8WOOD

I'm reposting this from my introduction to get it into the forums. If anyone has had similar problems please let me know, what happened and what you did about it.

I bought a 2012 GT mustang about 4 months ago brand new. I have been having a horrible experience with this car. There have been a lot of pro It is my very first Ford vehicle, and I will most likely never buy Ford again unless they can make me believe in them. I'm not new to owning new cars, I've purchased brand new cars from Chevy, Mitsubishi, and Toyota; specifically a 2006 Z06 corvette, 2008 Mitsubishi Evo X, 2011 LS3 Vette, 2007 Tacoma, and a 2011 Silverado. The reasons I'm coming to this Forums is to seek advise on what I should do in my situation. Anyways here's my story.

Short Story: heated seats, sync, steering are not working at intended, and catastrophic engine failure at 4900 miles.

Long Story

My horror story begins as a happy owner of a brand new 2012 White GT Premium with brembo brake package, 3:73 gears, and the classy 401a interior. I loved the look of the car and the reviews I'd been reading on the internet was praising the vehicle so I went shopping. After 3 months, I found a dealer, Jerry's Ford around D.C., that would meet my configuration and price. They had to bring the car in from another dealer in Pennsylvania. When I received the car it had ~220 miles on it. I asked them about those miles and they said they had to "drive" the car down, which I guess was ok. When they called the salesman said, the car just got here and was being inspected it to ensure the car was ready to be picked up. Something Ford has to do whenever receiving a vehicle transfer. So everything was good to go.

I got in the car and drove off and immediately noticed that the steering wheel was way off to the right. Secondly, my heated seats I payed like 400 extra bucks for just don't work, they barley get hot at all. Third, the microphone barely works in the car--people cannot understand what I'm saying on the phone at all, and the SYNC voice can't understand a thing i'm saying, so I've just stopped using it. I took the car back a couple weeks later (military training, had me tied down) to have them align the steering wheel, they said it needed a new camber bolt because the one on the vehicle was not long enough. I told them about the mic and heated seats as well but they reported they were "working as intended." At this point, I was a bit frustrated that a car would be sold in this condition and or even let off the assembly line this way. I've owned several new cars from other companies with the same features and they have all worked great, and why do I need a new bolt for a brand new car in order to have the steering wheel be straight? All the other mustangs work. So they ordered the bolt, but they didn't get it in time before I had to move to my next duty station here in Florida.

At this point--on my way to Florida--the mustang was irritating me, but the joy of the power, wonderful clutch, handling, and looks still outweighed the irritations. That is until 20 miles outside my destination when I began to here horrible cadence "tap tap tap" that was directly related with the rpm speed. I'd herd this tapping before... in my 67 camaro... something was wrong with the valves. I got out on the highway and popped the hood, and heard the tapping coming from a valve cover. Yep, something is wrong. I get back in the car look at the oil pressure, temperature and everything is fine. So I think, maybe a lifter is stuck, I guess I'll drive to the nearest hotel and get it to a Ford dealer in the morning. The car never made it. While I was in 6th gear cruising about 45 mph, the vehicle violently shuddered and quickly came to a stop. I immediately knew my engine just seized. The mileage was at ~4900, just before the first oil change. The words that came out of my mouth...

Well anyways, I eventually got an appointment with World Ford in Pensacola. When I came in, the service manager was sitting at his desk so I walked up to him and said "hey I'm the guy with the Mustang that blew up." He didn't look up or saying anything, So i just stood there and starred at him. Finally after about a minute he looked up and said "can I help you" with a very sarcastic tone. I said Yes, I have an appointment to have my vehicle looked at. He said "Ok well we'll get to it when we can" "I had an appointment at 9, does that count for anything?" He said, "unfortunately not." I replied "I'm in the military, I just got here, I don't know anyone, I don't have a place to live, and my brand new car just blew up. I need a car and Ford should cover me a rental" "Well, sorry Ford doesn't give people rentals anymore on warranty work." I nodded, he looked down, and I picked up my cell phone and called the Ford hot line in front of his desk. Half way through my chat with the Ford rep, he got up and left. By the time I was done on the phone. A man comes up to me and says, "your engine has to be replaced, we have a replacement vehicle for you in the mean time." Great! and off I went.

I just got my vehicle back two days ago, after about a month. The new engine seems to be running fine, but when at idle it begins to run extremely rich as if it has an old school choke carburetor and white smoke comes out the exhaust. The cab begins to smell like you're driving behind someone without Catalytic converters whenever this happens. Additionally, the bad alignment on the steering wheel is even worse now. I brought the car back to World ford and told them EVERYTHING that was wrong with the car. They check it out. They have to order "shims" to get the car aligned, and all the other issues are working as intended. Well i can tell you right now I don't want shims on the suspension of my brand new vehicle.

