A Colorado man recently took his new Ford F-250—which had a violent front-end shake on the highway—to a dealer, only to be told that the truck was “not designed to go over 65 mph.” It’s a ridiculous and untrue claim in what is just a baffling audio recording. Just listen to this nonsense.
This all went down at AutoNation Ford in Littleton, CO, where the owner of a 2017 Ford F-250 Platinum Diesel (which starts at over $70,000) came in to have his vehicle’s death wobble—an extremely violent front-end shake that happens when suspension and steering parts have worn out—fixed. Unfortunately, the dealer wasn’t able to solve or replicate the issue, instead opting to give the owner this insane excuse:
In case you can’t watch that video, here are the silliest quotes:
“That truck is not designed to go over 65 mph without some weight on it.”
“Those trucks are not designed to be race cars, they are designed to haul...”
“If you want a fast truck, get an F-150.”
“The bottom line is that truck is not designed to go over 65 mph. It’s just not.”
I emailed Ford to ask about this case, and they straightup told me that a Ford F-250's top speed is 95 mph. It was designed to drive at that speed without issue. I reached out to AutoNation, and they admit that their representative was mistaken when he made the claim in the video. Here’s the company’s full statement:
The AutoNation employee’s recorded statements in the video in question are not a reflection of AutoNation’s ideas or standards when it comes to our customers’ service experience and we regret that he was given false information.
As the nation’s largest automotive retailer we strive for excellence in customer satisfaction and safety. When this customer brought his F-250 to our service center we were unable to recreate the issue which is when we initiated the buyback process between the manufacturer and the customer. It’s our understanding that this process is currently underway and we are no longer involved at this time.
On that last part about a buyback: Ford says that didn’t happen, but that instead, the customer—whose truck had 22,000 miles on the clock—simply had a bad ball joint fixed under warranty at a Ford dealership. Ford’s representative told me the man has his truck back, and that FoMoCo is following up with him to make sure he’s satisfied.
I haven’t been able to get in touch with the truck’s owner, but I did come across a couple of interviews on the Troubleshooter Network’s (a consumer advice group) Facebook page and YouTube channel in which the alleged owner, Brenden, talks about the experience. Here’s the first one in which the apparent owner talks about the recording:
Here’s a second interview in which he talks about the experience at large:
According to the interviews, there seems to have been quite a bit of drama between Brenden and the AutoNation dealer. Apparently, the job had taken three weeks, which was too long, and that put Brenden on edge. Some choice words were supposedly exchanged between him and the dealer, and the police were apparently called.
I’m still left with some questions, like why did the person in the recording say what they said (in the Facebook interview above, Brenden says the person was a “communications manager”). The AutoNation statement says the person “was given false information,” but from whom? My second question is: why couldn’t this dealer diagnose something as simple as a faulty ball joint?
In any case, it looks like Ford stepped up to investigate, and ultimately took care of the issue. AutoNation admitted its fault. The Littleton dealer itself told me it spoke to the customer face-to-face and resolved the issue. And now the owner has a new ball joint on a nice, new truck that hopefully doesn’t feel like it’s about to shake apart on the highway.
Seems like a happy ending, to me.