corvettedreamin

Specific <> accurate. If I said MY dealer told me that the head gaskets were .004 inches too thin that would be specific but not necessarily accurate.

That said, with Evo corroborating it, I'm inclined to believe it more.

As for Paul being a dealer, how many "dealers" have been telling us a) we don't know any more than you and b) the problem is a loose flux capacitor, low blinker fluid, and a missing muffler gasket?

My issue is STILL that it shouldn't take 34+ days to address QC issues. Period. They can build the car in less than 2.

trick25

no offense there but if they had to redesign a part. do quality checks on revision. get revision to manufacturer of parts. they may have to retool machines for manufacturing. do their own quality checks on revised parts. ship those out. instill revisions. then do QC again. it will take quite a bit of time and i bet more than two days.

not saying its not frustrating man. i know it is. just think it though.

Karpro

The good news is cars are still trickling out. We received our GT500 and a V6 convertible this morning.

As for my "source" it is a Ford employee who I trust to tell me the truth. I sell alot of cars, currently have 32 orders in the pipeline (not all Mustangs), and have a good relationship with a few people higher up the food chain than me. I asked for an explanation to give my customers that are patiently (for the most part) waiting for their cars and that is what is was told. This person has never misinformed me before so I have to believe them.

trick25

great news paul. thanks for the info

corvettedreamin

None taken but that's just not plausible. Too many cars rolling off the line and being delivered for all that "redesign and retooling" theory to even make any remote sense.

But yeah, if there are 5000 cars with "issues" and 2 people to fix them... it's gonna be a while. If mine isn't shipped by Friday, I'm canceling and placing a new order (probably with one of the guys here and planning a nice little road trip). I don't care if it takes 2 days or 20 days but I deserve SOME date and some explanation. I AM the customer. It is MY money.

super6stang

My Dealer has Mustangs built before and after mine, in various transmissions and colors that have made it through inspection, transit and whatever else comes before they reach the lot but my "pre-order" is still sitting in Detroit.

I'm glad Ford is not releasing junk but its mind boogling that my Dealer isn't supplied with real info and stock orders are being delivered daily with no word of what's happening.

MKPony

It does seem a little ridiculous. Mine was built May 14th and if I am missing 6 weeks of prime convertible weather because they put the wrong coolant sticker on it, that is rather ludicrous. Same with the stripes, send them to the dealer. If the customer complains, the dealer can remove them and Ford can pay for the labor.

Now maybe the wong coolant sticker meant that the guy at the other end of the line put the wrong coolant in and they have to drain/flush/refill.

Boomer

I'd rather it be fixed before being sent out to the dealer, but that's just me.

I guess it really sucks that Ford wants people to have a car without issue...god forbid.

todd03blown

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

super6stang

I want Ford to send it to us without problems but maybe...just maybe...if they spent more energy on fixing whatever is wrong instead of building more (mostly stock orders) cars, preordering might mean something.

Boomer

If not all cars have issues, why would they stop producing them?

Lancel

Which would delay people who ordered and haven't gotten their cars built yet, and also cost Ford millions of dollars in lost production for what is effectively no benefit, there will be customers stuck waiting longer. Someone is going to have to wait that extra time on their cars, but I understand it's upsetting to be that someone. I am too now. The only reasonable possibility is to hire and train some temporary workers if it becomes an issue, or just get their engineers and QC to fix it. The cars in QC are likely mostly stock too, barring the extreme circumstance of some jerk intentionally sabotaging only retail orders.

The only real thing they could do is introduce a system where retail orders are treated differently from stock orders and automatically take precedence in shipping/QC issues, which is probably not easy as you'd have to shuffle those cars around such that retail orders go in one place and stock goes somewhere else. But that won't fix problems of some dealers faking what the order is, either because they have the allocation, or (under this) they realize they can fake a retail order and get priority on shipping/QC holds.

