F-Body Europe

Fixed or repaired daily......

http://www.bonforums.com/mustang/cobra_03prodstopped102902.htm

Yeah I heard about that last week or so. Kinda saw it coming with the first year out the box on a new engine.

Give me a 450rwhp+ car for $500 in mods and I would gladly visit the repair shop to be fixed under warrenty

Word of advice though, research the source. Robert Lane isnt exactly a unbiased reporter of the truth. More like a ex employee that got $hit canned and has a chip on his shoulder the size of rhode island. Not saying the '03 werent halted (oh btw they take a xmas break exactly like all the other auto makers), but he sometimes makes the proverbial mountain out of a mole hill.

At least they are willing to fix the problem before sending out new $35K duds to loyal customers.

see what i mean

Jumping to conclusions. The problem was that under certain conditions ie lugging the engine in to high a gear you ran a chance of fouling some plugs. The program combo it more than likely ultra cautious. Just like when they sent the 5.0's out with 4degrees of timing in some cases instead of 10.

Another issue was driveshaft vib over 80. Gee, does that sound familiar? It should to all 93-95 LT1's.

And the last glitch on the new run was alignment out of spec, causing the car to pull to the right.

All in all nothing major. Just a couple of warrenty visits. The biggest problem they have right now, is that job 1 for the Mach 1 starts here directly, the turbo Focus, and the GT40 are also gonna start up. Matched with the fact that they are selling the '03 cobra faster than they can build them, it maybe was smarter to stop the lines for a week or so, to correct the situation instead of several thousand warrenty claims a week or two later.

After the first of the year things should calm down, and they can get back to tweaking the NA 5.0 that will be in the '05, right now its targeted at 350ish hp, if GM makes good on they're word (no official acknowledgement yet, why I'll never understand) it should be a pretty good match up.

SVT has certainly had its share of problems, and even more so its share of bad press. It will be a long, long time before they get over the 99 Cobra deal.

Just for the hell of it I stopped by the friendly AAFES new car sale lot this afternoon (because Tony was not at his shop, who would of guessed???). I asked them if they could get me an 03 Cobra. Their answer was that Cobras have special maintenance requirements and will only be sold through dealerships that have the expertise to properly maintain them (meaning you cannot order one for overseas delivery). So I said OK, I want one for US delivery. They submitted the request and I'm to find out Tuesday (I'm not holding my breath though). I then asked about the Mach 1 and got some suprising information. The guy brought up an e-mail that he had received on Friday (1 Nov 02) stating that production of Mach 1 had been halted and would not resume. It also stated that there will be no 2004 Mach 1. It then went on to explain that they had 21 Mach 1 orders that had been cancelled by Ford (bet those people will be really pissed!). Ford did offer a discount of $750 to each customer that had their order cancelled. Oh well, looks like an 03 Mach 1 will turn out to be a great investment for a lucky few. I didn't get any info on why the Mach 1 was dropped. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Lets see if I can clear this up.

1. Jack - It probably wont be very long until they live down the 99 thing. What did they do? Well for starters they took all 99 back, extrude honed the intake, changed the entire exhaust, and re-flashed the PCM. Viola instant hp. The 2001 cobra dynos between 275-285rwhp, no hp issues. The '03s are going thru the same teething pains that the LT1 and the LS1 went thru.

2. The Mach 1 is a limited car. 6500 planned for production, the same as the bullet in 2001. The cars will be sent to dealers based on total sales, and then by a dealership lottery, the same as the bullet. This will probably be how the BOSS is sold when it comes out as a 2004 model.

3. The Mach 1 is not a SVT product. There are only 2500 SVT authorized dealers that are allowed to sell new SVT products, for example the Lightning, Focus, GT40 and Cobra. If you want a SVT product in germany, you have to go to a importer, AAFES is not authorized to sell SVT's. However if you have one, any Ford dealer can service it.

Damn Rob, you are just a plethora of knowledge. I think I learn something from you at least once a day. I'm not trying to kiss your ass either, I am being quite serious.

That makes me chuckle!!

Does anyone know of another manufacturer that issued a "RECALL LOG" with every car. I can't remember which model it was, but in the log book there was a complete section for recording of recalls. Does that suggest they expect them or what?