Morris Smith Ford of Leavenworth — Local services in Leavenworth

PLEASE DO NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY HERE. Brought my vehicle in for a simple tie rod replacement, wheel rotation and alignment. Vehicle is returned and this is where the nightmare begins. I was informed that I needed new lower control arms but was assured everything was in working order. Driving the vehicle less than 10 minutes home, i notice a vibration and slight hum from the steering/wheels. The following morning while attempting to head to work, I notice this vibration and noise again. The vibrations and sound intensifying upon acceleration. I call ford and explain the issue; that these 2 things were not an issue prior to the tie rod installation and tire rotation. They ask me to bring the vehicle back the following day in order to diagnose. I am told the issue is due to "cupping" of unevenly worn treads on the tires due to the need for LCA's. Instead of replacing LCA's, i chose to go with the cheaper possible option from the service advisor that maybe we put new tires on, have everything balanced again and it should mitigate the issue, if not, bearings will be inspected and possibly replaced. These wheel bearings were replaced less then 6 months ago by a local shop mechanic we trust. New tires? same issues. Wheel bearings suggested replaced. Bearings get replaced. I am then again, reassured that the vehicle has been road tested, finally been fixed, all problems solved. I had to pick the vehicle up after hours at this point as I could not be there before the service side closed. Immediately upon leaving the lot, I noticed an alarming clunking noise as if my suspension was just missing, coupled with an even more intense vibration upon any movement of the vehicle. While traveling to work, 2 of the brand-new tires gave me a low air warning. When i pulled into QuikTrip to investigate; 2 of the brand-new tires that were just installed were severely under inflated. I immediately call the service side back that morning to inform them of the problem, to which I am advised to return the following morning for diagnosis. Upon a third round of inspection and diagnosis, it is discovered that whoever physically worked on the vehicle forgot to reattach or properly tighten the sway bar, and every time I hit any elevation, it was "smashing into the frame of the vehicle". The vibration itself was instead being caused by the rear control arms, and was verified by the Service advisor, service technician, and shop foreman. Vehicle is repaired. I am rest assured that everything should be fine now. Again, this "death wobble" of a vibration occurs upon deceleration and acceleration of the vehicle. AGAIN, I call Ford asking them to please just solve the problem as these now recurring issues were not prevalent prior to the initial installation of the tie rods and I have spent A LOT of money at this point. To the tune of over $4,000 dollars! After this phone call, I asked around my workplace for any suggestions of local mechanics. (I work in Lenexa). I was prompted with a business by the name of XM AUTOMOTIVE. Upon, my detailed explanation of the work done at the dealership, diagnosis and inspection of the vehicle for a 4th time by XM AUTOMOTIVE; they found no evidence of Lower control arms needing replaced, the wheels were balanced extremely improperly, and the alignment was inaccurate. They suggested a re-torque and re-spec of all serviced areas along with a re-balance and alignment. Now, after being properly balanced and aligned, I finally have my car back to the way it was before. The shop that fixed the issue argued that whoever did the work either was not properly qualified and/or did not want me to return as a customer and that I was probably being scammed for money. I should not have had to replace my RCA. The LCA's were in fact, still well established. I have never felt so cheated, and angry in my entire life with any business. After spending over $4 THOUSAND DOLLARS, I can't help this gut feeling that I was being scammed for every part they could convince...

Unfortunately I'm not able to give fewer than 1 star. This dealership and their service department is a joke. We brought our Explorer in that we had originally purchased here for multiple recalls and some other basic services in mid July. One of the recalls was the exterior A-pillar trim. Without having replacement parts on hand, they pulled the A-pillar trim knowing that 90% of the time (they admitted this) that the trim will break. They also "lost" my car several times over following few weeks as I tried to get updates on the various service items needing to be completed. By mid August I was finally able to get my car back. No loaner car, no apologies. And to top it off the A-pillar trim still wasn't available, so I had to drive off with a car that looks like ghetto trash. I was told "late October" for replacements to come in and they would call. It's now the end of October and I had to call them for an update. I'm now being told end of 2024 or early 2025 for the parts to come in and I'll have to drive around looking like trash until then.

This dealership was already bad under Zeck, and now it's a complete mess. Don't buy from this dealer, and if for some reason you do I recommend avoiding their service group entirely.

Edit for clarification:

1. After dropping my car off for repairs, any time I would try to call in to check status they’d have no record of my name, my car, or my contact info. They’d tell me I probably called the wrong dealership (I didn’t). Eventually they’d say they’d look and call back (they wouldn’t). I’d have to keep calling to finally get someone to figure out what my cars status was.

2. I understand the A pillar trim is on back order. My issue with the situation is that the techs pulled off and destroyed the originals without having replacements on hand and without having consulted me first. They should have said we don’t have replacements, let’s reschedule this when they are on hand. But they didn’t, so now I get to drive around a car that looks like trash for months on end.

————————— Follow up:

Clearly whoever responds to these reviews has the reading comprehension of a potato.

1. We were not informed in advance that most of the time the trim pieces break during recall service. We found out after they had already broken them, then later found out they were on back order.

2. They absolutely on multiple occasions lost track of my vehicle while they were in possession of it. I wasn’t concerned it was stolen, I just accepted the fact that they were incompetent and called back later.

3. This is the same dealer I bought the vehicle from. Different ownership, same dealer.

Final note: It’s now April and I have not been notified that the parts are available. They were supposed to be back in October, and then in January. Most likely the dealership lost the record that they owe...

My husband and I bought a 2018 Ford Edge in 2021, when it was still Zeck Ford. We were extremely pleased with the whole process at that time. Since we bought the Edge, we have had numerous issues with it that we've had to fix. Since we had the warranty it was annoying, but not a huge financial burden. The back hatch door on it stopped working consistently, so once again with this car we had to call in and get it looked at. We continued to take it here because it's where we bought the car, and what my husband couldn't fix on it we'd taken to the dealership. He called and they got us right in. The next business day, at about 9:00 am, they returned with their diagnosis saying it would be about $1,900 because they diagnosed it as the motor for the lift gate being worn out, a lift gate strut, and new latch was needed. We went to pick up the car because that was not an amount of money we were ready to spend. They charged nearly $250 to look at it, "forgot" to do the appraisal we were promised, and gave us a print out of a multipoint inspection which said everything was great - something we know to be false because of brake pads, a check engine light, and other things. Because of the short amount of time they had to look at the car and then give us a very expensive diagnosis and then say nothing was wrong in the inspection and charging us $250 for "diagnosing" but not spending much time at all we were skeptical and frankly angry. With some advice from others we took it to a local mechanic in DeSoto who promised to take a closer look, find the real issue, diagnose and fix it for much cheaper we took it to him. This mechanic spent an entire morning figuring out what was wrong, explained everything to us, and told us it was actually just the latch that was malfunctioning, not the entire motor and lift gate. Instead of $1,900 (pre taxes and fees), our problem was fixed for $400 including diagnostics, parts, labor, taxes, and fees. I almost never write reviews of businesses, especially bad ones but I feel its important for people to know such a discrepancy in cost and a completely different approach to solving the issue. I honestly expect better from a Ford dealership dealing with a Ford vehicle that I purchased from them. This experience definitely reinforced finding a second opinion and I'm glad I was able to spend my money at a small local shop. I honestly feel that Morris Smith was trying to get as much money out of us as they could without actually taking the time to care about the customers or the vehicle. I know next to nothing about cars, but I feel like if you're going to charge people so much money to even LOOK at the car (and not tell them what that will cost) you should probably take more than an hour or so to figure it out and do...