Lemon Log

[paul123]

I put over 120,000 more miles on that thing and it never let me down but warranty repairs + out of pocket repair costs for that time period are well over 12K...yes that's not a typo.

So just know what you're getting in to. The good news is that MB actually gives a shit about their customers so none of this 4-5 weeks, no ETA on parts stuff. I was never without my car for more than 2 days.

12k of repairs for 120,000 more miles isn't too bad.

Mustang and Benz are a different animal. Getting a V8 in a Benz is really going to lighten your wallet, at least for something sort of new. So their service better be first class. As they say:

~ There ain't no such thing as a free lunch

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[FordTechOne]

I've owned a few CPO's, my last was a 2006 C55 AMG that I got with 43,000 miles on it for 21K OTD in 2010.

There are a few things you should know - CPO's can vary quite a bit dealer to dealer, I got mine from a large dealer with a great rep - on my first service visit basically every bushing in the suspension was replaced under warranty - they were all shot and ignored by the selling dealer. They likely didn't want to eat the cost of repairs and shoved it onto the MB CPO program.

So it can be kinda of crap shoot, some will repair cosmetic defects and some won't.

I put over 120,000 more miles on that thing and it never let me down but warranty repairs + out of pocket repair costs for that time period are well over 12K...yes that's not a typo.

So just know what you're getting in to. The good news is that MB actually gives a shit about their customers so none of this 4-5 weeks, no ETA on parts stuff. I was never without my car for more than 2 days.

Having all repairs completed within 2 days is quite impressive. MB must have some serious parts depots in the U.S. to get parts to dealers that quickly.

 

[GhostRider8]

Current day Ford is not what it was 5 years ago. I've owned 06 F-150, 08 GT/CS, 09 F-150, 13 F-150, 15 GT/PP. First three where best vehicles I've ever owned, last two absolute worst! My 13 F-150 left me stranded on the side of the road after going over a bump (blew a fuse, which is clearly a wire grounding out). 15 GT/PP grinds every gear; 5th and 6th being the worse "normal characteristic" or "every mustang grinds" depending on which dealer you visit, brakes vibrate the entire car at low speeds with light pressure (dealer can't reproduce), blower motor and speed controller replaced due to blower speed fluctuating on its own, clear coat on third brake light coming off, multiple misaligned body panels (again all "normal characteristics" because all the other mustangs currently on the dealers lot are the same way, newest issue is hvac system turns itself on. I have been die hard American car man my entire life; I would never buy anything else. My wife's 2012 Mercedes has rescued me twice now off the side of the road. I have done nothing except change the oil on the Benz and she's putting 30k a year on the GLK never had a single issue.

 

[ultimate warrior]

Current day Ford is not what it was 5 years ago. I've owned 06 F-150, 08 GT/CS, 09 F-150, 13 F-150, 15 GT/PP. First three where best vehicles I've ever owned, last two absolute worst! My 13 F-150 left me stranded on the side of the road after going over a bump (blew a fuse, which is clearly a wire grounding out). 15 GT/PP grinds every gear; 5th and 6th being the worse "normal characteristic" or "every mustang grinds" depending on which dealer you visit, brakes vibrate the entire car at low speeds with light pressure (dealer can't reproduce), blower motor and speed controller replaced due to blower speed fluctuating on its own, clear coat on third brake light coming off, multiple misaligned body panels (again all "normal characteristics" because all the other mustangs currently on the dealers lot are the same way, newest issue is hvac system turns itself on. I have been die hard American car man my entire life; I would never buy anything else. My wife's 2012 Mercedes has rescued me twice now off the side of the road. I have done nothing except change the oil on the Benz and she's putting 30k a year on the GLK never had a single issue.

i think my buddy is doing benz the right way. hes getting them at carmax with a warranty. then when the vehicle needs service he can pay $50 to bypass Carmax and take it straight to mercedes.

cool part is you can go really nuts on what you buy - in his case twin turbo v12.

 

[paul123]

i think my buddy is doing benz the right way. hes getting them at carmax with a warranty. then when the vehicle needs service he can pay $50 to bypass Carmax and take it straight to mercedes.

cool part is you can go really nuts on what you buy - in his case twin turbo v12.

interesting these Benz postings keep popping up here. I got excited seeing V12 twin turbo. But I went over to carmax.com, searched 500 mile radius, and nada. Must depend on your geography. There is 41 hits of 8-cylinder, around 380 hp. Not bad. Gets you a slushbox though. Benz is out of the Manual transmission business. At least in the U.S. And I think they are out of the v8 business these days, except for AMG and S-class. Better have a fat wallet either of these.

