Shelby GT350 Mustang Owners File New Class Action Lawsuit Against Ford for Fraud

[mattlqx]

There is/was a debate here about whether Ford designed a street legal race car or a street car that can be brought to the track.

Any way, I just got done with the GT350 Track Attack this week, which was obviously awesome! I found it interesting that the lead instructor for the day and few other ones throughout the day said flat out that we are driving "race cars." That Ford designed the GT350 to be that way and added blinkers and headlights to make them street legal.

Like I said, I thought it was interesting in regards to this overall discussion.

The guys they bring in are pretty great and I have no qualms with them or Ford with putting on this program that quite frankly they don't *have* to do and none of us would think any less of our ownership. But that said, they're getting a paycheck from Ford and they know it's a good gig in fun cars, part of their job they well know is to talk up the cars. I think both they and we love the cars, but they really drive the point home when they can because that's what they're getting paid to do.

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[lemers]

The guys they bring in are pretty great and I have no qualms with them or Ford with putting on this program that quite frankly they don't *have* to do and none of us would think any less of our ownership. But that said, they're getting a paycheck from Ford and they know it's a good gig in fun cars, part of their job they well know is to talk up the cars. I think both they and we love the cars, but they really drive the point home when they can because that's what they're getting paid to do.

People paid by Ford represent Ford and are Ford. And that is what Ford has done this whole time. They've been overselling the capabilities of the car in ALL PACKAGES.

I don't care what packages are available, if Ford makes statements like, "Its the best track mustang ever" then it better be better than the Mustang GT from the same year.

And for those you say its unfair to compare the Mustang GT to the GT 350, I didn't; Ford did.

 

[Zitrosounds]

So you can manage the heat and drive on the track, say it isn't so! Dont go full bore and you can drive just fine. Squeeze the guts out of the 350 with a smaller and lighter XMSN housing with no coolers? yeah, its going to overheat.

[ame]

http://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81082

 

[superman07]

I went ahead and put in a sizable (by me) bid on some ford stock tonight.
I may lose some from this but I think the upside is better than the down, long term.
Good time to buy for any of those who were forced into putting money into an ira.;)

Be careful, not ford specific but car loans are rolling over. Credit quality is crap and default rates are going through the roof compared to historical averages. The entire car market looks for weakness moving forward.

If the tax repatriation goes through stocks of all types will soar but in general I would be careful of any of the big auto companies as long as credit is under duress or tightening.

Same pattern took down housing.

 

[superman07]

So you can manage the heat and drive on the track, say it isn't so! Dont go full bore and you can drive just fine. Squeeze the guts out of the 350 with a smaller and lighter XMSN housing with no coolers? yeah, its going to overheat.



http://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81082

it was 30-45 degrees, come on.

 

[Zitrosounds]

it was 30-45 degrees, come on.

My bad. Ford should have specified the car is only operable in cold temps ; )

 

[Crashspeeder]

So you can manage the heat and drive on the track, say it isn't so! Dont go full bore and you can drive just fine. Squeeze the guts out of the 350 with a smaller and lighter XMSN housing with no coolers? yeah, its going to overheat.

As amazing as the drive was I definitely felt let down that it overheated so quickly in those temperatures. I had seen posts reporting back that the car had overheated in 65 degree weather, but certainly never expected it to overheat in the mid 30s. I did, however, go in knowing that overheating would be a concern and tried to get the cooling installed before I went, but it just wasn't in the cards.

The car's abilities and driving characteristics left me speechless. The car's inability to manage transmission heat also left me speechless. I short shifted so I could spend as much time on track as possible. I exited corners a gear too high, foregoing power for reliability. That's not what I bought the car for, but it was an interesting obstacle to overcome....once. I'll make sure to get cooling installed now so that I can enjoy everything the car has to offer next time.

 

[GRTWHT]

You did have a choice. Don't buy.

And yes, you can go around the track just as fast - which still makes it the most track capable Mustang even if for only 20 minutes.

We do all have opinions but you're simply making stuff up.

When you are in the market to buy a car and there are 5-10 models at one dealership and perhaps the same number at a dealer 10 miles away, you have a choice. In November of 2015, there were 3 GT350s in the greater San Francisco area, stretching from Sacramento to San Jose. 3!!!

Yes, people wanted all the options on the car, but they were not made that way in 2015/16. Also, even with hefty markups, these cars did not last long at the dealers, so if a car was available, you make the best deal you can. This car was white with blue stripes and that was what I wanted.

Nothing made up, all true.

 

[Crashspeeder]

Ignore him. He's been trolling this nonsense for as long as we've known the issue exists. I refuse to further acknowledge any of his posts.

 

[Blk2015GT]

When you are in the market to buy a car and there are 5-10 models at one dealership and perhaps the same number at a dealer 10 miles away, you have a choice. In November of 2015, there were 3 GT350s in the greater San Francisco area, stretching from Sacramento to San Jose. 3!!!

Yes, people wanted all the options on the car, but they were not made that way in 2015/16. Also, even with hefty markups, these cars did not last long at the dealers, so if a car was available, you make the best deal you can. This car was white with blue stripes and that was what I wanted.

Nothing made up, all true.

