After 7 months of waiting, this is why I refused delivery on my GT 350 at MSRP

For those of you who have been asking, "Where's your car? You said it was on the truck 2 weeks ago," here's what happened: I refused delivery, and Ford is building me another one.

My Triple Yellow GT 350 Tech Package arrived last week with significant body damage – a little over $3K worth – caused both by the shipper and the factory. The passenger door had about a 5" tall crease in it across the top character line, down to the bare metal. The car was driven over something taller than the bottom of the car that was not friendly to the underside and front bumper skin. And that's just the shipping damage, which I'd estimate covers about a third or less of the total repair cost. However, AFAIK all of the damage is cosmetic; I'm not aware of any mechanical damage, but I didn't drive (or even start) the car.

All of the other problems were paint-and-body related, and IMHO this car never should have left the factory. I'm not going to detail all the problems here, but I will say that about half the panels on the car will need body and/or paint work. I don't know whether the repaired areas can be spotted in or entire panels will need to be painted. I've never seen anything like it, and I have purchased a lot of new cars.

In short, I was not interested in owning a Shelby GT 350 that started its life needing to be restored. So, my dealer went to work, sent the damage estimate and photos to Ford and today Ford said it would replace the car as soon as possible. I have nothing but good things to say about how the dealer and Ford handled this situation. Everyone stayed calm, went through the right channels and got the problem resolved in a week. After 7 months, I don't like having to wait even longer, but sometimes life hands you lemons – or a lemon-colored car – and you have to make the best of it. The new one will be Race Red.

I'm not going to be vindictive, and I just don't have it in me to stay mad any longer, so those are all the details I'm going to offer. I'm not going to post pictures or the VIN - the yellow car is no longer my business. The dealer probably is going to sell it to one of the people on his waiting list – with full disclosure as to the damages. If it becomes available, I will post the contact information in another thread titled "New GT 350 with Cosmetic Damage For Sale," but I really don't expect that to happen.

Now, who's going to fire up that VIN list that Bullitman brought us a couple of months ago? I seem to be in the waiting-and-watching mode again. :shrug:

Sorry about all the trouble you had, but I'm glad to hear they will make it right.

So the question I have is after seeing the yellow why did you change to race red? Also is the dealer just going to keep it and repair it then sell it on to someone else?

Crazy. What was mode of transport? Rail, convoy, or smaller transport?

mrdci said:

So the question I have is after seeing the yellow why did you change to race red? Also is the dealer just going to keep it and repair it then sell it on to someone else?

Click to expand...

My question, too. What was the VIN so nobody gets hosed on a repaired car?

Wow Im hearing, and seeing a lot of people with damage due to shipping. I have a friend of mine who ordered a Scat pack Charger and it had about 3K worth of damage from shipping also. The strap came back and smacked the rear quarter panel, and some one ran over a parking space divider and when it came off of it damaged the under rocker panel about 3 inched up, and 3 feet along the bottom....Sad for all the wait to have this. Sorry

Very sorry to hear about your issue as I have gone through the same situation as well.

Having said that your attitude, patience and understanding here has no doubt helped you in resolving this ugly situation.

Great to hear that Ford and your dealership came to the party with respect to resolving this issue..

By advising all of us of your situation certainly makes us all that much more aware of how closely and diligently we need to inspect our upcoming GT350's.

Hopefully your RR GT350 will be here sooner than you expect and of course in showroom condition as it should be!

WOW

I had to wait an extra month on my 2016 GT Premium Magnetic due to it coming in with wrong color seats. The first came in with Black leather and I ordered the Red. When it came in everyone who saw it liked it. Good Luck

Glad you got things resolved. Look forward to seeing the new ride.

Sorry about your car. Looks like everyone stepped up to help you in a professional manner. Awesome.
Good luck going forward and hopefully you don't have to wait long!

Hmmmm.....Deja vu.....Ford seems to be stepping up. Was it a single/dbl car convoy? Mine was new order went in today

Answers to questions, in no particular order:

1. Race Red was always my backup choice, and after this experience I didn't want to take any chances of primer show-through on a light-colored car like yellow, white or AG.

2. I am not going to post the VIN. This is not a heat-seeking missile that is going to seek you out. It will be sold by the dealer to someone who knows its history. If by some chance it hits the open market (as in being sold to an out-of-state dealer, which I don't expect to happen), then I will post the VIN because new-car damage disclosure laws vary from state to state.

3. Transport: rail plus truck, a total of about 900 miles. (It's 543 miles from my house to Flat Rock.) And before someone asks, the car being shipped uncovered had nothing to do with any of the problems - but that doesn't mean I don't think Ford is absolutely nuts for shipping it's halo car uncovered.

Wow man... sounds to me like it was handled in the most professional manner possible. Props to you for keeping your cool.

You can pick one of the 12 on ebay and have ford trade out

Spa2k said:

For those of you who have been asking, "Where's your car? You said it was on the truck 2 weeks ago," here's what happened: I refused delivery, and Ford is building me another one.

My Triple Yellow GT 350 Tech Package arrived last week with significant damage – about $3K worth – caused both by the shipper and the factory. The passenger door had about 5" tall crease in it across the top character line, down to the bare metal. The car was driven over something taller than the bottom of the car that was not friendly to the underside and front bumper skin. And that's just the shipping damage, which I'd estimate covers only about a third of the total repair cost.

All of the other problems were paint-and-body related, and IMHO this car never should have left the factory. I'm not going to detail all the problems here, but I will say that about half the panels on the car will need body and/or paint work. I've never seen anything like it, and I have purchased a lot of new cars.

In short, I was not interested in owning a Shelby GT 350 that started its life needing to be restored. So, my dealer went to work, sent the damage estimate and photos to Ford and today Ford said it would replace the car as soon as possible. I have nothing but good things to say about how the dealer and Ford handled this situation. Everyone stayed calm, went through the right channels and got the problem resolved in a week. After 7 months, I don't like having to wait even longer, but sometimes life hands you lemons – or a lemon-colored car – and you have to make the best of it. The new one will be Race Red.

I'm not going to be vindictive, and I just don't have it in me to stay mad any longer, so those are all the details I'm going to offer. I'm not going to post pictures or the VIN - the yellow car is no longer my business. The dealer probably is going to sell it to one of the people on his waiting list – with full disclosure as to the damages. If it becomes available, I will post the contact information in another thread titled "Damaged GT 350 For Sale," but I really don't expect that to happen.

Now, who's going to fire up that VIN list that Bullitman brought us a couple of months ago? I seem to be in the waiting-and-watching mode again. :shrug:

Click to expand...

That's too bad Spa, I'm glad you are being taken care of though. We will be with you on the journey. When you get a car you are going to LIKE it. I':cheers: Will keep an eye out for the list if it gets going again