I am not seeing much in "Mustang vs. " that looks like Mustang vs Benz (X)

 

[paul123]

15 GT/PP grinds every gear; 5th and 6th being the worse "normal characteristic" or "every mustang grinds" depending on which dealer you visit

Shifts grind even with a slow shift? You looked into aftermarket shifter / aftermarket gear oil ?

brakes vibrate the entire car at low speeds with light pressure (dealer can't reproduce),

makes me wonder if the rotors are goofed. Dealer may be able to spin those to see if they are true.

 

[GT Pony]

Having all repairs completed within 2 days is quite impressive. MB must have some serious parts depots in the U.S. to get parts to dealers that quickly.

Off topic, but interesting. Watched video on YouTube about the VW Beetle when dealerships started up in the USA. In order to be a certified dealership, they had to have every part in stock to build a complete car from parts. If they were missing one part (and VW regularly checked dealer inventories), then the dealership was threatened to be yanked.

 

[Ayabe]

Having all repairs completed within 2 days is quite impressive. MB must have some serious parts depots in the U.S. to get parts to dealers that quickly.

Subaru was the same for me, and Honda, never more than a couple days. BMW took a little longer IIRC for my HPFP 335i circus. Not necessarily routine parts either.

Just looking around here and 30 days or more for parts seems way more par for the course than it should be, it's not acceptable.

I would go the CPO route again as I have had good experiences, Carmax also has a nice program though I'm not sure if it's as good as it used to be. You can get so much car for the money as those high dollar Benz's/BMW/Audi's drop like a rock.

Lack of manual and poor gas mileage kept me away from the C63(2012+ with the nicer interior) but I could barely manage to eek out 23mpg all highway in my PP so I wasn't winning much there.

Once my buyback is processed it's highly likely I'll be getting a M235i.

 

[GhostRider8]

Shifts grind even with a slow shift? You looked into aftermarket shifter / aftermarket gear oil ?

I have thought of it, I bought this car with 3 miles and I refuse to fix fords poor engineering. It's their responsibly not mine when I purchased a brand new car.


makes me wonder if the rotors are goofed. Dealer may be able to spin those to see if they are true.

I don't know what it is? It's not shaking like wrapped rotor it's just a loud humming or vibration.

 

[GhostRider8]

i think my buddy is doing benz the right way. hes getting them at carmax with a warranty. then when the vehicle needs service he can pay $50 to bypass Carmax and take it straight to mercedes.

cool part is you can go really nuts on what you buy - in his case twin turbo v12.

At this point I really don't plan to ever buy another Ford. I have multiple friends who have also had rather expensive issues ($1000+) with Ford as well, all on vehicles still under warrenty.

I have never needed to use my warrenty on Benz but that does sound like a sweet deal your buddy has!

 

[justinakajuice]

Your shifter is "normal" for an MT82. Mine did it in the '15, most others do as well. Kind of makes you feel like you don't know how to drive stick anymore, lol. The aftermarket shifters clean it up, check some of the postings. As for the hum, the '15 was perfect at all speeds, but the replacement '16 has a harmonic vibration. After the BS I had to go through to get out of my '15, I will just take it. Initially, I brought it back within 24 hours and printed off a picture of the driveshaft 90 degrees out of alignment and gave it to my service adviser. Sure enough, it was out. They set it right and some of the hum/vibration is gone. There is still a livable amount and even though it is annoying, I will just deal with it. Other posts on here point it to the pinion housing, while others say a whole new rear was needed. I would suspect that the pinion housing is the culprit and when they swapped the rear, it came with a new one.

My vibration/hum issue comes in lightly around 35, but seems like it is rare. I guess the speed is just never being held there for it to register most of the time. It really comes up around 65-73ish. I think around 68 or so it really has kind of a higher pitched, blowing on a beer bottle sound. Again, I had to go through a lemon process. Not doing that again. I can deal with it because it's not that bad. I shouldn't have to, especially after spending just shy of $45k.

 

[Furious D]

I made the call to Ford yesterday.

