2017 Undercarriage Corrosion

Update 8/4/18:
After 5 months of wasting my time with the BBB and Ford, who claims this condition is normal, Ford called the BBB in Virginia and without any arbitration convinced the BBB that this was not a warrantable condition and did not qualify for arbitration. The only other option I had was to take it to the states attorney general and go through the process again, or to take it to arbitration with the dealer. I did not feel confident I would be successful with the attorney general, and after talking to a lawyer the odds are not in my favor based on the way the binding arbitration agreements are set up. I have now realized I was working with a system rigged in the manufacturers favor.
In the interest of moving on and putting this behind me I have now traded the car (I traded it because it was the least of all evils) @ Mullinax Ford in Kissimmee for a 2018 and made sure to inspect the car before I bought it.
The VIN number of the car I have been talking about is 1FA6P8CF9H5270806.I am posting this in the hope that whoever may be looking at this car may research it and come across this post. After two days the dealer already has this car up for sale so I cannot imagine they corrected the issues properly. They are also asking $34.5K for a used car that I paid a little over $35K for, and that they gave me a $30K trade in on. One final insult and display of their greed and lack of care for their customer.
Also; if you were not aware, in the many papers you sign with a new or used car one of them is likely a binding arbitration agreement that prevents you from suing the dealer if you have any issues. You can read up on this, but as I have said it does not generally work out in the consumers favor.

Start of original post:
To start off let me say that I love my car, but....
I just looked at the undercarriage of my 2017 Mustang GT Premium GT/CS California Special I purchased in December 2017 and was shocked to see lot of corrosion/rust in a lot of areas.

I initially did not list the dealer name to give them a chance to do the right thing, but they did not. So....
The dealer is Mullinax Ford in Kissimmee.
There was only 48 miles on it when I bought it. The car was shipped in Jan. 2017 with 6 miles, and I took delivery in Dec. 2017. I have a co-worker that also has a 2017 Mustang GT and his does not look like this.

I live on the coast, but I am about 15 miles from the ocean. We do not have issues with salt spray like they do on beachside (rusted ACs, window frames, etc.). I have not driven it on the beach, and it did not have enough miles to be driven on the beach before I bought it since it is about 50 miles from the nearest beach to the dealer.

I sent pictures to the dealer and they responded that this was "normal".
I live in Florida so road salt is not an issue. The car is kept in a garage, and has just over 1,000 miles. I am not giving up on this and I am in the process of taking the necessary next steps.

In hindsight I wish I would have looked under that car, but it sits pretty low, and I honestly would not have suspected something like this.

I can understand some of this, but to me this is a bit outrageous.

I also posted this so others would take the time to look under the car they are buying just in case. Buyer beware.

Has anyone seen this kind of issue before?

Update 3-7-18
Finally got the dealership to look at it, and the service manager looked at it with me. He compared it to another 2017 with 2K miles, and acknowledged that it was not normal and classified it as excessive. He thought that maybe after it was built (January) they may have parked it outside in the snow etc. and that was where it began.
According to him it was not something Ford would cover under warranty, but he wrote it up that he inspected it and his observations, and took pictures for their records.
He said my best bet was to report it to the BBB Autoline as that would force Ford to take a look at it. According to him if either he or I called Ford about it they were unlikely to respond favorably.
Also; was asked if I would be willing to trade it for another one, which I took as a even trade/swap. Boy was I surprised, although I don't know why.
To add insult to injury they tried to offer me trade in price for my car to go towards another one, which would have been over a $4500 loss for me. What a waste of time and disappointment. So much for doing the right thing. I guess it's on to the next step in the process with the BBB Autoline in Florida.

Update 4/1/18
I took the car into the local Ford dealer to have the representative from Ford look at the car. I have not seen the full report yet, but I received a call from Ford and the said they had talked to him and he stated "the issue he observed would not impact the long term reliability of the car, and therefore was not a warrantable issue".
So now I have the dealership and Ford saying there is nothing they will do for me. I keep hoping someone down the line would acknowledge that this is not normal, is not what a new car should look like, and would make an attempt to do the right thing. So far I am still left disappointed.
I am waiting on the BBB Autoline to get back with me so I can look at taking it into arbitration.
What really sucks it that I have not driven this car since I found the issue, except back-and forth to the dealer. I really miss driving the car.

Do you by chance leave near the ocean or bay?

Even though it’s just “FL”, FL is surrounded by large bodies of salt water - which also gets picked up in the air and can rust nearly anything.

I'm a mile from the ocean and the level of contamination is epic. As an example, a paint can left in the garage for one month will have rust completely covering the lid. You may not see road salt but you may have airborne salt carried by winds.

I'm afraid to look under my car still, what I've seen of the exhaust not too pretty. but it must be done. have wire brushes and oil. just like a jeep! haha

I've owned a few cars down here in Miami, one for 11 years, and I can't remember ever seeing rust like that on the bottom of any one of them. Your car is new and should not look like that IMO. More than likely, this car had this issue when you picked it up. It's very hard to believe it would develop rust so quickly.

torqueaddict said:

I've owned a few cars down here in Miami, one for 11 years, and I can't remember ever seeing rust like that on the bottom of any one of them. Your car is new and should not look like that IMO. More than likely, this car had this issue when you picked it up. It's very hard to believe it would develop rust so quickly.

Click to expand...

looks like a flood car don't it. or sat in a deep puddle lot during heavy rains.

^That was my first impression. Almost like it was in a flood...

Get the rustproofing concentrate they dilute to spray in cars. Don’t dilute but pour in paint tray and paint the underbody of your car. Better if you do it when the car is new. Use the sprays for the areas you can’t get to. This procedure has the “Fatguy Seal of Approval”. You all can thank me later.

That seems like alot of rust for such a short period of time. I'm afraid to look under mine. I've been under it plenty of times but never noticed any of this. Just some rust on my water pump bolts.

To the OP: One quick question. Did you check under the car before you took delivery? Was it free of rust. How many miles on the car at delivery also.

It looks like perhaps it was driven through shallow salt water, maybe during high tide with full moon. Here in SC that happens occasionally, salt water from marshes overflows roads at times.

Bob A.

looks excessive

This is unfortunate, I hope they reconsider. Take it as far as it has to go. Start with the dealer, then corporate, then attorney. They'd have to replace every rusted suspension part (include bolts and nuts) for me to keep it. I don't know if those parts can be saved. But even so, the fact that the car only has a 1000 miles or so would make it unacceptable.

It most likely sat for several months corroding without the appropriate care to keep it pristine for sale. And I wouldn't be surprised they knew about it, but decided to sell it anyway.

That is not normal. Was is a demo car? It looks like it partied quite a few days by driving all over Daytona Beach...during high tide.

For reference, your car's corrosion looks worse than mine...and I've been through two Bavarian winters. We use HUGE salt pellets here in the roads.

That doesn't seem normal. I have 65,000 miles on my car and my undercarriage doesn't look like that.