Well that didn't last long. 2020 GT350R DEAD

[mk1spyder]

Sorry this happened to you. If you really bought as an investment though, why were you looking to twin turbo it? Not sure I follow the investment logic on that one.

That was after I decided to keep it and start driving it. My logic there was if I propose to my girlfriend on the day we drove it for the first time she is never going to let me sell it so I might as well dig in for the long run lol

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[mk1spyder]

I certinally understand the OP’s frustration as well. His attitude towards this whole thing is understandable as well. What’s kind of strange is some of his reactions, as well as ours. Emotions are dictating conversations.
OP....I work in the automotive industry as well. I visit dealerships on a regular basis. I can tell you this, MB has a constant flow of engine replacements as well.

Let's be real we are all car people on the internet. There is no greater breeding ground for opinions and trolling lol

 

[Hack]

I like how it is the biggest piece of crap you ever owned and you want an offer of full retail plus, to sell it. Yeah, makes perfect sense

Yeah OP is all over in this thread, but he said "good offer". When I see a GT350 with a replaced engine my offer would be low. I wouldn't want that car. And I think that is true of most people. Most would prefer a car that was trouble free - even if it had a lot more miles.

The OP has a legit gripe about an $80k+ vehicle blowing its engine at only 130mi - whether he was just putzing along or was driving it like a NASCAR - the engine should be able to handle LOAD.

For a timing chain to fail on his AND the other M6G member who posted detailed pics - it’s either a supplier issue OR there an inherent issue with the Tech or Techs who are “hand building” these engines. The OP’s low mileage failure is NOT the first one reported on this site - there’s been quite a few documented cases on here.

The problem is - we’re only seeing documented cases on this site from those who either have internet access, are internet savvy or are enthusiasts who actually join forums. We are NOT seeing the bigger picture of the failures that are occurring outside of this site which have not been “logged” on this site.

If there were even (3) failures logged on this site, you know for damn well that there’s a larger population of failures happening.... call it what you will, but there’s a Quality Control issue at Ford that needs fixing.

It’s total bullshit that anyone who buys a GT350 or Gt350R at its price point experiences such a failure in so little miles. OP’s Break-in period or not, would not have mattered with this type of failure and it’s apparent it does NOT matter when there’s other M6G members who have had similar engine failures with so little miles.

Sure, it’s under warranty, yes, Ford will replace the engine... the cocnern that most people don’t see is this:
Once a SHELBY engine has been replaced, that Shelby is no longer a numbers matching Shelby, period. It will have a tagged VIN history, it will have depreciated value and it will be a hard sell for an Owner when selling outright OR trying to trade it in. THAT is FACT. So when people say “it’s only $80k and you’ll be getting a new engine” - yes, true, but now if that Owner elected to keep the car instead of doing a Buy Back, they’re F’d when it comes time to sell - be it now or 10+ years from now; who’s going to fight for that Owner’s depreciated value? There’s already been GT350 owners documented on this site they had a hell of a time selling after an engine replacement.

Put yourself in the OP’s position - then maybe some will understand the concerns of how this “warranty” repair will affect him and the vehicle value.

Ford isn’t going to do shit for him (or others) than to replace the engine, they’ll pad him (and others) with an Extended Warranty to 100k, probably offer a Ford Maintenance Plan up to 50k and if he financed, they *might* reimburse him a car payment or two depending on length of downtime. The Warranty & Maintenance plans handed out in these instances are worthless in monetary value. Ask yourself, is THAT enough compensation to make up for his and others loss of value on an $80k+ “flagship” Mustang when trying to trade or sell at a later date???!!!

If I were the OP, a Ford Buy Back is the right thing to do on a Shelby. Let someone else purchase the Buy Back at the depreciated value and deal with the non-matched drivetrain. YES, some people don’t care about “numbers matched”, I get it but some do - and those that do walk away from vehicles like these with engine replacements.

As for Ford Stock prices - the Ford Family has majority Ownership in their stock; it will never balloon to other Automotive Manufacturers stock quotes regardless of how well or poor Ford is being rated until the Ford Family takes their mingling hands out of the stock - fact.

I agree with most everything you said here. My guess is timing chain failures like this one are exceedingly rare. I sure haven't heard of many.

