roegs

First of all, I congratulate your folks on teaching you about finances and avoiding debt whenever possible. I totally agree with living within your means and living outside does get many of us in trouble. I've tried to instill those same values into my kids. I agree with your overall financial thinking (and wish our government would do the same), but I suspect you’ll take some flack here for that line of thought.

That said, I think it’s important to look at the big picture of the OP's post. The way I read the OP original post he was in a jam and needed advice on what to do next. He did not ask what he should have done prior to the problem. I have a 20 year old son that’s in school full time, lives at home, and is also working full time. In his case, he’s saving for a motorcycle. Rainy day funds are great, but not everyone has that available, especially early in life. I still maintain that if I spend $30k+ on a new car with a new car warranty, I should not need to financially plan for warranty denials. That just is not right. I also cannot live my life in paranoia and record all my phone calls. Life is short, and to live being concerned that everyone is out to screw me sucks a lot of enjoyment out of life.

In a way I think its good that the OP did not have the money to pay the dealer. Had he paid the $2k, he would have gained nothing since he’d have gotten his car back still broken (at least that’s how I read the thread). The proper way is to keep escalating up through Ford. I knew at some point Deysha would jump into the thread, and it sounds like she did and is assisting him. I think the OP will have a much better chance getting his car back fixed than he would getting cash back. Most warranty programs are designed for repairs and special customer satisfaction repairs. Returning cash is usually a much more difficult process.

Last, the tone of the OP seemed to be sincere and honest. No name calling, and no threats. He believed that he had stayed within the scope of how the car was designed to be driven. He was not hiding anything nor was he trying to take advantage of Ford. He simply wanted his car to shift properly.

One final thought….assuming his problem is the second gear synchro, abuse does not always need to be the source of the problem. There could be a number of other defects that could have happened causing his problem. I had a new 2011 GT before the Mustang I have now, and ordered it from the factory. From day 1 second gear never shifted properly.

jhawkr

Finally, some sanity. There is a reason for a new car warranty. Unless Ford can prove with a preponderance of evidence that abnormal abuse occurred, they are responsible to repair what broke or is defective. My guess is you have to go through arbitration, not courts, if Ford persists. At least initially.

2000AZ5.0GT

I sleep like a heroin addict on nyquil, because ultimately I don't give even the tiniest rat turd what you or anyone else here does. My comment was specifically that you're welcome to do whatever you want, I was just relating my experience which is ultimately all these forums are useful for.

No....It's better to not spend 25k that you don't have on a car that you don't need. A 2,000 dollar beater that he could afford would be EXACTLY as useful as his car was before it went to the shop.

I could easily afford payments on a mclaren, that doesn't mean I can afford a mclaren

2000AZ5.0GT

I think like 90% of US states are single party consent states when it comes to recording. Op Lives in colorodo. It's legal there.

http://www.vegress.com/index.php/can...ls-in-my-state

Dino Dino Bambino

You have such a wonderful way with words.

A well-built manual tranny should last over 200k miles with proper maintenance and normal use.
If I'd spent over $30k to buy my dream car and the tranny failed after just 14k miles, I'd be spitting feathers if the manufacturer didn't honor the warranty and replace the tranny.
Only a complete idiot would save hard to buy his dream car and then subject it to abuse, so I don't believe for a minute that the OP falls into that category.

slipperman

After reading through this, I'm reminded of my own experience over thirty years ago.

I had special ordered a 1980 Mustang Ghia with Recaro seats and a turbo four, four speed stick shift.

Within 30K miles, the syncro for 2nd gear was toast. I needed to double-clutch first to second most every time.

Then the Turbo started seizing up. The first one was replaced under warranty, but after 36K miles, Ford insisted that I pay for them.

I was a kid like the OP and ended up selling the car at a loss.

I swore off Ford for two decades until buying a ZX2 for my wife (which my daughter later totaled).

You'd think by now Ford would have learned something about customer loyalty, but no. They, just like the rest of Corporate America will never get it. With them, it's all about the buck.

akdoggie

reogs-said---One final thought….assuming his problem is the second gear synchro, abuse does not always need to be the source of the problem. There could be a number of other defects that could have happened causing his problem.

I checked yesterday with one of the local Ford dealers mechanics I know well, and he said, that with any Mustang, F150, Fusion, etc, that they are now checked with a scan tool that accesses the "black box". If any major discrepancies pops up they have to download the file to Ford for warranty acceptance.

It isn't like 10 years ago when I was still doing warranty. Now with all the computers, modules and etc, they have to access the vehicles info box first. If it shows any excessive rpms, etc, or sets any abuse codes, then they are at the choice of Ford to repair or not.

I don't know the OP, but i am just saying from Ford's standpoint, there is a problem showing or they would honor the warranty for syncros and gears if necessary. I'm also not saying the OP is wrong, I'm just using the information I read and with experience with Ford and GM repair procedures for warranty repairs.

I also check with another mechanic at the local GM dealership, and they are no different than that at Ford. Once the machine is hooked to the vehicle for repairs it downloads the information. Again, if any excessive codes shsow up, the dealership is at GM's decision on the repair. He stated that they dishonored a new Camaro rear end two weeks ago. The box said it showed continuous excessive RPM's and other information on wheel slipping which, negated the repairs. Wow is all I had to say. We'd of warrantied it ten years ago. Not now.

Good luck to the Op in this. I was just stating my experiences and other current mechanic's information that they gave me.

2000AZ5.0GT

Here's the thing, it doesn't have to record ALL driving data, in fact it would take them forever to analyze if that was the case, it just needs to keep track of how often a few things happen, which is nothing more than a small counter for each 'event'.

Granted I couldn't know this for sure without violating federal law and reverse engineering the black-box, but my suspicion, is that they keep track of a few things that would tell them, easily within 15 seconds or less, whether or not a car has been "abused". I suspect this because of my work in related industry as an engineer, and the way things were handled in software/hardware Safety Managers.

What if the data-recorder just kept track of the number of times a few important things happen, for example: Number of times the car's bounced off the rev-limiter, or the number of times it's been above 6,000 RPM, or 5,000RPM, or the number of times it's been rev'ed in neutral?

from experience, I could keep track of the above items in less than 128 bits of memory, or less than 0.01 KB. I guarantee you if I was an engineer at ford, I would have recomended such a thing and it would have been approved, because the cost is negligible (It literally doesn't cost the data recorder a damn thing to do any of this), and the second they plug it in at the dealership, they'd know almost instantaneously whether or not the car's been driven hard. They'd be able to say beyond any reasonable doubt that "every x miles, the car was driven excessively hard".

Again, not trying to be rude or anything, just shed some light as to how an FSE could make a life-changing decision in 15 seconds.

berzerk_1980

Hopefully this isn't too OT, but does anyone really care if you bounce off the rev limiter?

Seems to me it's there to prevent abuse, so bounce away.

Now downshifting and blowing the limiter, that's different.

cruisin5268d

Are you serious?