Experience after 4 years, 40k miles

[GTPower]

Overall my 2018 Mustang GT has been a great vehicle. I bought it as a daily driver in 2018, put about 27k miles on it in a year and a half, no problems.

Then covid hit, drove it a little but now at 40k miles it sits for a week or so between trips.

And now the problems start. It has always had lots of rattling noises from the front end that the dealer can't seem to find, and rips the inside of the front tires quickly although the alignment is fine.

The passenger window drops the 1/2 inch and frequently won't go back up, again the dealer is unable to duplicate so I just live with getting rain and snow in it occasionally.

The transmission (A10) occasionally delays going into D or R on cold starts, just sits there as I Rev the engine for a few seconds before it slowly begins to move, dealer of course cannot find a problem.

And now the A/C decided to quit blowing cold air.

This is my 6th Mustang, planned on just keeping her since the world is falling into BEV Idiocracy, but as these "unsolvable" issues grow I think another old Fox Body may take its place since my dealer can't seem to duplicate my complaints.

What happened with Ford? My S197s were awesome and easy to fix, and this S550 is a great car, but seems like it hit a quality wall at 40k miles.

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[njweatherman]

Overall my 2018 Mustang GT has been a great vehicle. I bought it as a daily driver in 2018, put about 27k miles on it in a year and a half, no problems.

Then covid hit, drove it a little but now at 40k miles it sits for a week or so between trips.

And now the problems start. It has always had lots of rattling noises from the front end that the dealer can't seem to find, and rips the inside of the front tires quickly although the alignment is fine.

The passenger window drops the 1/2 inch and frequently won't go back up, again the dealer is unable to duplicate so I just live with getting rain and snow in it occasionally.

The transmission (A10) occasionally delays going into D or R on cold starts, just sits there as I Rev the engine for a few seconds before it slowly begins to move, dealer of course cannot find a problem.

And now the A/C decided to quit blowing cold air.

This is my 6th Mustang, planned on just keeping her since the world is falling into BEV Idiocracy, but as these "unsolvable" issues grow I think another old Fox Body may take its place since my dealer can't seem to duplicate my complaints.

What happened with Ford? My S197s were awesome and easy to fix, and this S550 is a great car, but seems like it hit a quality wall at 40k miles.

I understand your frustration. I question the quality of American cars these days.
The last 3 cars I have owned were:
2013 2SS Camaro - Not one thing went wrong with that car. I traded it in because the 5 year powertrain was up.
2018 2SS Camaro - worst car I ever owned. Six things went wrong with the car in 2 years.
2020 Mustang GT, California Special - I had it since December 2020. I already had the entire electric steering rack replaced. I'm closing in on 15K miles. I'm holding my breath that nothing else goes wrong before I trade it in in another year or so.

 

[MachNroll]

I had a 2017 Mustang GT. Kept warping the rotors and I wasn't driving too hard - at all. Drove it a bit, had the rotors resurfaced, repeat... Then the backup camera died..... Then the driver's seat started to wobble when cornering..... Then front tire wear issues. So, at 20,000 something miles, I said the heck with it and traded it for a Dodge Charger Scat Pack... Had the Dodge for one year. Drove really fast in a straight line but problem free..... Then traded the Dodge for a midsized pickup truck that got more than 3 MPG (the Dodge burned 1/4 tank of gas if you even looked at it). Drove the truck for about a year but problem free. Then got borrrred....Cold start on the truck was a big nothingburger... Found the Mach 1 and dumped the pickup. Back to a Mustang. Like the look, fun to drive, cold start shakes the house... I figure I will just deal with any issues if they arise. I guess my point is yeah, I had a Mustang with issues, it happens, But, man, they sure are fun to drive!

 

[noGreta!]

What happened with Ford? My S197s were awesome and easy to fix, and this S550 is a great car, but seems like it hit a quality wall at 40k miles.

My quality wall came at 100 miles and just like you I had 0 help from the local dealers.

Cars today are overengineered and full of tech junk to appease the newer generation consumers and the latest government safety and environmental mandates. Some manufacturers are more experienced and better than others handling these demands. Your suppliers play a huge role as well.

