Should I buy a lemon?

dreys said:

In most cases, owners give up on their trucks when they had enough. Usually it is more than one issue.

And very often Ford's fixes are "band-aids", I can almost guarantee previous owner had to take the truck for the same issue multiple times, and issue still was not resolved. Even after dealer said it was.

As it was said before, stay as far away as you can from buy backs.

Click to expand...

If you really believe that about Ford, Ford dealer repairs and Ford service, you probably should not drive a Ford.

The Raptor is the flagship model of the #1 selling vehicle on the planet. If you dealer can’t fix it - find another dealer. My dealer doesn’t band aid fix my truck.

Sonicsunspot said:

If you really believe that about Ford, Ford dealer repairs and Ford service, you probably should not drive a Ford.

The Raptor is the flagship model of the #1 selling vehicle on the planet. If you dealer can’t fix it - find another dealer. My dealer doesn’t band aid fix my truck.

Click to expand...

You do understand it is the same dealer that works on Ford Fiesta, bunch of cargo vans, all work-purpose F150s... They don't care if it is 15k or 60k truck. And you're in minority with Raptor, it's less than 3% of all F150/F250/F350/etc sales.

If dealers would fix trucks properly, we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place. Spend a bit more time in Gen2 forum to read on dealer experiences, it will open your mind a bit.

Spinothalamic said:

I have found a few real sweet deals on 2018 Ford buy-backs. One says is comes with a Ford factory warranty. Do you think Ford fixed the offending issue, or are they reselling a broken truck?

Click to expand...

Back to reality...

Ford establishes Reacquired Vehicle Repair Centers in Regions around the country. Being a RAV repair center is by invitation only from Ford and your reputation with Ford has to be stellar to get the invite. These are Gold Star repair facilities and that designation is not taken lightly by Ford or Ford employees.

After Ford reacquires a vehicle, they ship the RAVs from around the country to these designated repair facilities and the mandate is to find the root cause and fix the problem(s), full stop.

As discussed often on this forum, lemon laws vary from state-to-state - some states like California are very liberal (I had a Ford exec joke with me about a cigarette lighters causing a buyback out there).

It's pretty easy to research a vehicle - call the previous dealer, ask some questions. My Raptor is not my first buyback vehicle - and I will do it again! Ford added to the warranty and gave the truck a better shake-down than most other used cars. And lets face it ALL used cars are a crapshoot. It's a Raptor, you think the previous owner didn't go WOT stoplight to stoplight occasionally?

Me personally, with how technical vehicles are these days... I stay away from buy backs

Never buy a buy back.

Yes, you should buy a manufacture buyback if it is decently discounted compared to other raptors. It should be at least 20% lower than comparable models.

We bought a Range Rover lemon a few years ago. Never had an issue with it. It had <15k miles on it when we bought it and now close to 50k miles with absolutely no issues. Got a fantastic deal on it.

Manufacturer buybacks come with a factory warranty, which means they carry no more risk to you than a brand new car. Rest assured, manufacturers wont buy back a car and put it back on the market without fixing it, risking a costly buyback process for them all over again. If it’s being resold, they’ve gotten down to the cause of the issue and fixed it.

Lots of good advice here. I almost took a trip to Covington Ford, they had 'almost' the right truck, just the wrong color. IIRC, apples to apples it was about 6k less than comparable non-lemon buyback. BUt like what many said, do the research as to the cause. One i looked at had the phasers done, but came back after a few miles with an oil leak, and came back a few more miles for a timing chain. I assume some crap mechanic did the job and messed it up. But being fixed, leak free and with warranty, it seemed like a good chance. Another one was a module issue with the infotainment system - electrical gremlin was a no-go for me.

I ended up finding the perfect truck (802a, 1 owner, 15k miles) with a little damage in a few spots, which drove the price down to where I was comfortable.

But its a crapshoot. For those people who thought they were going the safe route buying brand new, obviously didnt work out and they had issues. I'd call your local dealership, get a deep carfax report and look at the issues and mileages, and make your decision based on that. Link to the deal?

dreys said:

In most cases, owners give up on their trucks when they had enough. Usually it is more than one issue.

And very often Ford's fixes are "band-aids", I can almost guarantee previous owner had to take the truck for the same issue multiple times, and issue still was not resolved. Even after dealer said it was.

As it was said before, stay as far away as you can from buy backs.

Click to expand...

Ford doesn’t do “Band-Aid fixes”, not sure what you’re referring to. If a dealer performs an improper repair, that’s on them. The OEM can’t control 100% of what independently owned dealers do.

The majority of buy backs are due to dealers misdiagnosing the issue or a parts delay. I have personally repaired vehicles that had engines and harnesses replaced only to find that the tech swapped the intake and exhaust cam sensor connectors, causing them to believe the original issue was still present. I’ve seen multiple transmissions be replaced and for a spread pin terminal in the harness. I’ve repaired intermittent network concerns caused by the customer spilling a beverage in the center console. I’ve diagnosed engine performance issues that were ultimately found to be caused by rodent damage.

Per the law in most states, all of those qualified for a buyback based on repair attempts or time out of service. Yet in none of those cases was the vehicle a “lemon”; they all could have been repaired on the first attempt.

A true “lemon” is a vehicle that cannot be repaired, or repairs are too invasive to restore the vehicle to like new condition. For example, the customer complains of a noise, and it’s found that the bulkhead was improperly welded and would require thousands in structural repairs. Or the customer complains of an odor, and it’s found that water has been leaking through missing seam sealer and the entire interior needs to be replaced and chemically cleaned.

Buying a buy back vehicle does not mean you’re buying a “lemon”, it only means the vehicle qualified for BB under the law. If you have access to all of the repair history and what ultimately resolved the issue, you can get a great deal. But if you’re not technically savy or you can’t get the whole story, you’d be better off not taking the risk.

It is hot or miss on buying a vehicle that is a dealer buy back. My wife’s last car was a great deal buy back that had to go to the shop every time she drive it. The real issue came when she had enough and wanted to trade it in. The car fax history reports a lemon/buy back etc. she got next to nothing on trade in for the car.

If it's the right deal and the issue is fixed I reccomend it - speaking from actual experience.

My Lemon is pure lemonade and sweetened by the purchase price obtained. It was a great deal! I bought it w/ 15k miles out of state with only online pics and facetime. I have not had any issues that were out of the ordinary.

Based on the history report I have, it received a new engine due to oil pump issue, and what appears to be a 2nd one due to the turbo not being cleaned out when they replaced the 1st engine. This was all prior to my purchase.

Part of Fords process is they have to provide you with the history before your purchase. In fact it is in their contract (not the selling dealers). My salesperson learned this when I asked for it and he said he had not heard that and then checked and found it to be true.

Better than the lemonade Mine is a velocirator and Ford had uninstalled the tune, IAC, etc and they included them in the deal. I contacted Hennessey and got the tune from them to re-install myself. Love it and the deal I got!!! I bought mine for less than a normal used raptor and the hennessey pkg. was icing on the cake!