Engine replacement delay leaves Oakville family in a bind

An Oakville family is speaking out after their months long battle with a major auto manufacturer to get a failed engine replaced.

In late 2018, Jeff Veljkovic and his wife Sabrina, bought a 2019 Ford F150 pickup truck equipped with a six cylinder EcoBoost engine.

“This was my dream vehicle and I worked hard and saved money to get it,” Jeff said.

The purchase was made so Jeff could start a side business doing concrete work to help his family get by, but that hit a roadblock last January when the truck’s engine malfunctioned.  Since then it has sat in his driveway.

“This has really impacted us financially,” he said. “When we took the truck in to the mechanic we were told it can’t be fixed, this particular engine needed to be replaced.”

At the time of the malfunction, the warranty had expired and Jeff had driven it for around 150,000 kilometres. According to industry averages, these trucks should perform well for a minimum of around 240,000 kilometres with proper maintenance.

“It was surprising to us at the time because he kept it so well maintained,” Sabrina said.

“I had an impeccable service record. They can track it. It’s in their system,” Jeff added.

The total cost of replacing the engine is more than $20,000 but Ford Motor Company of Canada agreed to work with the couple and offered what both Jeff and Sabrina thought was a fair deal.

“Almost right off the bat they offered to cover 50 per cent of the cost for us, which was great at the time,” said Jeff.

Last February, the couple was instructed to make a down payment of more than $2,000 to begin the process of receiving a new engine. They say they were told it would be delivered in about a month.

“What followed over the last eight months has been a series of broken promises,” Sabrina said.

The couple shared with us a series of back and forth emails with Ford dating back to last March.

“We’ve been getting a variety of different stories. We were second on the waiting list for the engine. Then we were first on the waiting list for the engine, it went from a four-week lead time to a six-week lead time to no lead time at all. Nobody seems to know what is happening with this which is so frustrating,” said Jeff.

The couple says they have done everything to try and get answers.

“I’ve gone to the CEO, I’ve gone to numerous different social media channels just hoping to shed some light on the issue, and hopefully, maybe if they see us on the news, they’ll respond to us,” Sabrina said.

Speakers Corner reached out to Ford staff, asking them to look into the couple’s case. We were told their engine is on the way.

“The process will take approximately two weeks, inclusive of sending the engine offsite for repair and taking the long weekend into account, “ a Ford spokesperson said.  

We asked if there were production issues with this particular engine and if we could get a reply to emails from Ford to the couple stating the engine would be delivered months ago but did not get a response.

Jeff and Sabrina are cautiously optimistic Ford will meet this new two week deadline.

“We’ve been promised timelines in the past and they haven’t been met, so we just have to wait and see,” said Jeff.

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