I purchased the car on 5/28/16 and stopped driving it 4 days later after smelling burning oil upon exit and finding this under the car.

It was brought into the dealer that Monday and has been in their possession ever since.

First they thought it was the Oil pressure sending unit, then the entire oil filter housing was replaced, and on Tuesday they called me to let me know they were pulling the transmission as the problem has worsened and oil is seeping from the bell housing.

I'm hoping that Ford can resolve this without having to go legal but "20 business days out of service" is one week from today and will put me under NC Lemon Law protection.

Between the dealer and Ford customer care, I've talked to all the people that have to tell me "yes" and now I'm waiting on the people that are going to start telling me "no" :frusty:

 

[icarumba]

I just posted the following on my "Vibration between 50 & 70 mph" thread; I thought it might be of interest to the viewers of this thread too. Best of luck to all who are having issues; I hope they get resolved to your satisfaction sooner rather than later!!

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WOW...just WOW.

When I started this thread almost three and a half years ago, I never imagined it would still be active after all of this time, and that people would still battling Ford for a fix to the drive shaft debacle. Astounding. And very, very sad.

I bought my 2015 V6 Convertible in December of 2014, took it back to the dealer in January 2015 for drive line vibration, and was given the runaround by Ford until arbitration deemed the car a lemon in October of 2015.

Since I apparently had a learning disability when it comes to Mustangs, I decided to try one more time, and had them order me a 2016 V6 Convertible. After a few thousand miles, the driveline vibration reared its ugly head on this one too. Since my expectations of Ford and their products was now very, very low, I decided I'd just try to ignore the slipshod quality as best I could, as long as the car started every morning.

In January of 2018, at 20,000 miles, my engine developed the dreaded "tick" that I had heard other owners talking about in the past (usually on GTs). Since there are precisely ZERO reputable Ford dealers in Middle Tennessee, I had no desire to take the car in and be told that everything was fine, and that they "all do that". I knew that as long as the car got to the dealership under its own power, Ford and its minions would assume that everything was A-OK, and refuse to investigate what could be a potential problem.

Then I began to notice the exhaust fumes.

On top of the driveline vibration, the loud clank when I shift into reverse (my 2015 did that too), the engine "tick", a complete lack of structural rigidity, and a variety of other minor engineering and design fails, I now had a strong exhaust odor in the cabin. It was definitely a "pre-cat" odor; the same partially-burned fuel odor typical of all 60's-era cars back in the day.

All on a car with 20,000 pampered miles.

Yeah, I'm done.

I didn't even care if all of these things could have been fixed in a day under warranty, I was done. Done with Ford, their shoddy product, and abysmal customer service...forever. Cars should not be rattling, shaking, clanking, ticking, and stinking at 20,000 miles.

I am now the proud owner of a new 2018 Dodge Charger R/T. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would actually buy a Mopar on purpose, but I am very impressed with the fantastic initial quality. Things really seem to have changed in the last few years over at Daimler-Chrysler-Plymouth-Jeep-Eagle-FCA-DeSoto, or whatever the hell they are calling themselves this week. I can honestly say that the fit and finish is on par with all of the Japanese marques I used to buy before they started all looking like insect-faced Manga monsters.

Will the Charger hold up? Or will it grenade on me at 5,000 miles? Geez, who knows. My wife's 2010 Sebring convertible had the tranny rebuilt twice in the first 40,000 miles before she got fed up and went back to Mazda. At least the Chrysler dealer didn't try to weasel out of their responsibility; both times they fixed the car as quickly as possible, and both times gave my wife a brand new Chrysler 200 as a loaner, no questions asked. And the Charger does feel light years more advanced than the Sebring, perhaps because of the Daimler DNA that's in it. Time will tell. Wish me luck!!

For anyone considering the arbitration process to have their car deemed a lemon, I say go for it. The process is easy, and Ford's defense is pathetically weak. If anyone is on the fence regarding replacement vs. repurchase, I urge you to take the money and run. Run fast, run far.

For those of you that want to keep your Mustangs in spite of all the troubles, I get it. I really do. I wish you nothing but the best, and hope that everything eventually gets fixed to your satisfaction.

I love Mustangs. Always have, always will. That love has caused me to go against my better judgement THREE times, and each time I got burned. I believe that I have finally learned my lesson. For me, it's over.

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