May 2023 by Jonathan M.
You want reviews and feedback on Kent Parsons Ford Service Dept, here's a good one from personal experience.Backstory - '05 Mustang, first year of the retro stangs, got it when it first came out at Shenandoah Ford in Front Royal Virginia, never had any issues, kept up with the maintenance making sure everything is in working order over the years, just over 94K miles on it. It's expected that parts are going to fail at this point.... but what happened here is an example of inept, incompetence that work the Kent Parsons Ford Service Dept in Martinsburg WV.And just to preface, I never deal with dealerships if not under warranty - makes no sense. For years I had been receiving the Takata air bag recall notice from Ford - late '22, I had a serpentine belt squealing that needed replacing - I figure alright, I'll let KP Ford take care of both, get this recall out of the way as well. I take the mustang to KP Ford in January - they replace the belt - it's still squealing. They take the belt off and tell me the crank pulley needs fixed, so they replace the harmonic balancer and put the new belt back on. I drive it local for the next month, seems to drive fine, and then on President's Day I make an outside the area trip down the road to Front Royal VA. While coming back, the mustang's engine starts sputtering on the Interstate and goes into limp mode. I'm able to just barely make it back to the house on the back roads - and have the vehicle towed to KP Ford. I figure that this might possibly be tied in to the work they did the prior month since it's barely been driven.KP Ford runs a diagnostic on the check engine and says the Throttle Body needs replaced - alright, so replace it. They replace it without even test driving it. How do I know - the mileage on the paperwork is the same going in as it is going out. I get on I-81, and same result, the engine starts to sputter and lose power - so I have it towed back. Their response - "our mistake, we didn't reprogram the PCM after putting on the new throttle body". I get it back, drive it around, same result except this time within city limits going 25mph - so I have it towed back. KP keeps it for a few weeks checking it out - and now they're telling me the transmission needs replaced, and gives me a $5K-$6K estimate. At this point, I am beyond angry and livid. I tell them don't touch the transmission, put it back on the lot, I'm taking it elsewhere, you guys are done touching this - they clear the code - so I have it towed to my local shop mechanic up the road near Maryland. It's not showing any codes to run a diagnostic, he tests drives it, drives fine for him. He checks it out, can't figure what is going on, diagnostics aren't coming up with anything because the codes have been cleared by KP Ford, so he takes it up the road to a local independent sister shop up in Hagerstown MD that has more advanced diagnostics and then it happens to him on the way there, and needs towed in.The shop in Hagerstown figured out the root issue - the crankshaft sensor needed replacing - which all goes back to the initial problem of the crank pulley that KP Ford should've done in the first place back in January. So big thanks to the inept, incompetent tech folks working at KP Ford Service Dept in Martinsburg WV for screwing up my mustang for damn near 5 months - put on a $800+ throttle body that wasn't needed and then wanted to do a $5K-$6K transmission overhaul that wouldn't have been needed, not to mention could've been seriously hurt on the interstate for their incompetence. Picked up the mustang in Hagerstown - and running fine. Already contacted Ford's Corporate Office about the situation and nonsense of KP Ford's Service Department. Don't even bother with Kent Parsons Ford's Service Dept unless it's under Ford's warranty.
