Bony, thanks for reopening my thread, as I mentioned before I have experienced problems with my car that may occur with other GT's later on (wasn't I the first one with the halfshaft bolt problem?) since I used my car as a daily driver for the first year or so of owner ship and possibly put more miles on my car than most here in a short period of time. Regardless, I got so fed up with the car that I basically put it in the garage and forgot about it for about 8 months, I started driving one of my lamborghini's more often and was rather upset with the FGT. Several of you have asked why I haven't lemon lawed my car, I can't explain why, I feel like I would be betraying the car by doing so, even after all the grief and aggravation the car has given me, I'm still in love with it and couldn't stand to part with it.
Regardless, I got tired of driving the lamborghini and hopped back in the FGT, after 8 months I fell in love all over again, the car still had all the pre-existing problems from before, but after 2 years of getting jerked around by dealers, I figured I'd just enjoy the car the way it is. I decide to take a ride over to Naples with the wife with a large group of exotics and have a BLAST with the car, just as we near Naples I shift into 6th gear and get a nasty grinding noise, I figure I screwed up the shift so I try again but this time its worse. I have no idea whats wrong with the car and can't imagine a 6th gear syncro going bad, so I figure it had something to do with the shifter which had become very difficult to use over the last week. I decide to get the car towed back to miami and deal with it the following week.
Once back I sent the car to Maroone in Lauderdale with a list of things to get taken care of including but not limited to:
1-Stiff shifter
2-6th gear grinding
3-All kinds of rattling noises
4-Speaker covers falling off (door panels)
5-Corrosion on rear tranny bracket
6-Intermittent center console illumination
7-Poor center console/radio bezel alignment
With that I figured I'd get a call in short order telling me the car was ready and I could get back on the road, to my chagrin I get a call a week later from the service adviser telling me that my oil has been changed (funny I didn't ask for it to be changed!) and that they can't perform any of the warranty work on the car. WTF?! Here I am probably the only stock FGT owner in the world, fearing that if I even turned a bolt on the car that ford would void the warranty and I'm being denied warranty service! I was given some long explanation about why they can't work on the car (I think it was all BS) and they recommended another dealer for the work. The next day I drop off the car at the "other" dealer (who shall remain nameless unless they don't step up and take care of my car), the service adviser seems very enthusiastic about the cars and assures me that their tech is the most highly qualified FGT mechanic in Florida, don't worry your in good hands... I keep in touch with the adviser and then about 5 weeks later they tell me the car is ready, wonderful, they say they've fixed everything, put in a BRAND NEW tranny, new shifter cables, new gas cap, new rear trans mount, etc. I'm excited as hell to get the car back, what happened next left me completely dumbfounded. I pull up to the dealership and see my car sitting next to the service drive ready to go, I turn in the rent a car and take my stuff over to the FGT, open the door and BAM! I look right at the dash around the center A/C vent and see a bunch of scratches and penetrations on the leather! WTF!? My eyes are drawn next to the center console which for some reason or anther didn't look right, BAM AGAIN! There are scratches all over the center console and the radio bezel! I'm so pissed off at this point I can hardly contain myself, I call the adviser over and he brings over the tech who looks at the situation and then says "I told you I didn't want to take the center console apart!" WTF x 10! I start looking at the rest of the car and it gets worse! There are scratches all over the clamshell and rear bumper, they proceed to tell me that it was all there before, mind you the car went to there dealership hours after Maroone did a full detail on it! The car literally looked brand new when I dropped it off! I open the clamshell and immediately notice that the left rear corner of the clamshell rubs against the section that houses the taillights, WTF! The adviser says thats the way the car was, I tell him if it was rubbing for the last two years why hasn't the paint come off?! Then I notice that the striker/latch behind the drivers side has been moved and the paint on the clamshell hinges have come off as well from being bent!
At this point I haven't even started the car yet, I asked for the head guy to come over to remedy this situation and then the real surprise! The guy comes over and says the dash was already damaged, but that they will replace the center console parts! WTF? I tell him how is it possible that the same tech that butchered the console didn't damage the dash as well? He maintains that its not possible and that the center console doesn't even come near the dash during removal! WTF!!!! Somehow my eyes go over to the door jamb and then I notice that there is contact cement all over the door jamb! It seems like they changed a door seal and just put contact cement all over the car! I complain again and the manager starts yelling at me! HOLY CRAP! Here I am bringing Fords crowing achievement, Fords Supercar to this dealership, they butcher my car and this MF is yelling at me?! HOLY CRAP!
I figure I had enough, I've been without the car for close to two months, the hell with it, I'll get my lawyer on their ass and deal with it later. I get in the car, fire it up and take off, but wait! I can't get 1st or 2nd gear! DAMN! There is TONS of slop in the gear shift and I literally have to push it into 1st with two hands! DAMN! I manage to get on the highway, the shifting is terrible but at least it goes into 6th gear. I got home stuck it in the garage and its been sitting there for the last 3 weeks. Here are some pics of the mess...
