Caskinette Ford — Local services in Town of Champion

Okay so here is a long post about Caskinette Ford in Carthage. Please read if you are considering purchasing/leasing/servicing/trading. DON'T!!!! I am beyond frustrated with Caskinette Ford and want to warn anyone considering buying from them. When I purchased my truck, I specifically asked if it had been in any accidents. I was assured it had not, and that it was a “great purchase” with “no issues.” Turns out, the truck had been involved in three accidents, all with the previous owner—two in the front and one in the back. To make matters worse, one of the front accidents could have resulted in a palm-sized hole in the frame on the driver’s side, which could have been covered up when I had the undercoating done. I was just made aware of this issue 2 weeks ago from my mechanic when I had to get my starter replaced. The dealership never disclosed any of this to me. The frame damage was clearly an issue, and had I known about these accidents, I would have never purchased the truck. They sold me a vehicle with hidden damage and no transparency. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the truck was also equipped with a tiny Ford battery—one meant for a car, not a 2500 truck. When I complained about it, instead of replacing it, they made me pay the difference for a proper, larger battery. It's unbelievable how they tried to get away with this. Between the hidden accident history, the frame damage, and the attempts to rip me off, it’s clear that Caskinette Ford has zero integrity. They don’t care about their customers or the vehicles they sell. I would never recommend this dealership to anyone. If you want to avoid unnecessary headaches and costly mistakes, stay far away from Caskinette Ford. I cannot stress enough how terrible my experiences with Caskinette Ford have been. Not only did they fail to disclose that the vehicle I bought had been in three accidents, but they also tried to rip us off with a lease vehicle we have through them. My wife’s lease vehicle, with only 22k miles, had bad back brake pads and rotors, and Caskinette Ford wanted to charge us $800 to replace them. After I gave the service manager a piece of my mind, he suddenly changed his tune and said the brakes were actually fine and didn’t need to be replaced. But I knew better. The front brakes had never been replaced rotors are smooth, and it was obvious there was a serious issue with the back brakes, these rotors had deep grooves in them, making noise sometimes and feeling resistance when letting off the gas. I was informed by one of the service assistants that this was normal with Ford vehicles. Bullshit, design flaw or something else is wrong with it. To make matters worse, when I looked up the prices for the parts they quoted me, I found they were overcharging by $50 on the brake pads and $60 on the rotors, even though I was checking for OEM parts directly from Ford's parts factory. I flat-out refused to let them do the repairs and took the car to another mechanic. My mechanic confirmed the brakes were indeed in terrible shape and replaced them for just $324—less than half of what Caskinette Ford was trying to charge. This dealership clearly doesn’t care about customer service or honesty—they were only interested in overcharging and offering nothing in return when we didn’t want their overpriced repairs. I will never trust Caskinette Ford again. If you're looking for a dealership you can rely on, look elsewhere.

I would leave ZERO stars if I could, but in order to post a review you have to select at least 1. 0...

I came here to get a couple things fixed on both my F150 and my wife's Ford Edge.

The Edge experience. I came in because I've been hearing a creaking/popping noise from the front left and also the guidelines kept disappearing on the backup camera. I've been 90% sure it was the strut top bearings with the noise. I talked to Liz, who was very friendly and helpful by the way. I explained to her the noise and my thoughts about it. I don't think the technician heeded my concerned however. Apparently he was unable to reproduce the noises on his test drive.... probably because he did so by zipping around the parking lot when I specifically mentioned it only occurred at slow tight turns. Like pulling out of a parking spot or driveway. Then I was told my half shaft needed to be replace because a boot was tore... ended up costing me $700 and guess what.... my front end still creaks and it's getting worse. Guidelines are still functioning on my backup camera as of now though.

My F150 experience. I called someone to schedule the body shop to take a look at my bumper that I accidentally backed into a concrete pole with. Very minor damage... just pushed it in a little. F150 bumpers are pretty stout by the way. When I showed up down there the gentleman came out, looked at it, told me he could shim it or whatever and to schedule a time to come out. My impression was he wasn't interested in fixing it the correct way. Didn't even seem knowledgeable about fixing it the correct way. No quotes or anything. On my scheduled day to come in and have him "fix" it, I ended up with a dead battery and no way to get a jump so I called and left a message and said to please call me back and we would reschedule. I never got a call back. I'll fix it myself because I have developed a bad impression so far with the service department. I was willing to buy a new bumper half with hardware and just replace it...

I will go down there again at some point to get that noise in the Edge fixed and a few things done on my F150 that I don't have the equipment to do myself, so maybe they can turn this around. They have been highly recommended to me on numerous occasions by locals.

Update: the owner replied to my comment about a follow-up. This must have been an internal follow-up, because nobody has ever called me to follow-up anything. Let's hope they just let it slip their mind and they didn't reply to make it appear...

Only giving 1 star because I can’t give any less. Went to repair Cam phaser issue and get a quote on spark plug replacement, new battery and oil change. Without the cam phaser they quoted me 900+ dollars, 400 dollars higher than Goodyear on Fort Drum. I specifically told them not to do any work other than the cam phasers because of their high quote.

They fixed my Cam Phaser issue, although when they called me to tell me my truck was down, they informed me that “they saw more issues once they started working and figured they would go ahead and fix it because they assumed that’s what I would want anyways.” It is against the law to perform work on a vehicle not under warranty without getting owners permission first.

When I get the itemized receipt from the cam phaser replacement, I see they charged me for the oil change anyways along with valve cover replacements. I have no doubt they would’ve charged me for multiple oil changes had I not told them to not perform anything other than the cam phasers anyways. Seeing as they charged me for valve covers and didn’t notify me or give me a courtesy call ahead of time to see if I wanted them to do it anyways.

While getting quoted for the repairs initially, a salesman named Jess quoted me for a trade in and valued my truck 9,000 dollars under trade in value.

I would not recommend any soldier or government employee on fort drum use or even step foot inside this dealership.

I will be filing a formal complaint with the DMV on this service department for initiating work on my vehicle without prior approval first.

Save yourself time, money, and plenty of headaches and go somewhere else.

Update: I am currently getting my oil changed at another location and I want everybody to see just how bad Caskinette service really is. This is how they put my truck back together after the cam phaser issue. Take a look at where the oil cap is in the engine bay. Any mechanic or joe on the side of the street would look at this and know it is incorrect. Just more validation that this is the worst service department in...