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

[rfcs550]

I doubt whether this lawsuit will get certified as a class action.

One of the legal requirements to certify a class is numerosity. There are 4000 or so tech pak 2016 GT350's but how many of these actually get tracked? I would suspect that very few tech cars actually fit the mold of a numerous class of tech cars that go into limp mode when tracked. How many of the 4000 tech cars go into limp mode when not tracked? I suspect not many do.

I'm just saying that buyers who might have felt cheated in their tech cars but who have never tracked their cars or have never gone into limp mode will have to sue Ford individually but not as a class.

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[Side_Pce]

I doubt whether this lawsuit will get certified as a class action.

One of the legal requirements to certify a class is numerosity. There are 4000 or so tech pak 2016 GT350's but how many of these actually get tracked? I would suspect that very few tech cars actually fit the mold of a numerous class of tech cars that go into limp mode when tracked. How many of the 4000 tech cars go into limp mode when not tracked? I suspect not many do.

I'm just saying that buyers who might have felt cheated in their tech cars but who have never tracked their cars or have never gone into limp mode will have to sue Ford individually but not as a class.

At first glance I can see how you would think this, but the problem arises in normal driving situations. People may not be going into limp mode, but most won't know how hot their cars are actually getting. I've seen my car get up to 250 degrees. I would stop and let it cool down before I began driving again. These temperatures absolutely diminish the life of the transmission and the oil inside. I've hit limp mode on the track as well, never intending to track the car in the first place. When the opportunity arose I took it.

 

[cam2]

Class action suit indeed. NEWS FLASH, you did NOT buy a competition race car. These GT350s are street legal, EPA compliant passenger vehicles same as Cadillacs and Toyotas are. Doesn't really matter anyway as the overwhelming majority of all these "Shelby" badged Mustangs will never be raced or ever driven any where near their potential. Most sit in their owners garages, waxed, all covered up until the next cars and coffee cruise. That's fine, nothing wrong with any of that. These are street cars, NOT race cars whether their owners know it or not or like it or not.

Ford barristers have an easy defense if it ever comes to one and that being the undeniable, plain, straight up, fact that they did NOT sell you a "race car".

 

[Blk2015GT]

I doubt whether this lawsuit will get certified as a class action.

One of the legal requirements to certify a class is numerosity. There are 4000 or so tech pak 2016 GT350's but how many of these actually get tracked? I would suspect that very few tech cars actually fit the mold of a numerous class of tech cars that go into limp mode when tracked. How many of the 4000 tech cars go into limp mode when not tracked? I suspect not many do.

I'm just saying that buyers who might have felt cheated in their tech cars but who have never tracked their cars or have never gone into limp mode will have to sue Ford individually but not as a class.

I have doubts too; it depends how many people take their own time to come forward, who actually care or ever had the problem. I RARELY/never waste my time on those class action letters for products, they hit the trash. Not worth my time honestly. I still guess less than half here; a good handful are likely in garages weekend driven on the street or never driven. The bulk are probably daily drivers never see a track. I would guess the people who actually ever hit limp mode are in the low 3 digit range out of the 3850 or so sold.

I said it a few times previously, but Google School of Lawyers makes too many people armchair lawyers these days. Let's look at the ignition switch issue; that was DEADLY and people got what, pennies as checks? And people DIED there. This issue here is what I call a "rich people/1st world problem" where someone's mere fun was hampered a tiny bit.

And as I mentioned before too, you have to get over where was the promise that these were all fully trackable cars no matter the conditions. It says "track capable" at best which is vague, and as we all who went to real world law school know, ads are not binding contracts of any sort.

And then the hurdle of you have a "track package" which to a reasonable person may imply that other other trims may not in fact be as track capable. Why have a track package then?

AT BEST you may have false advertising, and law firm gets $2 or $3 million in fees and each owner gets a check for $100. Congrats there


Is Ford "morally" wrong here, yes, they fail the eye test to me as trying to pull one over as evidenced by the 2017 changes. Is Ford LEGALLY wrong here based on admissible evidence, way less clear.

Also on that note about the 2017 changeover, for the Google lawyers here, the change in 2017 to all having coolers is not admissible evidence. Evidence of subsequent remedial measures is generally not admissible evidence in product liability cases absent a few states. Being a FL lawyer and this in my backyard, it is not admissible here in FL by our evidence code.

 

[Hack]

Class action suit indeed. NEWS FLASH, you did NOT buy a competition race car. These GT350s are street legal, EPA compliant passenger vehicles same as Cadillacs and Toyotas are. Doesn't really matter anyway as the overwhelming majority of all these "Shelby" badged Mustangs will never be raced or ever driven any where near their potential. Most sit in their owners garages, waxed, all covered up until the next cars and coffee cruise. That's fine, nothing wrong with any of that. These are street cars, NOT race cars whether their owners know it or not or like it or not.

