When a car main dealer doesn't exude confidence...

• I wrote this following article for a motoring magazine back in July 1998. It is based on a true story and I really did experience what I described in the article. As it is a car-related article, as opposed to a football-based storyline, I thought that I would include it here anyway before the world goes totally mad and totally electric for no other reason than liquid fuel based cars are still in existence in 2025. This recollection was during a time when changing from petrol and diesel to electric vehicles had not even been considered, let alone intended to be forced on all drivers. Maybe similar incidents like this are still being experienced by drivers of liquid-propelled vehicles up and down the country, or even around the world...

Don't you just love it when, having experienced a niggling defect on your car, you take it into (because you have to take it into!) the main dealers to have the problem rectified — only for the garage to greet you with little or no confidence in the make of vehicle that they are selling?

This is exactly what happened to me a little over a week ago. Having arrived back in the UK (for those of you who don't personally know me, I work in France - but sorry, no World Cup tickets are in my grasp!), I found that my car was in need of some (unleaded) fuel, so off I trundled in my Ford Escort to the local petrol garage. Upon arrival, I proceeded to unlock the petrol cap, only to find to my absolute horror that the key turned but the filler cap didn't budge. So, with steam coming out of my ears, I drove off to the main Ford dealer for the area.

I was first of all greeted by one of the mechanics who, upon hearing of my plight, said, "Well, it is a Ford!" Charming, I thought. I was directed towards the reception desk, where I was told to book the car in. "What's wrong with it?" the receptionist asked. When I told her, she said, "Well, it is a Ford, what do you expect?"

Now, I've been driving for more years than I care to admit and I have often said things like "well, it is only a Ford/Austin/Morris/Montego/Marina/Lada/Simca/Moskvich" (wow! Do you remember those? You could cut your hand open on a Moskvich if you ever dared to wash it, or even stand too close to it when the wind was from the east!). Each time I have said something like that, I've been taken to task by the caring owners of the vehicles concerned. Now, here I was, getting some of my own medicine shoved down my throat by — of all people — the main dealers! Isn't life strange sometimes?

Anyway, the upshot of it all was, the barrel had seized in the cap, preventing me from unlocking it. They dealt with it there and then, which meant a replacement barrel and a new key (which don't come cheap, even for a Ford!) and, an admission that the locking petrol caps on modern Fords "are always doing that". That's comforting to know! But I really only need it to last me for another year and then I have plans to replace the whole car anyway.

For service, I was really impressed. Twenty minutes from me entering their premises to me driving away towards a petrol station. Can't be bad. Shame it was only a Ford, though.

• As I said at the top of this article, this event occurred back in 1998. I did indeed replace that Ford Escort the following year and I have not owned another Ford since. Furthermore, of all the cars I have owned during my 50-plus driving years, Ford is the one make that has given the most motoring grief. But, did I ever learn from all those times I owned one? Not until 1998 I apparently didn't...!

Trevor Mulligan