Like I've said on other posts, I wanted to love this car and I would be keeping it despite all the problems, if the dealer network was able or at least willing to help. But they are deplorable.

I am moving on to another manufacturer with better service and have started looking for an SN95 Cobra to play with.

 

[luca1290]

Cars today are overengineered and full of tech junk to appease the newer generation consumers and the latest government safety and environmental mandates. Some manufacturers are more experienced and better than others handling these demands. Your suppliers play a huge role as well.

Count yourself lucky you didn't buy a Mercedes. The new ones have a diagnostic firewall between the OBD port and everything else. This means you can't diagnose it, even using the OEM software without making a connection to their cloud and validating your online account.
The validation requires an onboarding process as well a third-party provider recognizing you with official government ID.

Grasp yourself to the last fun cars mankind will be making, I count on stockpiling them for the rest of my life. I suggest you do the same.

 

[Red65]

I'm at almost 70,000 miles in my 2017 premium. Tuned with catless headers and a ported 18 manifold since about 52,000 miles. I haven't had near the issues that you have had with yours. The first issue I had was after about a year and a half of owning the car (estimating 18-20,000 miles), the original intake manifold IMRC's cracked like they are known to do. Ford dealer replaced it under factory warranty, and I had the car back in about 3 days. The next issue is my seat heaters stopped working. This is apparently another known issue. Not a huge deal though because I honestly rarely used it. Last issue was my axle nuts loosened up and mangled the crush washer, causing a clicking noise when coming off the clutch. Paid a few dollars for a new set of crush washers from the local ford parts house and all is well again. While I was there, I also replaced the rear hubs. Probably didn't need to but I was already there, and I drive the car pretty hard so no harm in getting fresh bearings.

That's all that's happened since I owned the car new off the lot (bought December of 2017).

 

[Strokerswild]

Ford's quality has really slid, IMO...

My '15 Mustang has been great (other than fit and finish, which is worse than a sub-$20K Kia), but it just clicked 12K miles so it should be.

My '19 F150 has me shaking my head, it had been in the shop three times inside of its first 20K miles for separate things, one being the replacement of the intake cam phaser solenoids. The 3/36 warranty runs out at the end of this month, so it has two more years of powertrain coverage to prove itself as to whether or not it goes down the road when that's up. My '04 F150 was a complete anvil the nine years I owned it, and I sometimes wish I had kept it instead of trading it on the first of two Jeep lemons that came between the trucks.

I agree with the overabundance of tech, too much to go wrong. I plan to keep my '15 as long as it's trouble free, but otherwise I'm looking to older cars on the bucket list for fun from here on also.

 

[babrams3]

Passenger window was dropping half an inch, mine had a tantrum with it for about a month, and then all of a sudden the issue just went away. What changed? Who knows. All I know is that I use the automatic window dropper with the key fob more often, and the car sat for awhile. Common issue, no idea why it comes and goes though

 

[Mspider]

idk man I have owned so many different cars and car brands over the years. They all seem to have problems. I think its just a byproduct of putting so many different components into the car now of days. But then again cars were junk back in the day as well, but for different reasons. I remember my dad telling me about how common it was for car to get water leaks.

 

[joe603]

I have a little over 5k miles on my 21 premium GT...just the occasional rattle from the passenger side door and/or back seat area. I do have an issue where the bottom of the driver's side door is rubbing on the front QP. My previous car, a 16 Dodge charger scat had to have the rear end replaced and would shred tires in 7k miles. (yes, had a few alignments done...I think it was just heavy). She had 37k miles on it at 5 years old.

 

[Mustang702000]

Greetings friend. I have 2017 gt.
The window prob drove me nuts til i search on here and found thread dealing with this.

Then utoob vid on removing door panel . I then removed all electric connectors blew out plug with electronic spray cleaner.
Then applied di electric grease to all sockets and re installed.
Working fine for 6months so far.
Used car dealer wanted to replace window regulator and motor but too far away so I gave it a go.
I've learned a Lot from these folks.
Good luck with your ride Dave

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