At Ford, Quality is Job 1

[MAGS1]

Maybe not so much…

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/06/22...ity-study-2023-dodge-ram-top-tesla-volvo.html

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[ZXMustang]

The quality problems are from the influx of lower QC parts from manufacturers trying to get parts to the factories due to material shortages. They have lowered quality standards on their parts and are shipping them to factories to get installed in cars when those parts previously would have failed QC and not shipped.

This is going to reverberate through many industries for years to come until those defective parts and now items are cycled out with higher quality material parts. This is a new era of "they dont make them like they used to"... Pre-covid cars and products are going to last longer and be worth more in the long run, bet.

 

[IPOGT]

Both my 2016 and 2021 Mustangs have had production quality paint or panel issues. My 2019 Challenger was darn close to perfect from day 1. Paint, panels and mechanically.

 

[Balr14]

My 2018 Mustang GT convertible was somewhat of a disappointment. Fit, finish and overall quality were not what I expected. It also had several expensive electronic glitches right after the warranty expired with components that have been around for years and rarely fail. Fortunately, the drivetrain was solid.

 

[Hack]

It's hard to get good help nowadays. Quality comes from your workers. All of them. Designers, engineers, the people who qualify vendors, inspection personnel, assembly people, managers, accountants. Almost anyone in the chain can kill quality, but it takes everyone doing well to make a really great product.

My Toybaru has more glitches than I'm used to dealing with in Fords. And the local dealer has a much more anti-customer stance. "We can give you a loaner, but if it's not covered by warranty you will have to pay." My car is new and the radio isn't working right. Why is there even a question about whether it's covered?

Don't even get me started on the issues people who have gone to the track and then lost their engines are having.

 

[ice445]

It's hard to get good help nowadays. Quality comes from your workers. All of them. Designers, engineers, the people who qualify vendors, inspection personnel, assembly people, managers, accountants. Almost anyone in the chain can kill quality, but it takes everyone doing well to make a really great product.

My Toybaru has more glitches than I'm used to dealing with in Fords. And the local dealer has a much more anti-customer stance. "We can give you a loaner, but if it's not covered by warranty you will have to pay." My car is new and the radio isn't working right. Why is there even a question about whether it's covered?

Don't even get me started on the issues people who have gone to the track and then lost their engines are having.

One thing I hate is that purchasers of performance oriented cars almost always have a worse dealer experience than those who buy normal cars and trucks. Any time something is broken, magically it's due to "abuse", or modifications that aren't even remotely related. And even if it's something that is covered and fixed, now the techs or lot people are joyriding or abusing your shit, lol.

I'm sure this is less of an issue for premium brands like Porsche, but for normal brands, it seems like a rampant issue to me.

 

[Cux211]

The quality problems are from the influx of lower QC parts from manufacturers trying to get parts to the factories due to material shortages. They have lowered quality standards on their parts and are shipping them to factories to get installed in cars when those parts previously would have failed QC and not shipped.

This is going to reverberate through many industries for years to come until those defective parts and now items are cycled out with higher quality material parts. This is a new era of "they dont make them like they used to"... Pre-covid cars and products are going to last longer and be worth more in the long run, bet.

I somewhat agree but things where going down hill long before covid was a thing “corporate greed”

 

[IPOGT]

It's hard to get good help nowadays. Quality comes from your workers. All of them. Designers, engineers, the people who qualify vendors, inspection personnel, assembly people, managers, accountants. Almost anyone in the chain can kill quality, but it takes everyone doing well to make a really great product.

My Toybaru has more glitches than I'm used to dealing with in Fords. And the local dealer has a much more anti-customer stance. "We can give you a loaner, but if it's not covered by warranty you will have to pay." My car is new and the radio isn't working right. Why is there even a question about whether it's covered?

Don't even get me started on the issues people who have gone to the track and then lost their engines are having.

Sorry to hear that. I was hoping to hear the GR86 would have that TOYOBARU quality.

 

[Hack]

Sorry to hear that. I was hoping to hear the GR86 would have that TOYOBARU quality.

I'm sure I come off as overly negative on this. I actually love, love, love the car just like I love my Mustang, but for different reasons. I think the engine is fine as far as performance goes. I love the size/weight of it and the way it handles. Ergonomics are great for a 6'4" person and I'm very comfortable in it.