Ok, so that's my story. What I want is Ford to either come and take this hunk of junk away and give me all my money back to include selling price, taxes, and title/registration fees; or give me a mustang in the same configuration that works the way it was intended to work.

Is this asking too much? Because I'm sick of having to get this thing serviced, and the chances of it having more problems after an engine swap is much higher--as I'm already experiencing--who knows at this rate maybe my 5,000 mile oil change will always be an engine change. Also, the resale on this vehicle is worse because it doesn't have the original engine.

As far as I 'm concerned this vehicle is a Lemon. I will never buy another Ford again unless Ford does the right thing, and gets me out of this car without anymore hassle.

I don't know what do you all think?

JimmyM

That really sucks, but I think this is one of those times where people think a Ford dealership = FoMoCo.

Sounds like a douchey dealership... any other local?

ctw930

Wow I would be so pissed off right now if I were you.

I would first call Ford themselves and tell them your story and then immediately try and look for a different dealership around because the one your describing sounds terrible.

Not to rub it in but I personally have never had any problems with my Mustang and my dealership always treats me nice so I wouldn't throw so much blame at Ford.

ford4v429

unless someone hit a curb or something during those 220 initial miles, there should not have been any alignment issues, and as far as 'shims', I dunno, but again unless its hit some big chuckholes or something it dont sound right at all.

I would definitely take it elsewhere, there are some bad/some good...we had a 98 windstar that was in a couple times for warranty work- fuel pump went out, they called my wife, said come get it, was just a blown fuse... I called back said humor me and let it run a half hour...15 minutes later they call back and said it blew 2 more fuses, might need a fuel pump...MIGHT??? 6 months later I go to fill the washer fluid for her(all service was always at old dealer- first time I'd even looked under the hood) the lid for the fuse box was missing...called dealer 'I'm certain they didnt remove that'... had to remind them of the fuses, 'I'm certain they didnt forget to put it back'... whatever
a couple months later recall for squeaky tie rods...had near 40k on it, told them while they were at it to check brakes, figured might be near time for fronts...pick up the van, 200 bucks for front pads/clean-adjust rears- first/only/last time anyone ever touched my brakes...pull out of the lot, steering wheel is 90 degrees off.turn around, go back, tell the service manager they forgot or missed the alignment- he says, no the caster camber split is off, will need upper spotwelds drilled out/rewelded??? I tell him jokingly 'not unless you wrecked it- it was fine before', he straight faced said well it is what it is...pissed off I go down the road to NTB, figure I'll pay 60 bucks or whatever before having the chassis welded on/rusting out...the ntb guy checks it out- in spec, just towards the edge of normal, not messing with, and says it would cause pull in other direction if anything- and asks what they did...tie rods/brakes- he said maybe they switched sides the tires were on, guess taurus/windstar had kinda crap geometry, it can cause 'ply steer' from the tires always flexing the same way, and putting them on the opposite side reverses rotation, can cause heavy pull sometimes...he swapped the front tires, perfect. happy I go to pay, no charge- they check alignments for free, rotate tires for free. Ive been back a lot.
a week later first highway trip, lose the brakes...rear wheel was adjusted so tight it boiled the fluid from the cyl, popped the grease cap off the hub...did you know a plastic hubcap could get hot enough to boil water...had my 3 kids and 2 nephews with us, 3 car seats on the way to water park on 4th of july weekend...had enough tools to back off the brakes, drove to another dealer... backlogged, offered a fiesta loaner- umm 7 of us standing here/3 in car seats.
limp to autozone, buy new hub/drum/wheel cyl/linings, limp home on backroads...most expensive brakejob ever coulda got us killed- as it was just cost another 150 bucks and a couple hours to fix their 'service'.
our old dealer is out of business now...wonder why?
sorry to hear of all the trouble, good luck in getting it fixed- in cases like this it sure seems the 'nice' thing to do would be just exchange the car, but Ive never heard of it happening without lemonlaw/lawyers involved. in the meantime, consider a alignment shop outside of ford...call you might get one to check it for free and tell you whats wrong with no warranty bias- then you decide if you'd rather have them or dealer do it- and if dealers telling you wrong, get ahold of Ford and give them the info- they can handle the stuff with the dealer and make sure no shenanigans come up.
on the engine, stuff happens... shouldnt, but it can and it does suck. if youre not content with work/smoke/dealer concern, contact ford and see if they can rattle some cages to get it fixed right. the guys at Ford DO care, most dealers do too- but not all. good luck

UnrealFord

Sounds like another 5.0 that used oil..

