$30,000 later..

[Relak]

Curious. How many miles on the ODO when the engine took a dump?

Just under 7k. I will say that the new engine drives smooth and I have no complaints thus far with how it operates. That said, it only has about 100 miles on it :lol:

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[Sig556]

..and she has a new engine, steering column, and oil cooler. My month long ordeal has finally come to an end and I get to pick her up today.

What happened:
The dealer found chunks of metal in my oil filter after I brought it to them for constant sputtering after the oil would reach 150 in temp. They were advised by ford to remove the oil pan to see if there were chunks of metal there as well. Of course, there were. . Finally, before test driving they decided to change out the oil cooler as well since it likely was affected by the metal in the oil as well.


The only thing I find strange is the fact that the dealer FINALLY DECIDED to change out the OIL COOLER. Common Sense would dictate that any component with engine oil flowing through it would also be contaminated with metal from a damaged engine. Sometimes you just have to scratch your head and wonder. In any event I'm glad you got her back. Good Luck from here on with your car.

 

[Relak]

..and she has a new engine, steering column, and oil cooler. My month long ordeal has finally come to an end and I get to pick her up today.

What happened:
The dealer found chunks of metal in my oil filter after I brought it to them for constant sputtering after the oil would reach 150 in temp. They were advised by ford to remove the oil pan to see if there were chunks of metal there as well. Of course, there were. . Finally, before test driving they decided to change out the oil cooler as well since it likely was affected by the metal in the oil as well.


The only thing I find strange is the fact that the dealer FINALLY DECIDED to change out the OIL COOLER. Common Sense would dictate that any component with engine oil flowing through it would also be contaminated with metal from a damaged engine. Sometimes you just have to scratch your head and wonder. In any event I'm glad you got her back. Good Luck from here on with your car.

Pretty sure it was a last minute checklist item "what else do we need to change out now that we have the motor in.." The only reason I say that is because I was told the engine was in and they were doing some last minute checks before firing it up, THEN i got the phone call that they needed to change the oil cooler too.

 

[Relak]

TL;DR: Had issues with my previous Shelby. Fought hard and long, got screwed in some parts but ultimately got a new Shelby with the help of a local organization.



After several months of painstaking dealings with FOMOCO, they finally made right what was wrong from the start. They bought back my problem-proned GT350 and replaced it with one of my choosing, albeit the process took nearly 6 months to complete.

I first reached out to my regional representative from FOMOCO to discuss a "good faith buy back" due to the numerous issues I had on a vehicle that was less than a year old. That process took several weeks and resulted in them declining to replace my vehicle. I'm confident that my rep did not do much to help make the issue right, as she frequently contacted me about the wrong vehicle (one correspondence was title "Your Ford Transit Van"). She also sent me canned responses with pasted paragraphs that seemed completely irrelevant to my issues.

Stage 2 involved me going to my state's BBB. The BBB instantly took my case and offered to mediate the issue. After sending my package to FOMOCO, BBB received a response in roughly 1 week (which is pretty fast for their standards), that they were willing to replace my vehicle with another, MSRP to MSRP trade. I instantly took the trade and started the process. That was in September.

It took several weeks of back and forth to finalize an agreement on the numbers, they would transfer my warranty and ESP and also switch out my MGW shifter I had installed a week before my motor went out. I lost money on the following items: Full-front vinyl paint protection ($1500), Tint ($600), removing my stereo bits ($600 + $900 it took to install it). Everything else I was able to remove on my own and store in my garage.

Jump to November 2017, I picked the GT350 I wanted replaced and started the purchase process. The dealer had no idea what they were doing with the process and frequently messed up the paperwork. It was a different dealer than the one who originally installed my MGW, so I was not comfortable with them installing it, but had no choice since FOMOCO wouldn't pay for another Ford to replace it. The new dealer was not very organized and it took several weeks for them to get the MGW shifter ordered and delivered. They messed up the registration on my new vehicle so the plates did not transfer (usually not a big deal but my old plates were a limited edition 2014 plate that can't be replaced). They had several weeks if not months to get a few paint issues taken care of on the new Shelby but dropped the ball on that as well and ended up giving me a "we owe" to get the paint work done at another dealer closer to me and lastly, they "misplaced" the car cover and had to repurchase one and ship it to me, which took several calls over several weeks for me to remind them to do that.

At the end of all this, I have a new Shelby with 97 miles on it (after getting the new wrap installed). Its the original color scheme I wanted when I saw it back at the 2015 Washington Auto Show during it's debut. It has its flaws but I learned my lesson on the first one in trying to fix those. In all, I'm happy to have a new vehicle that I can hopefully start fresh with, but the process has left me sour with FOMOCO and the trouble they put customers through, in hopes that the customer will just give up and bow out of the process.

Advice: If you have issues with your car, regardless of the brand/model, and its keeping you from actually enjoying the vehicle within the first year of purchase, the BBB is a great resource for customers who have no voice with the larger automakers. Automakers aren't just going to give every Joe Schmoe a new car when they aren't happy with theirs, but they will listen to the BBB with cases that fall within their requirements for a Lemon. Every state has their own requirements and luckily for me, my state's requirements were all met with my car. Best of luck to those who go this route it's not an easy one, but stick to your guns and make the process work for you, not against you.

Old Shelby (RIP Theo)

New Shelby (Welcome "TBD")

 

[Wriggly]

So, you went from getting a new engine and sounding pretty satisfied at that point in September and now today.....Bam, you got a new car out of them?

 

[H@mmer]

The way you worded something, it seems like the new engine let go a week after you got it back.
Is that correct?

 

[Next Phase]

Glad you got pit of your lemon and into a new GT350. Hope you have a lot of trouble free miles...

 

[Relak]

So, you went from getting a new engine and sounding pretty satisfied at that point in September and now today.....Bam, you got a new car out of them?

Well if you read through I actually have had quite a few issues with my first Shelby and the new engine was the straw that broke the camel's back. I was happy that I got a new engine but was in the process of getting the vehicle replaced at that point already. I didn't want to discuss the workings of a transaction that could potentially fall through before it was completed.

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