Ford barristers have an easy defense if it ever comes to one and that being the undeniable, plain, straight up, fact that they did NOT sell you a "race car".

Almost nobody has "raced" a GT350. Multimatic raced a few. I've gone to a high performance driving school, which had many cars such as VWs, other Mustangs, Dodges, a crown vic., miata, etc. I couldn't drive my car through the 20 minute session, whereas those other cars didn't have a problem. I wasn't racing, just high performance driving. Ford marketed the GT350 as the most track capable Mustang ever, which is demonstrably untrue. My 2015 base GT (not a PP car) had no problem with the same high performance driving school at the same track. It doesn't matter how many people use their cars for the purpose Ford marketed them to be used for. The issue is the Ford marketing. I read everything I could find about the car and I absolutely planned to go to the track. Even with the wiggle words in the owner literature, I had no idea that my GT350 would be less track capable than a base Mustang GT.

 

[cam2]

Almost nobody has "raced" a GT350. Multimatic raced a few. I've gone to a high performance driving school, which had many cars such as VWs, other Mustangs, Dodges, a crown vic., miata, etc. I couldn't drive my car through the 20 minute session, whereas those other cars didn't have a problem. I wasn't racing, just high performance driving. Ford marketed the GT350 as the most track capable Mustang ever, which is demonstrably untrue. My 2015 base GT (not a PP car) had no problem with the same high performance driving school at the same track. It doesn't matter how many people use their cars for the purpose Ford marketed them to be used for. The issue is the Ford marketing. I read everything I could find about the car and I absolutely planned to go to the track. Even with the wiggle words in the owner literature, I had no idea that my GT350 would be less track capable than a base Mustang GT.

You just don't get it my friend. The GT350 is a passenger car designed and outfitted for street use. It has turn signals, lights, air bags and all the other stuff that makes it a passenger car. Take it out on a race track and eventually it will break or have issues of some kind. Simple concept that is difficult for some. Take your Shelby out on a track where you smash it to the floor and lift out of it twice every lap for 500 miles and you will never finish because it is NOT a race car. Ford owes none of you guys a nickel as they did not sell you a race car.

 

[Blk2015GT]

You just don't get it my friend. The GT350 is a passenger car designed and outfitted for street use. It has turn signals, lights, air bags and all the other stuff that makes it a passenger car. Take it out on a race track and eventually it will break or have issues of some kind. Simple concept that is difficult for some. Take your Shelby out on a track where you smash it to the floor and lift out of it twice every lap for 500 miles and you will never finish because it is NOT a race car. Ford owes none of you guys a nickel as they did not sell you a race car.

I do agree as I posted up a few. This is a street legal car first. You have a clear advertisement definition problem, what does "track capable" mean exactly to a reasonable person.

Go around a track once? A whole race? If so, what exact distance, speed, and time is it rated for?

A lot of things in life are rated for x but sometimes fail before x happens. Look at Rhino Ramps for one example. They are capable of up to 8,000 pounds or whatever on the base ones, but sometimes crack under a 3500 pound car. Sh*t happens that you cannot account for. The aren't refunding people who broke them with less than a 8,000 pound car (which doens't exist) and there is no class action.

Unfortunately it is likely way too vague a term here as it is even more vague than a specific load rating.

 

[firestarter2]

Aside it's funny how bad the media does at reporting. Any issue I know about personally they get the story 50% right

 

[cam2]

I do agree as I posted up a few. This is a street legal car first. You have a clear advertisement definition problem, what does "track capable" mean exactly to a reasonable person.

Go around a track once? A whole race? If so, what exact distance, speed, and time is it rated for?

A lot of things in life are rated for x but sometimes fail before x happens. Look at Rhino Ramps for one example. They are capable of up to 8,000 pounds or whatever on the base ones, but sometimes crack under a 3500 pound car. Sh*t happens that you cannot account for. The aren't refunding people who broke them with less than a 8,000 pound car (which doens't exist) and there is no class action.

Unfortunately it is likely way too vague a term here.

Excellent point. What or how is it "rated". It is obviously not "rated" for anything is it. Why would guys spends crazy amounts of time and money building race cars if they could just bop on down to their friendly neighborhood Ford dealer, buy a GT350 and go racing every weekend.

 

[JN66]

Excellent point. What or how is it "rated". It is obviously not "rated" for anything is it. Why would guys spends crazy amounts of time and money building race cars if they could just bop on down to their friendly neighborhood Ford dealer, buy a GT350 and go racing every weekend.

It isn't about the track. It is that the cars have a tendency and opportunity to overheat in day to day driving.

At least that was what I leaned on and won with. Taking a car to a track is considered private property and what you do with it is up to you and shouldn't be considered in the argument here.

I suspect the law firm is throwing it in as an additional point, but, not one they would argue to heavily - I know I didn't.