GRABOID

Different system means different price. In my line of business if you want to move up the order list you pay more...millions is not out of the question. Did anyone here that pre-ordered pay a early delivery fee, a fee for early problem fixes....etc etc etc. No, at least not that I know of. It would be silly to stop production of new vehicles to fix ones with problems. Now with that said, yes they should let you know more information on what the problem is with your vehicles....at the same time though since you are just another Jo Blow that bought a car you aint nothing special (and yes that includes me and my order).

Lancel

I wouldn't go quite that far, but we are all just customers, and one customer waiting an extra two weeks or another customer having to wait an extra two weeks makes no real difference. Well, at least not until the car has been sitting too long for no good reason, then they would be looking at why said car hasn't been shipping, but as it is, they do seem to have a good reason for why they're not shipping, sadly.

And yeah, changing the system = Money Spent, and as it is 95% of the world still buy their cars off the dealer lots rather than ordering.

Skotty

I'm fine if it takes them time to get things right. However, like some others here, I believe they should have a status/tracking system available for people with retail orders. They could make it a service you pay for at time of order, or perhaps a system where you pay per inquiry. Ford should have a system in place internally for tracking anyway (the either do, or they should). Each time they do something to a car, they should scan it and have the information logged by the tracking system. Tracking actual shipment would have to work a bit differently, since Ford isn't handling shipping, but they could definitely work something out with the shipping companies (many would simply provide customers access to their own tracking systems already in place).

I understand that Ford may want to conceal some information (even if I prefer they wouldn't), but for service or whatnot they could still provide some kind of generic status update like "On hold for QC check" and "QC check".

It's not about having to wait. It's about not having even a hint of a clue as to how long the wait will be. If they would at least provide some status, customers could at least make their own guesses on ETAs. I don't know about others, but there are factors in my life that are indeed affected by when my car will show up. And I'm not just talking about taking a planned road trip. I'm talking things like changing my plans as to when to move from one state to another, or changing where my car will be initially sent to. And a car is not something you can easily re-ship if it arrives in the wrong place at the wrong time. My life is not much different than a business. If my suppliers can't even give me a hint as to when their shipments will show up, it can greatly affect my bottom line.

I'm not here to complain. I'll deal with it as best I can. I'm just making the case as to why I think Ford should provide better status and tracking of retail orders.

MKPony

Yes, I wasn't saying the problems shouldn't be fixed. I want a quality car as well, but there are the 2 issues, status and delay. I don't know (and probably don't want to know) how much capacity they have to fix issues, but as I said if it is simply a sticker that needs to be replaced, a 6 week delay seems pretty excessive. I was just commenting on the "verified rumors" earlier in the thread.

Same with the stripes. I ordered a premium with the 401A, so there were no factory stripe options. Some of the stripes on some models look OK, and if they happened to put them on mine I might say fine or I might say take them off depending which ones. My point was, why delay the vehicle for something that may or may not be a "problem" despite the fact that it is not correct.

Falchion

I agree. In this day and age it wouldn't be unreasonable for Ford to have an online tracking system for Customers to track where their car is.

Heck, I've heard that Walmart has a system that tracks items in their warehouse through Radio tracking chips. Surely Ford could provide us with a system to track our cars?

Ebony5.0

True. My girl-friend has a Mini Cooper. When you order one of those, they actually take pictures of it as its being manufactured and send them to you along with, of course, status updates.

I agree with others here that the issue of time is secondary to the issue of honest communication. BMW paid a huge punitive damages settlement in the 80s because they didn't reveal that they had re-painted a car that they were selling as a brand new car. If the problem they're fixing is something that might lead me to reconsider whether I want a car that has had that many tweaks to it, they should probably let me know. Otherwise, they have back-end litigation and negative PR risks that they're trying to avoid on the front end.

super6stang

They don't have to stop completely but for all I know my car could have been fixed and is simply waiting for the thousands of cars built after it to move.

super6stang

Well, lesson learned 56 days after car was built, buy off lot or wait for JOB2, whatever you don't preorder you'll just be a quote for Ford's PR Team.