Sorry this happened to you. If you really bought as an investment though, why were you looking to twin turbo it? Not sure I follow the investment logic on that one.

The stories don't jive, do they? Especially all the anti-Ford comments from someone who was treating the car like a collectible. Or maybe throwing away the warranty on a new car when he thinks half of them are defective. If he was really anti-Ford he wouldn't buy the car. If he thought half were defective he probably wouldn't buy the car either, and he definitely wouldn't throw away the powertrain warranty. Anyway I'm not sure what to think. Maybe a lot of his comments are just random and he's not really thinking logically. I actually have a fair amount of doubt that he really even owns a GT350. I think he's just messing around. It seems to me like the most likely explanation.

 

[526 HRSE]

Let's be real we are all car people on the internet. There is no greater breeding ground for opinions and trolling lol

True. You might not even have a gt350. You could be a Vette guy over here trolling.

 

[Stage_3]

Man this sucks OP!

Sorry about the car. I wonder if it's just crappy materials and not crappy engine building? All of these companies like to use the cheapest materials/products around so they can get a bigger slice of the cake when selling the car. Meaning cheap materials, you get what you pay for, although the car makers are using it to their advantage. Maybe that's not the case, but we shall see.
Good luck and keep us posted. Did the dealership dive into your car yet to give you a diagnosis? I read the thread, but may have missed it.

 

[JR369]

True. You might not even have a gt350. You could be a Vette guy over here trolling.

Hey now. Not all Vette owners are trolling the 350 forums and not all 350 owners are trolling the Vette forums. Some happen to have valid opinions on both from present experience.

 

[ShelbyMilk]

Could be wrong but......he says he handles over 40k car fleet. If that we true he would have seen a million issues like this, handled thousands of complaints etc etc have a quite a few contacts in the auto industry and know how to handle accordingly and then bags on other Ford products.

Smells like poo. I'm sorry If I am wrong but the posts dont' lead me to believe much.

 

[Rusherific]

The OP has a legit gripe about an $80k+ vehicle blowing its engine at only 130mi - whether he was just putzing along or was driving it like a NASCAR - the engine should be able to handle LOAD.

For a timing chain to fail on his AND the other M6G member who posted detailed pics - it’s either a supplier issue OR there an inherent issue with the Tech or Techs who are “hand building” these engines. The OP’s low mileage failure is NOT the first one reported on this site - there’s been quite a few documented cases on here.

The problem is - we’re only seeing documented cases on this site from those who either have internet access, are internet savvy or are enthusiasts who actually join forums. We are NOT seeing the bigger picture of the failures that are occurring outside of this site which have not been “logged” on this site.

If there were even (3) failures logged on this site, you know for damn well that there’s a larger population of failures happening.... call it what you will, but there’s a Quality Control issue at Ford that needs fixing.

It’s total bullshit that anyone who buys a GT350 or Gt350R at its price point experiences such a failure in so little miles. OP’s Break-in period or not, would not have mattered with this type of failure and it’s apparent it does NOT matter when there’s other M6G members who have had similar engine failures with so little miles.

Sure, it’s under warranty, yes, Ford will replace the engine... the cocnern that most people don’t see is this:
Once a SHELBY engine has been replaced, that Shelby is no longer a numbers matching Shelby, period. It will have a tagged VIN history, it will have depreciated value and it will be a hard sell for an Owner when selling outright OR trying to trade it in. THAT is FACT. So when people say “it’s only $80k and you’ll be getting a new engine” - yes, true, but now if that Owner elected to keep the car instead of doing a Buy Back, they’re F’d when it comes time to sell - be it now or 10+ years from now; who’s going to fight for that Owner’s depreciated value? There’s already been GT350 owners documented on this site they had a hell of a time selling after an engine replacement.

Put yourself in the OP’s position - then maybe some will understand the concerns of how this “warranty” repair will affect him and the vehicle value.

Ford isn’t going to do shit for him (or others) than to replace the engine, they’ll pad him (and others) with an Extended Warranty to 100k, probably offer a Ford Maintenance Plan up to 50k and if he financed, they *might* reimburse him a car payment or two depending on length of downtime. The Warranty & Maintenance plans handed out in these instances are worthless in monetary value. Ask yourself, is THAT enough compensation to make up for his and others loss of value on an $80k+ “flagship” Mustang when trying to trade or sell at a later date???!!!

