels. Then instrong sunlight (remember that stuff)I noticed some scratching on the gloss black finish around the Sony radio and on some of the interior trim.
It was mainly used by my Wife who started to complain about wheel wobble at around 70mph, but it was intermittent??. Having driven it myself, I had a good look around the front wheels and tyres, I spotted that the front drivers side tyre had virtually no tread across about 2/3 of the tyre, this was at about 9000 miles. Back to the dealer, who eventually, reluctantly, admitted that it wasn't right and replaced the said tyrewith one of a totally different make and tread pattern to the rest and balanced the wheels.
No sooner did we pick up the car than the wheel wobble returned. So I took it to an independent wheel and tyre centre who had a really good look around........Their comments were..."Who balanced this, my 9 year old could have done a better job", and "Have you seen the "overspray" on the Ford centrecap badges and the brake calipers". It seems the wheels had beensprayed (badly) to cover up who knows what. Bottom line was that they thought there may be something fudamentaly wrong with the cars front end geometry.
The alarms bells had well and truly rung and I could see months of hassle and grief ahead, plus the prospect of my Wife driving around in a car neither of us had any faith in, so we got rid of it for the Kuga. Bestmove we've made in ages, 'specially with the weather we've had.
Bet you wish you hadn't asked now eh!
Edited by: malph