The media is a little quirky and sometimes it just doesn't function. Often you can shut the car off and restart it and the media will reboot and work. But it's a real pain if you start driving and there's no convenient area to pull over to do that. Then you're stuck with no audio until you arrive at your destination. That's my biggest quality gripe with the car.

The other thing is Toyota is very mercenary about their warranty coverage from my perspective as a lifelong Ford-only customer (edit - I did own one Chevy, but it was older and not under warranty). I have a strong impression that Toyota works extremely hard to shirk warranty responsibility in order to maximize their profits.

Subaru engines don't have the best reputation and the warranty impressions I have combined with my lack of direct experience with Subaru engines and Toyota warranty coverage leave me a little concerned about that aspect of quality.

Overall it's relatively minor, but I always hear from people how terrible American cars are and how great Japanese cars are - so I expected a much different experience than what I'm having.

I would buy the car again in a heartbeat. I would even consider trading mine for a new one when they get close to the end of production so that I can have a fresh version of it. But it's certainly not without its flaws.

 

[MAGS1]

I'm sure I come off as overly negative on this. I actually love, love, love the car just like I love my Mustang, but for different reasons. I think the engine is fine as far as performance goes. I love the size/weight of it and the way it handles. Ergonomics are great for a 6'4" person and I'm very comfortable in it.

The media is a little quirky and sometimes it just doesn't function. Often you can shut the car off and restart it and the media will reboot and work. But it's a real pain if you start driving and there's no convenient area to pull over to do that. Then you're stuck with no audio until you arrive at your destination. That's my biggest quality gripe with the car.

The other thing is Toyota is very mercenary about their warranty coverage from my perspective as a lifelong Ford-only customer (edit - I did own one Chevy, but it was older and not under warranty). I have a strong impression that Toyota works extremely hard to shirk warranty responsibility in order to maximize their profits.

Subaru engines don't have the best reputation and the warranty impressions I have combined with my lack of direct experience with Subaru engines and Toyota warranty coverage leave me a little concerned about that aspect of quality.

Overall it's relatively minor, but I always hear from people how terrible American cars are and how great Japanese cars are - so I expected a much different experience than what I'm having.

I would buy the car again in a heartbeat. I would even consider trading mine for a new one when they get close to the end of production so that I can have a fresh version of it. But it's certainly not without its flaws.

One of my brothers in law has a 2022 GR86 as well. I’ll ask him if he’s had any of those same issues. He hasn’t mentioned anything other than he wants to do something to the exhaust without making it sound ricey. And maybe go up a size in wheels…

 

[Hack]

One of my brothers in law has a 2022 GR86 as well. I’ll ask him if he’s had any of those same issues. He hasn’t mentioned anything other than he wants to do something to the exhaust without making it sound ricey. And maybe go up a size in wheels…

Interesting. I always want the smallest/lightest wheels possible to improve performance. I have the cheaper version of the 86 with the 17 inch wheels and they seem plenty large enough for the car to me. And the factory tire width selection seems quite good to me as well. I hate the Primacy tires but there's a Michelin 4S all season that I'm using that's quite good.

One other thing that irritates me is how the HVAC works. If it's warm and sunny I have to set the AC temperature to a high number (I use 76-78 F to be comfortable). If it's cold and dark I need to set the temperature to 68-72 to get roughly the same temperature air blowing on me. It's not exactly a warranty/repair thing (or at least you won't be able to get it fixed that way), it's just a poor programming design of the HVAC in my opinion.

 

[MAGS1]

Interesting. I always want the smallest/lightest wheels possible to improve performance. I have the cheaper version of the 86 with the 17 inch wheels and they seem plenty large enough for the car to me. And the factory tire width selection seems quite good to me as well. I hate the Primacy tires but there's a Michelin 4S all season that I'm using that's quite good.

One other thing that irritates me is how the HVAC works. If it's warm and sunny I have to set the AC temperature to a high number (I use 76-78 F to be comfortable). If it's cold and dark I need to set the temperature to 68-72 to get roughly the same temperature air blowing on me. It's not exactly a warranty/repair thing (or at least you won't be able to get it fixed that way), it's just a poor programming design of the HVAC in my opinion.

