So this is my rant and a bit of complaining about the MT82 and the dealerships I went to, to get my warranty work done. The Wednesday before Memorial Day I misplaced my 2nd gear in my 2013 Mustang GT with 29K miles on it, it fell off the face of the earth with no forwarding address. In all reality the plastic ware pads on the shift fork on the 2 gear synchro destroyed themselves along with damaging the shift fork. I'm sure some of you are like this guys an idiot and probably shifts like one too. I have driven a lot of manual transmissions cars and I have never had this problem.

So Thursday I limped to Russ Milne Ford (in Macomb,MI) the dealership that I have been going to since I bought the car (I bought it used with 15K miles on it at a dealership on the other side of MI) and proceeded to tell the young guy at the counter my tale of woe. He then told me well with how busy we are we will not be able to get your car in to even look at it till June 8th, I remind you that this is June 28th and I do understand that the holiday weekend was coming up, but come on June 8th really just to look at it. I then mentioned I had "aftermarket" warranty and if the repairs where not covered by the 5yr/60K power-train warranty that I would like to use my aftermarket warranty with my $100 deductible. At this point an older service man jumped into our conversation and rudely told me that the only extended warranty they take is the Ford one. All of this I can understand if a dealership has been burned by "aftermarket" warranty I can see not taking it, but it was the way he said it. So I said thank you very much and was on my way.

I then call 2 other dealerships to see what their service schedule looked like the first one was about the same as Russ Milne and that wasn't going to cut it. The second one Mike Dorian Ford in Clinton Twp, MI (the one I went with) was very nice and the lady explained to my that they would be able to diagnose the problem by June 1st at the earliest (better then June 8th) and that they would try there best to get it done it a timely fashion and they took all "aftermarket" warranties, but I shouldn't have to worry about it because it was still most likely covered by the power-train warranty.

So I limped over to the dealership and the guy was great and and everything is Rainbows and sunshine. June 1st rolls around and as promised I got my diagnoses and they say that it should take 5 days and it should be done Monday or Tuesday. As a person who has worked on car and with cars most of his life that time frame is very reasonable. So Monday rolls around and at lunch I call the lady again very nice say she hasn't heard anything from the tech and she will call me back when they get back from lunch which she does. The tech said they had not gotten to it because a F-250 that they had been waiting on parts to come in for the last 3 weeks finally got their parts. I totally understand that not a problem and that I should come pick up the loner car that my "aftermarket" warranty had authorized for 5 days which I had asked about at the beginning of all of this and glad they covered it. While there I asked when they would be getting to my car and she said it should be done Thursday if all goes well. This again was acceptable to me understand that they are not making any money on warranty work and it will get done.

Well today is Friday June 10th 11pm and still no car. I called Thursday to find out what was going on and she said the Tech has found out it is a bigger job then he initially though and now it might be ready Friday. She said I will call you before noon to let you know what is going on. This morning she did call as promised and said well the tech found out that your 2nd gear synchro is also bad and we will have to order it so it's now Monday again. They are nice enough to let me have the loner car for the weekend free of charge, but come on really you didn't notice that there was something wrong with that synchro.

I at not mad at Mike Dorian Ford they have been great, I am more mad that the tech didn't catch the synchro problem and it's been almost 3 weeks with out my car. I'm also mad that Ford put crappy plastic pads on their shift forks. Would going to brass have been that much more?

End rant

 

Yes brass would cost an extra $20 per car no one would pay for that...!

 

The Car already almost cost $41K new what's another $20 for a better product.

 

I agree it was just a little snarky sarcasm directed at the bean counters. That is why Amber turn signal lenses were dropped on a lot of cars because it added an extra $20 or so per vehicle.

 

I got the snarky bit lol, I did not know that about the amber turn signal lenses. I know the auto makers formula, make a car last 10 years max so the consumer has to buy a new car. I just wish the auto industry, heck all companies, ran on making a great product and not profit margins. The car companies hate me I still have my 1998 Jeep Wrangler I bought when I was 16 and I just keep rebuilding it. I don't think I will ever buy a new car, only used, like the Mustang it was used and a huge deal compared to buying a new 2014 at the time. Everything was pretty much the same other then I couldn't get the 2014.5 track key. Let some other guy make that huge up front investment on having a new car. I got what I wanted and I'm sure as hell happy with it. Well minus it being in the shop since before June, but it could have happen with a new car too.

 

Update June 13th: I got a call from the Dealership and they said 2nd gear was really shot and the tech had to go buy a $100 tool to finish the job but I should get it back maybe tomorrow. In my mind I have the Service manual and one of the very first pages has all the specialty tools with a picture and Ford part number. How the heck could the dealership not have the tool. I know Techs have to buy all there own tools but don't they have a tool crib with the specialty tools or am I just crazy? At least they are not charging me for the rental yet...

 

I final got my car back on June 15th and all seems to be in working order I would like to thank Mike Dorian Ford for getting the job done and getting it done right even though it took as long as it did.