This is true for all mid-range car franchises locally anyway. The upper-end ones like Mercedes, BMW, Volvo and Audi tend to treat you very well. They do have the brand name to look after.

I'll admit that customer support is an important factor, but for Ford (and any other mid-range brand), I wouldn't rule out the entire brand just because of the dealership/servicing. After all, once you're past their 60k mileage free servicing period, you don't need to endure SDAC, etc's crappy attitude anymore. Just take the car you love to your trusted and dependable mechanic who will tell you the truth.

You're driving the car, you only run into the dealership people until the warranty/service period ends.

*shrugs* YMMV. I myself would just like to be prepared for the day that the 60k warranty period expires, certainly would be under 3 years in my case.

'One apple' being a metaphor.

Yes, I go read the Facebook wall every so often. I also get the impression that there are also a fair number of shallow people with a 'SC ppl didn't treat me like a king' attitude. I think the Cantonese term is 'yeh maan'.

The ratio of happy vs disgruntled Fiesta owners is obviously up for debate, just like Proton owners and Kia owners.

I'm not going to take the wild rantings of a few people as the gospel truth.

Frankly, even though the Rayong car is substandard to the Euro model, I still think the Fiesta offering here is a good car in itself. I just hope there will at least be a few Fiesta owners disgruntled with the car or the SC (kind of like the Teana and CRV owners in the other threads). I can exploit the fact and buy one of their 2-3 month old cars at a discount for 'happy fun use'