Used Cars: WARRANTY, rod bearings, warranty repairs

Question
We bought a 2004 ford escape in 9/30/08 from a ford dealership.  the rod bearings are bad and they won't cover it because we do not have the oil change receipts?  We bought the car with 76,000 and it has 95,000 miles now.  no where in the paper work does it say we can't change our own oil changes.  do they have to cover it?  Should I ask for the previous owners reciepts.  the car has the original factory warranty of 6 years 100,000 mile powertrain

Answer
Well this is a very gray area.  It is true that you have to show proof of oil changes, but most of the time, a dealer can pretty much do what they feel is right, which brings me to the question, did you take it to the same dealership that you bought it from?  If not,  you may need to.  I used to be a Ford Servic Advisor, and used to do a lot of warranty repairs, and I would think that if you bought this from a Ford Dealer that recently, that it should be covered, but unfortunately dealers get real stingy about doing repairs on vehicles that were purchased at other dealerships.  Because every dealer is held to strict requirements on warranty repairs, and are constantly monitered and questioned about why they did what they did.  And the general rule of thumb that we used to operate on is that if we were going to go out on a limb to do a warranty repair, with the good possibilities of Ford questioning us, we were only going to do so with the customers who were loyal to us.  And doing a warranty repair with 95k is an area that would definetly be questioned by Ford, and to cover their butt, they would have to have documentation proving that oil changes were done, or ultimately Ford could reject it, and the dealer would have to eat the cost of the repair. So....I dont know if this really helps you, but you stand your best chance of getting it repaired from the dealer that you purchased it from.
If you are in fact taking it to the dealer who you bought it from, without the receipts for oil and filter purchased, you just may not have much of a leg to stand on.  If I had to tell you what to do to get your best chance, I would say raise hell with the dealer you bought it from, and ask them why you were never told that you needed to keep proof of oil changes, because that is something that is supposed to be disclosed along with the warranty information.