Not just to you, but all of these similar arguments:

So there was no other car under $70k you could've possibly bought? The GT350 was the only car available? No, this was a poor instant gratification decision with the blinders on. You absolutely had choices; and there are dozens of cars under $70k; even sports cars.

Choice 1: Buy what was there and live with it as-is, knowing what the car came with or didn't
Choice 2: wait for the next model year and see
Choice 3: buy some other car/brand.
Choice 4: buy nothing and keep old car
Choice 5: present day sell/trade in the car and get a 17 or order an 18 now that it has all options you want on one trim line.

These I didn't/don't have a choice arguments/rebuttals are just baffling, but not surprising for the very sad times we live in now I suppose.

I can stomach the I didnt understand the packages offered argument or felt tricked by the marketing materials argument (first is buyer mistake, second I dont agree but I can at least see that side); but the I had no choice is barf worthy.

 

[lemers]

Not just to you, but all of these similar arguments:

So there was no other car under $70k you could've possibly bought? The GT350 was the only car available? No, this was a poor instant gratification decision with the blinders on. You absolutely had choices; and there are dozens of cars under $70k; even sports cars.

Choice 1: Buy what was there and live with it as-is, knowing what the car came with or didn't
Choice 2: wait for the next model year and see
Choice 3: buy some other car/brand.
Choice 4: buy nothing and keep old car
Choice 5: present day sell/trade in the car and get a 17 or order an 18 now that it has all options you want on one trim line.

These I didn't/don't have a choice arguments/rebuttals are just baffling, but not surprising for the very sad times we live in now I suppose.

I can stomach the I didnt understand the packages offered argument or felt tricked by the marketing materials argument (first is buyer mistake, second I dont agree but I can at least see that side); but the I had no choice is barf worthy.

So would you be if you had a builder build a house and when the roof leeked the builder says "you should had bought the upgraded roof"

 

[Blk2015GT]

So would you be if you had a builder build a house and when the roof leeked the builder says "you should had bought the upgraded roof"

You would have had an inspection when buying correct? Done your research, asked questions. And then CHOSEN not to buy, or to eat the repair cost if you really wanted that specific house bad enough.

Similarly here, everyone had equal and ample opportunity to do their research (and question hmmmm the one called track has coolers included hmmmmm light bulb comes on maybe I should research why it has coolers for a track or contact someone who does know if dealer cannot give the answers before dropping $); not have blinders on and say ooooo shiny me want now.

There IS a "repair" like the roof for this if you want it bad enough, but right now you have to give up your warranty (unless Ford does something when settling this case). It's not like people who want to race their tech cars have absolutely NO possible way to do so no matter what was done to it.

Dropping $70k blindly was frankly a risk if you didnt have all of the answers at the time; again not supporting or rejecting the merits of underlying claim here, but EVERYONE could have said no until they had all of the answers. I would NEVER drop money on a house let alone a car if I could not get definitive answers to my satisfaction; it's my money after all. I would walk.

But again, this has nothing to do with the main argument but rather solely the ridiculous notion that someone had no choice/was "forced" to buy anything. No, it was instant gratification that grabbed hold as there were many options including not buying a car at all or a different car.

 

[lemers]

how do you research a limp mode of a car that is out yet?

Stop trying to make resonable people look stupid.

I would underatand if limp mode was tge industry standard or even a mustang standard or discussed by ford prior to availiblity.

There wasnt anything to research before i hit the point of no return.

Fords replied with nothing but crappy customer service.

So ive learned not to trust Ford. But maybe my next sports car will be from a manufacturer that can actually achieve its goals.

 

[murdock2112]

I have to agree with lemers on this one. Many of us who bought the 15-16 cars didn't get to order one. If we wanted the car we had to settle for what was available on the market. I love my base car and have never had an issue with limp mode on it and probably never will. (Since it won't be tracked) but, I completely get why everyone is pissed. When I was looking for a gt350 I viewed the track package as something similar to the performance package on the gt. A few add ons that would be really cool for someone who does auto X or track days OFTEN. Someone like myself where the car would see one maybe two events a year or some backroad blasts wouldn't NEED these extra pieces.

 

[Heretoford]

agree with lemers and murdock 2112. ..However, I'll admit I did do what research I could in advance and still went with the tech pack offering, which they said was "most" of the Track pack. Nobody with automotive and track expertise that I consulted with believed the tech pack car wouldn't be capable of handling one or two track school weekends a year for a novice like myself.

My first and only weekend at VIR I couldn't complete one 20 min session without going into limp mode, and I am well aware of the importance of not using the engine/downshifting for braking etc.. I've also since gone into limp mode twice on the street. Its dangerous, never mind embarrassing.

And so, fine, I am willing pay for cooling mods, but where are the obvious solutions?? Some promising DIY posts in this forum suggest possible solutions, but there are no doubt several of us out here without the time or expertise to pull off any of these mods ourselves. Ford has now made the track mods standard, an indirect acknowledgement it was a mistake to offer versions of these street legal 'race cars' without reasonable temperature control.

All I want now is a reasonable solution from Ford, even if its a few more bucks, and that doesn't result in weird noises, devalue the car, or void the warranty.

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