A St. Petersburg man says he bought a new car to avoid maintenance issues, however, a year later, Terry Freshley says he discovered a defect in his new ride. The dealer told him that they couldn't fix the problem. That's when Mr. Freshley made a call for action.
The problem with the 2015 Ford Escape all started with a water stain formed over the summer due to a leak.
The leak sent this driver running back and forth to the dealership for repairs. Mr. Freshley brought his Ford in three separate times, but the service department couldn't fix the leak.
The dealership ran out of ideas and Mr. Freshley says he couldn't get the attention of the head honchos at Ford Motor Company.
ABC Action News Investigative reporter, Jackie Callaway, relayed the facts about Freshley’s leaky Escape to the auto giant’s corporate offices.
A day later, an executive from Detroit contacted Freshley to say they were looking into it. Ford actually sent in an engineer to examine the 2015 Escape before offering to buy the vehicle back.
Freshley took Ford’s $32,000 check for the buy back and bought himself a brand new 2017 Escape.
Ford refused to comment on this story. There's good news for other Escape owners, Freshley says a company engineer told him they've only found this defect in 5 other vehicles across the country.