 

[JN66]

You just don't get it my friend. The GT350 is a passenger car designed and outfitted for street use. It has turn signals, lights, air bags and all the other stuff that makes it a passenger car. Take it out on a race track and eventually it will break or have issues of some kind. Simple concept that is difficult for some. Take your Shelby out on a track where you smash it to the floor and lift out of it twice every lap for 500 miles and you will never finish because it is NOT a race car. Ford owes none of you guys a nickel as they did not sell you a race car.

I am afraid that you just do not get it my friend. Ford does owe and they did pay. Full value of the car after I put 12,000km on it.

But not because of what happens on the track - but rather the fact that the car has the opportunity and tendency to overheat in a day to day driving situation running the car @ 4000-5000rpm for 15 minutes.

Anyway, I'll read the thread from time to time, but, I won't be posting anymore. Should be an interesting lawsuit to follow.

 

[Rogue]

They don't all consume oil. Some do, some don't. 5k miles and my oil is still right where it was when I changed it.

If you take it to the track you will consume oil.

 

[Rogue]

Knock down the resale value so i can buy one sooner. Id never have one on an auto cross track but i would love to have a GT350 with a paxton or vortech for a daily!

Track Pack prices just went up that's for sure - you see the production numbers? These dimwit dealers all ordered those big heavy seats with no cooling - everyone had a choice here - 70% went with the wrong choice.

 

[cam2]

I am afraid that you just do not get it my friend. Ford does owe and they did pay. Full value of the car after I put 12,000km on it.

But not because of what happens on the track - but rather the fact that the car has the opportunity and tendency to overheat in a day to day driving situation running the car @ 4000-5000rpm for 15 minutes.

Anyway, I'll read the thread from time to time, but, I won't be posting anymore. Should be an interesting lawsuit to follow.

OK you expect us all to believe that Ford gave you all your money back because your car had a "tendency" to overheat? Sorry Pal, don't think anybody with a double digit IQ is buyin that BS.

 

[Rogue]

Have you been on the autobahn lately? Its like Los Angeles traffic during the day and even late at night is crowded with tucks lory's they call them and a lot of people getting their high speed driving fixes. The posted limit are usually 120-140km which is only 75-85mph of course if conditions are clear you can exceed them but the condition still exist that the road must be safe to do so.

God forbid you meet up with a ghost driver " Geister Fahrer " sometimes called night rider. Not as cool as it sounds its not Micheal Knight fighting crime but more of the Mad Max variety. Its a-holes that want to kill themselves and use the autobahn to do it which ends up killing other motorists. Sometimes they go down the wrong way at full speed lights off with cruise control locked in, F'n nuts...

Montana also shut down its no speed limit during the day leaving tracks as the only true safe and available method for high speed driving. This is why tracks have become so popular in Germany. The more restrictions here in the US also means more and more track day uses we simply didn't have the cars until the GT350, stingray vette, camaro z/28 showed up. The track issue is Road Atlanta and Sebring are the only high speed road courses while the other tracks are slower with more turns which means more heat stress and less air cooling affect.

The owners manual isn't specific about which tracks and that wouldn't work either. The corvette stingrays were having heat soak issues and also called track ready. They said they uses Road Atlanta as the test bed but that was bullshit. Ron Fellows the official vette driving school they even give you a 1k voucher when you buy a vette couldn't keep their cars running. They swapped to HD race only coolers and the cars still overheated and the vegas track is not a high speed one but is a hot climate track. Journalist driving even Road Atlanta the track GM supposedly used were having heat soak issues after only 2-3 laps. Ron Fellows came out and said there wasn't enough heat extraction because the stylist had their say over the engineers. They guy wanted to be true to enthusiast over his contract with GM. There was a class action suit for the stingrays not sure how thats settled and if it has. The 2017's have a different style hood and cooling mods which GM said are "available" to prior year owners. Ford should look at that case and make things right. After all GM tried to kill people over 27cent ignition switches and have been severely harmed by that fiasco Ford should take note and not go down the same route. GM has learned and Ford should as well just fix it and the problem will vanish!

This track ready business is getting out of control MFG should just stop using it to sell cars. Track prep capable would work better than owners would be on their own depending on the different track conditions and geographical climates. Warranty would not extend to off-road conditions aka track like most car owners manuals state and sales would suffer for it. If Ford wanted to rake in the profits and push the boundaries of reality they should be willing to accept the laws of physics when they fall flat on their face.

Ford choose to market the shelby in this light of race car that you can drive on the street. Drive it to the track in the AM and than drive your wife to dinner in the PM, its simply not the case..


I think the track cooler situation mimic's the movie Red October scene

Interesting information thank you for that write up, I had heard about the Stingray issues.

I think this lawsuit could change things for the worse for the consumer. It was in the 80's I believe Porsche stopped selling 930 Turbo's to the United States altogether because of litigation implemented here. Maybe the USA can't handle a track car, clearly they don't know the options required to sustain a full track day - enjoy your Raptor's and regular Mustangs until further notice.

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