Hi,

I bought a new first year model freestyle in 2005. So far I have had the front struts replaced twice, the entire middle row seat replaced, the rack and pinion steering replaced.

Now , again, less than a year later the R&P is out again, and it caused the power steering pump to fail, and a engine mount has to be replaced. Keep in mind this is 3 years old, 36K miles.

Do you think all think Ford should have to pay for the repairs?

My Thoughts, I have had every maintenance done at the dealer, they just did the 30,000 miles, and the R&P was just repaired ( within a year).

How can a new car have so many problems. I think this should be covered by the factory. Does this ever happen? ( the factory says they will make things right)

Interested in opinions.

To start - when the rack and pinion was replaced the first time the pump should have been done with it. The two systems are interconnected and if a failure brings metal shreds into the system you should even throw in new hoses to be safe. If it's under warranty I would imagine Ford should replace the junk pieces. New cars from all companies experience problems. Usually do to simple unavoidable defects or human error. Sometimes the smallest part, not checked/inspected closely upon it's production) can effect the larger parts and throw the whole system it's installed in into a tailspin. You must understand that assembly lines work at speed, and most cars aren't hand built by people who pander over them. A company must decide the fastest way to get out the best product and at times the smaller things slip by the wayside (sometimes requiring a recall of parts/cars to repair a found defect). Smaller things can include material (for example which metal or plastic to use for a given part), part size, part load (weight) bearing capacities, part friction resistance (part of material) and always overall cost to size of part and shipping costs to get pieces to the factory. It's a laundry list to make a car, and very easy to complain about, but on the bright side at least Ford acknowledges defects unlike GM who pays people off and keeps producing death traps for years on end (decades). I have worked here and there and Ford takes away a lot of headaches due to engineering and other defects. Unfortunately now is a bad time for the whole country including auto manufacturers since noone seems to take any pride in the label "Made in U.S.A.". I've worked on foreign cars and I still prefer American made. Why pay the people who are anti-American (against you and me) ? It's like paying the enemy to shoot you in the head. Away go jobs, away go people and the remainder suffer. OK - it's 3:30 AM I'm done rambling now. Best of good fortune to you and many happy American motoring miles.