He has the 17’s also, he‘s considering going up to 18” but also likes the amount of sidewall on the 17’s. My guess is he stays at 17” but we’ll see. Here’s his GR, he has since wrapped his roof black. It looks good with the black roof. I’ll ask him about the HVAC too.

 

[IPOGT]

I'm sure I come off as overly negative on this. I actually love, love, love the car just like I love my Mustang, but for different reasons. I think the engine is fine as far as performance goes. I love the size/weight of it and the way it handles. Ergonomics are great for a 6'4" person and I'm very comfortable in it.

The media is a little quirky and sometimes it just doesn't function. Often you can shut the car off and restart it and the media will reboot and work. But it's a real pain if you start driving and there's no convenient area to pull over to do that. Then you're stuck with no audio until you arrive at your destination. That's my biggest quality gripe with the car.

The other thing is Toyota is very mercenary about their warranty coverage from my perspective as a lifelong Ford-only customer (edit - I did own one Chevy, but it was older and not under warranty). I have a strong impression that Toyota works extremely hard to shirk warranty responsibility in order to maximize their profits.

Subaru engines don't have the best reputation and the warranty impressions I have combined with my lack of direct experience with Subaru engines and Toyota warranty coverage leave me a little concerned about that aspect of quality.

Overall it's relatively minor, but I always hear from people how terrible American cars are and how great Japanese cars are - so I expected a much different experience than what I'm having.

I would buy the car again in a heartbeat. I would even consider trading mine for a new one when they get close to the end of production so that I can have a fresh version of it. But it's certainly not without its flaws.

What attracts me to the GR86 is the expectation that it would feel somewhat like my 83 RX7. That was the easiest, smoothest and most forgiving manual trans I’ve ever driven. I love the Mach, but in comparison it doesn’t have that light on its feet direct nimble feeling that the GR86 has. So addictive. The Mustang manuals seem more temperamental and less forgiving (clunkier if you will) but you get used to it.

 

[Hack]

What attracts me to the GR86 is the expectation that it would feel somewhat like my 83 RX7. That was the easiest, smoothest and most forgiving manual trans I’ve ever driven. I love the Mach, but in comparison it doesn’t have that light on its feet direct nimble feeling that the GR86 has. So addictive. The Mustang manuals seem more temperamental and less forgiving (clunkier if you will) but you get used to it.

The shifter in the GR86 has a really nice, direct feel. It feels like it has high quality components in it. Not vague at all. But in my opinion the transmission is merely good, but not great. It's just a little cold blooded and can be slightly clunky at times. I think the 2015-2017 MT-82 is smoother shifting, but the shifter itself is a lot more vague than the Toybaru. The Tremec in the GT350 is amazing when it's hot on track and it's a well-made, quality transmission, but you have that same vague Mustang shifter setup.

One of the best things about the GR86 in my opinion is the gearing. The engine feels super strong and torquey in first gear, and fifth gear is best for cruising at 40-55 mph. Sixth is fine any time above 55 mph and you can actually accelerate a little when in sixth at normal highway speeds. In Mustangs 6th and even 5th tend to be geared with too much OD in the newer cars. My 2017 with 3.73 rear gears and a manual is OK, but the newer models and GT350 the gearing is ok for track use but not great on the street.

Nimble, yes. The car feels almost weightless in corners. Mustangs feel heavy and high off the ground. I get a feeling like the Mustang is overpowering the corners, whereas the GR86 just turns effortlessly.

Sorry to the OP for the thread highjack, I get excited about these cars.

 

[MAGS1]

Interesting. I always want the smallest/lightest wheels possible to improve performance. I have the cheaper version of the 86 with the 17 inch wheels and they seem plenty large enough for the car to me. And the factory tire width selection seems quite good to me as well. I hate the Primacy tires but there's a Michelin 4S all season that I'm using that's quite good.

One other thing that irritates me is how the HVAC works. If it's warm and sunny I have to set the AC temperature to a high number (I use 76-78 F to be comfortable). If it's cold and dark I need to set the temperature to 68-72 to get roughly the same temperature air blowing on me. It's not exactly a warranty/repair thing (or at least you won't be able to get it fixed that way), it's just a poor programming design of the HVAC in my opinion.

Talked to my brother in law about some of the issues you’re having. He hasn’t had any of those issues except for the HVAC, his acts the same way

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