Granted, they haven't been made in almost 20 years, but...

[NautiqueJeff]

I just had the strangest thing happen.

Some of you know that I drive a Ford Excursion. It is one of the last ones off the line, built in 2005, with a 6.0 Diesel. I bought it new.

Oh, and it has 433,500 miles on it, many of those miles towing boats. I just pulled a G23 from Atlanta to Charlotte a couple of days ago.

It needs the needle bearings in the front end replaced.

I called the local Ford dealer to ask what they would charge to do the work. Here's how the conversation went:



Me: Hello, I am calling to get a price on some service work.

Them: OK. What do you need done?

Me: I have a 2005 Excursion, and I need to have the needle bearings replaced.

Them: What is an Excursion?

Me: Um, did I hear you right? Did you just ask me what an Excursion is?

Them: Yes.

Me: This is a Ford dealership service department, correct?

Them: Yes.

Me: And you don't know what a Ford Excursion is?

Them: No. I normally have to Google these things.

Me: Thank you. I'll find somewhere else to have my truck worked on.



I know this is an older vehicle, but really?????????? I wouldn't have been AS surprised if the service writer wasn't familiar with needle bearings, but to not even know what a Ford Excursion is? And this is a Ford dealer??

[SilentSeven]

Looks like you got a GenZ on the service line.

That said...I don't see many Excursions around still. Why is that? Feels like Ford sold lots (did they?) so maybe they all just led hard lives and died early?

[ScooterMcgavin]

That’s pretty bad…. I would have found someone else too.

[bturner]

In somewhat defense of the writeup guy (person???).....

In several states you're truck is 1 year away from classic car status (some states declare this status at 20 years) and in MI just 6 years away from being classified as an antique vehicle (antique vehicle status is 25 years in MI). Not to try and make you feel old (this happens to me all the time these days) but if your car were a person, it would be legal to drink in 2 years and probably would have been doing so anyway if it attended college. To this point there's a good chance your car is older than the person you talked to on the phone.

Then there's the uniqueness of the vehicle itself. I've personally only known one person that has actually owned one and probably wouldn't be able to pick one out of a parking lot from 50 yards. Heck, I have a 70 Mach1 which was fairly iconic and most young adults have no clue what it is.

I guess my last thought would be..... If I owned that truck I would probably be looking for more of a specialty shop to work on it to start with. A lot of the techs that would actually know how to work on it have or are in the process of leaving the dealerships or at least they are around here. That leaves you with the younger techs that have been working professionally in a dealership for under 10 years. IDK if that's the match I would want if it were my truck.

I do know of a great shop in Michigan, Oval Auto (https://www.facebook.com/ovalrepair/) that I would trust to work on your truck but I doubt that is going to work for you. These guys are exceptional if anyone on the site is looking for a shop in Michigan. The only issue I've had with them is getting scheduled for repair. Apparently good shops are really busy these days.

Best of luck finding that shop for your soon to be classic vehicle.....

[Rednucleus]

Your ride is just getting warmed up! My dd is a '85 Nissan 200sx I also have a 93 Suburban and a 68 El Camino. Parts sourcing is a challange!