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Comment by Rooster61 | Hacker News Reader

Folks I know that have owned Ford vehicles in the past few years have done nothing but complain about issues with electrical subsystem and accessory breakdown. I'd be very wary of buying a Ford period, much less one that relies entirely on electricity to move.

Not FUD, as I have no dog in the fight and personally don't care if anyone else buys one, but its a make of automobile I avoid.

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I know you are heavily downvoted, and my experience is anecdotal, but I proudly bought a Ford Fusion sedan in 2010 (my first "new" car) and I have had nothing but trouble with its electrical systems. It burns out lights every year or other year. It even managed to melt the receptacle for one of the front headlights at one point in time. It eats through car batteries (I'm on battery number 5 in 11 years of ownership) and has had a ton more maintenance costs compared to my 2008 Toyota Sienna that I bought used and has literally had no unplanned maintenance issues.

I'm really happy to see Ford step up in the EV field. The Mach-E looks fantastic, as does the F-150. I have no ill-will towards them and I want them to succeed. But there just isn't anyway I can get over the sour taste in my mouth from owning my Ford Fusion and it is hard to take a leap of faith with them when they are new at the EV game.

Why even say this? Every single car company has a bunch of users who hate them.

This has nothing to do with your random friends hating Ford lol

Mate, this is textbook FUD. :) It’s anecdotal and there is no connection between the reliability of a vehicle’s electric motor system and the electrical systems that may have troubled your acquaintances.

Take it as what you perceive, that's fine. That said, saying that there is no connection is speculation. The design, implementation, and supply chain of both aspects of the vehicle deal with electronic components. I don't know if they will make the same mistakes with the drivetrain electronics that they do with other aspects of the vehicle's construction.

American vehicles had a history of poor quality control and reliability but it's improved in the last 20 years. F150 is the #1 selling truck in USA in Canada.

Our 2011 F150 has been very reliable, mechanically, but the audio wiring is broken in interesting ways. My buddy's older F150 has exactly the same issue. Otherwise it's been trouble free.

For any vehicle I generally ask myself two questions.

#1 - How long has this engine design been used?

#2 - How long has this transmission design been used?

Accessory / electrical problems are annoying, but fixable. Powertrain problems are... the vehicle itself.

A friend had to have “the wiring harness” on his 2019 f350 replaced, it was 10k took 5 weeks and would have been at his cost if he didn’t have the extended warranty

10k to replace a wiring harness on a 350 seems... unreasonable. Even for dealership prices.

That's rip-out-every-wire-in-the-truck labor totals.

What were the symptoms?

Yeah it was more than ‘a’ wiring harness. I think it was going in to limp mode or something

I've noticed that in that era of Ford vehicles, including my own. I have a 2006 Mustang that mechanically has been a tank, but electrically has had multiple issues (it's on its 4th alternator). The audio deck has been similarly flakey. They may very well be better nowadays.

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