Peninsula Ford of Palo Alto

I took my 2000 Ford in for a service and several non-warranty stuff for them to fix, including a radiator flush. The whole job came out to over $800 and took a day. The car was returned on time, but I later realized:

1. The air filter cover wasn't closed properly, thus allowing dust and dirt to bypass the airfilter and go straight into the engine.
2. The radiator fluid was brown as sewer water. When I returned to the dealership, I was almost called a liar and told that they certainly had flushed it but it would never get completely clean. They would do it again - if I paid $80. I went to Jiffy Lube who did it for $60 and gave me in writing their view on it: The coolant hadn't been changed for several years!

Too bad that poorly run dealerships and service departments ruins an otherwise good brand like Ford. Why buy a Ford when you have to hassle with the service people and get lied to?

Maybe and hopefully the recent name-change (to University Ford) has brought better people along as well.

PROS: Car returned on time
CONS: Jobs not performed (correctly) and fault not admitted

After arriving at the dealship to look at a certain used car, I waited 20 minutes to be shown two different new cars not even in the same category. After being told the car was probably sold, I found it on my own in the back lot.

I have an extended warranty on my Ford Hybrid, and I have to say that I will never buy one of those from Ford again. This is my local dealer, and it is clear that once they have the money for the extended warranty they have no interest in giving me good service. They never deliver my car back on time. I constantly have to fight with them about whether something is covered or not (I bought a bumper to bumper warranty!), and the work they do is shotty at best. Do not buy a car from this dealership, and certainly don't buy a warranty.

PROS: None
CONS: Terrible service. Terrible workmanship

Walked in with my family to look at a new or used car, and found the sales staff not too eager to help us. Never imagined that would happen when buying a car.

I brought my Explorer in for a recall repair -- changing a part on the rear lift gate to prevent it from crashing down -- which took much of the day to accomplish. After I picked it up, the lift gate would not stay up anymore -- it was doing exactly what the recall warned might happen *IF* I had not had the service performed.

So I brought it back in to Peninsula Ford, and waited with my 3-month-old for about 2 hours before the service manager even checked to see if they had the parts to repair it. They did not, so he told me he'd call when the part came in. I waited for a week, then finally called in myself, and learned that the part was in stock. When I returned, a different service manager wanted to charge me to perform the service, because he claimed it was a problem unrelated to the recall repair. Fortunately, he agreed to do it for free, but my experience was bad enough to make me avoid Peninsula Ford for service in the future.