Need some help against the blue oval

[BMW POWER]

ok i'll give you some background information. about a month ago me and my wife was looking for a new large family car, after looking around several different dealerships we came across the Ford Galaxy. i wasn't impressed but it was quite reasonably priced and my wife liked it so i bought it, by the way i bought it brand new with a 3 year unlimted mileage warranty. well about a week ago my wife was driving it with the baby in when she accidently clipped the left wing mirror on a sign post going through a narrow road and this then set off the left front side airbag, luckily the baby was on the right rear seat other wise i wouldent like to think what could of happened. after ringing the Ford dealer i bought the car from, i explained what happened and they said she must of hit the post exceptionally hard and triggering the airbag sensor, my wife assures me that she wasn't going that fast because she just pulled out of a junction and after checking the wing mirror and finding no damage of any kind (not even a scratch) i would have to agree she couldent of hit it that hard. well anyway after taking the car down to be repaired they then told me that the airbag was not covered by the warranty and i would have to folk out a stonking £1200 to get it fixed!
so i was wondering if anybody knows the main governing body of car manufacturers or the equivalent that i could make a complaint to, Ford have screwed me over before with the focus and i'm not letting them get away with it this time
any help would be appreciated

 

[1X83Z]

Weird that only one airbag went off; they're designed to go off at the same time. Can you say faulty?

Not so weird that they're charging you £1200 ($1,900) to get it fixed - those airbag jobs are expensive.

 

[Famine]

They're talking out of their ringpieces.

Ford's airbags are designed to go off when the front bumper is struck. Any collision over 15mph and within 45 degrees of the bumper will set the bags off.

Bearing in mind only one went off, and there was no impact on the front the airbag system MUST be faulty. They're just trying to screw the money out of your insurers.

An airbag firing is not covered by the warranty - however the airbag electrics are (at least if it's a warranty from A1, Ford's favourite). If the system is faulty (and boy is it faulty) the work should be entirely covered by the warranty.

 

[SaleenASL]

Seems more like a problem with a particular dealership than a Ford-wide policy.

 

[Frustrated Palm]

Complain to a local news station, that should get their attention. Here on channel 10, the news has a thing called, "10 on your side" where you complain about something (be it a product, a service, etc) and they will go and talk to the owners/people and also try to dig into the story and then telivise it. Try your local news, see if they have anything like that...

 

[thinkers]

It's just possible that the whole occurance is saved in the memory of one of your cars control modules. I would have an independent shop scan all of the modules, Powertrain control, and airbag control. If there was a fault in the system it should have set a trouble code and saved the sensor information at the time of the deployment.

 

[bmwpower]

bring a lawsuit up against them, j/k, i wouldnt give up keep bugging them, a similar occurance happened to me and i just persisted to call and complain, lol, kind of weak but it worked

 

[vat_man]

Originally posted by Famine
They're talking out of their ringpieces.

Ford's airbags are designed to go off when the front bumper is struck. Any collision over 15mph and within 45 degrees of the bumper will set the bags off.

Bearing in mind only one went off, and there was no impact on the front the airbag system MUST be faulty. They're just trying to screw the money out of your insurers.

It was a side airbag that went off, not a front airbag.

At a guess I'd say the mirror being ripped off has caused an electrical issue in the side impact sensor.

Pretty rude, though. Good luck with it!

 

[Famine]

Apologies - I thought it said front left-side airbag... D'oh, d'oh and d'oh!

I lied too - it's within 30 degrees of the front, not 45.

 

[1X83Z]

Originally posted by Famine
Apologies - I thought it said front left-side airbag... D'oh, d'oh and d'oh!

I lied too - it's within 30 degrees of the front, not 45.

He said 'front side airbag' - I interpreted it the same way. Meh.

 

[skylineGTR_guy]

yeah airbags are expensive.....i paid 2k for one....and that was with a discount..