Shelby08

Contact Ford directly weird things like this happen. My cousins friend bought a new expedition around 2006 and she put very few miles on it and it blew. Turns out the entire engine was dry from oil. Completely dry. She contacted ford and they replaced it with a nicer vehicle.

8WOOD

You are correct. It used the oil. In about 600 miles it managed to burn most of it off. It was low on the dipstick but still in the operating range, I figured that's how it comes from the factory. Guess not.

Ford 4v429, yeah I'm thinking something must of happened in those initial miles to screw with the steering. At this point, on Monday, I'm going to call the Ford rep and say I've had enough of this car, how can I get out of it?

I want to like Ford. The Reps have been great on the hotline, and the actual techs at World ford have been good too, it was just that one service manager. I also grew up on a farm and all our farm trucks were Ford super duties and L8000 3 axles trucks, and they were great.

PTRocks

You should contact Deysha through the forums here. She has been excellent at making things happen from the Customer Service side. Since this is an online forum, it can take her a day or two to get back, (I don't think she's here on the weekends) but she's definitely in our corner.

I hope that this gets sorted out quickly for you. I'm sorry that you had a d**k for a service manager at that dealership. Let us know which one it was so can steer clear of them.

Planeswalker

Wow, that sucks! PM Deysha your VIN, mileage, and dealership info. She has helped a lot of us around here. She probably saved the lives of some of people that I bought my '11 from, messing with a Veteran with severe PTSD is not a good idea lol.

Big Poppa

I'm really sorry to hear about your car. I'm a big Ford fan and a stockholder in the company but not enough to your car fixed unfortunately. My point is I believe in Ford and the Mustang and would hate to lose you as a customer. Ford generally puts out a good product and most people don't have serious issues with their cars. The issues are usually with the dealers and other service people. Every now and then a bad one can slip through the cracks despite quality control measures. All I'm saying is don't give up on Ford and the Mustang and let the system work to get your car repaired or replaced. If that doesn't work sue the pants of of them.

montreal ponies

AzPete

That same dealer lost my business on a new '11 based on lack of salesmen caring to show cars.

FordService

Thank you, PTRocks and Planeswalker!! 8WOOD, sorry to hear about this. Please PM me with your VIN, dealer, and contact info so I can help.

Deysha

8WOOD

I've volunteered to help out in a car show down here, when my car was in the shop getting the new engine. There was a mustang club who brought all their GT500's. I asked them about World Ford. They all said "STAY CLEAR" of this dealer. I was like shoot! Anyways, It's the only Ford dealer in this area, so where am I suppose to go?

AzPete

Did you by chance ask the GT500 bunch where they go? Maybe ask the local Mustang club, http://www.gulfcoastmustangclub.org/

There are dealers in Ft Walton, Crestview, Panama City.......sometimes, to find good service, ya gotta get out of town.

8WOOD

They mentioned someplace in Alabama, but I forget. My probelm is that I can't afford to drive 100-150 miles when I need something fixed. I'm currently working with the South Eastern customer service rep. I've put 500 miles on the car since the new engine and I've already put in almost 1 full quart to bring back into the operating range. World Ford never gave me a call back about the new parts to get the car inline. I told the Ford rep that the car has to go. I want my money back in full or a new GT (same configuration.) They say they will try to fix the car. I told them they already did, and World Ford won't call me back. Finally, the rep said to take it to the dealer and again to see i they can attempt one more time to fix the problems. I said ok, and that if they cannot resolve it, I'm so invested in this thing now, that I will get my lawyer (luckily a good friend) and make the lemon buyback happen. So we'll see where this goes.

My plans for this vehicle were to supercharge it with a procharger (no cutting/ grinding involved) and tune to get about 540+ whp with everything else stock. But now with the engine blowing up once, it consuming tons of oil, getting about 11 mpg average, I too afraid to go that route. GOSH I AM HATING FORD! .


On a minor note, the I finally am taking the car to WOT and I can tell you that this engine has WAY WAY MORE power especially around 5k and above. I'm guessing my old engine was not like this because it came off the line with something wrong.

Avengnd

I did not realize you were still having continued issues with the car. This really sucks. I hope they work it out for you Ford not the dealer, they sound like they suck really bad.

exchallenger

This horrendous interaction with a dealer proves once again that the weak link in the whole system is always the dealer, not the customer or the manufacturer. Although to be fair, it may not be the dealer, per se, it could just be that they have a passive-aggressive a-hole working as a service manager. That happens.
The solution to problems like this is to put heat on the manufacturer. They want to keep customers happy. They're the ones who actually GIVE things to the customers. Rebates, warrantees, financing, etc.... The dealers give you nothing. The last thing Ford needs is somebody ranting about getting screwed on forums like this. I have to believe Ford will make good on this car even if they need a little prodding. Always remember: the dealer is not your friend, the manufacturer is.