If I were the OP, a Ford Buy Back is the right thing to do on a Shelby. Let someone else purchase the Buy Back at the depreciated value and deal with the non-matched drivetrain. YES, some people don’t care about “numbers matched”, I get it but some do - and those that do walk away from vehicles like these with engine replacements.

As for Ford Stock prices - the Ford Family has majority Ownership in their stock; it will never balloon to other Automotive Manufacturers stock quotes regardless of how well or poor Ford is being rated until the Ford Family takes their mingling hands out of the stock - fact.

I actually would say the opposite, in that we've probably seen or heard about most if not the vast majority of voodoo failures. In 2020 no one with a 60k plus car "doesn't have internet access" or doesn't know how to use it. If my 120 mile HEP blew up first thing I'd do is sign up here to bitch about it! A "silent majority" of unhappy customers who never bother to go public about it might apply to everyday drivers, but enthusiast car owners by nature like to find and talk to others, just like any niche hobby or interest. So no, we have not heard every single voodoo failure story but I think the amount that we have heard about it is by definition out of proportion to the actual problem.

There's something like, what, 50k voodoo engines out there? I couldn't easily find a industry average engine rebuilt rate, but about 1% of *all* new cars are classified as lemons at least, for whatever reason. Which, high strung, one-off-special motors like ours should be even higher. So the *baseline* failure rate we could roughly say is 500 GT350's that wind up going straight into the trash (again, rough, we're talking estimates in order of magnitude here). So let's say even only 10%, or 50, of those people ever go online to complain: that's still dozens and dozens of sob stories, which are inevitably disastrous sounding and wind up top of the threads page with 100's of replies because it's "so scandalous" and there's no context to go with it of the 100x more owners who never bother to post about how perfectly fine their car is running because they're too busy driving it. On top of all that, the clientele for specialized cars are much more inclined to be involved in a community online, and much more inclined to be vocal about a problem because they were excited about their car. And then on top of that even, Ford has chosen in most cases to wholesale replace the entire engine rather than dick around with rebuilding or fixing just the one specific issue, so the stories are much more dramatic than "I had to take my car into the dealer for an hour for a recall."

And then you have to look at this stuff in context of pretty much every other performance car: BMW's and the cursed E60 M5, Porsche's IMS, 458's catching on fire, anything Audi's ever touched, LS's throwing rods. Shit happens in the car world outside Accords and Camrys.

Even if someday we can point to a poor engineering choice or build quality to explain the voodoo failures that have happened--which may not even wind up being the case--this isn't a new phenomenon to the car industry or unique to Ford in any way is all I'm trying to say. I'm not like a Ford fanboy or trying to defend them, maybe the fucked up bad, who knows, just that it's a lot of rush to judgement to single out a very unique completely new, one-application motor designed for performance first and then claim out of our asses that it's unacceptably less reliable than something comparable until we someday get hard #'s and the story behind it.

 

[JZTRK]

Andrew these cars are great!!! From what you have posted you have great knowledge of just over 42 thousand cars you knew these were troublesome piles of shit yet you still bought one so please as soon as you can return it and go away

 

[mk1spyder]

Andrew these cars are great!!! From what you have posted you have great knowledge of just over 42 thousand cars you knew these were troublesome piles of shit yet you still bought one so please as soon as you can return it and go away

I know which Fords generally have problems and which don't. We don't have any voodoo engines running around so I had no experience with these, I bought it for the same reason everyone else did, thought it was a cool car. Pardon me from assuming a hand built engine in a $80k car would make it past 130 miles.

Entirely possible the failures we know about are a margin error and the rest are fine, miles and age will tell.

 

[mk1spyder]

1. Filled it up at a country gas station with less than 130 miles on it. Guess the dealer wasn't kind enough to fill up your $80K before you bought it or you drove the snot out of it from the get go
2. Was going to moth ball it, as an investment, but decided take it out to get some miles on it before I put the twin turbo on it. So much for the investment
4. But wait, it wasn't actually taken out to put some miles on it before the twin turbo as it was back to being an investment. Then it was only taken out to drive up the mountain with the girlfriend to propose
5. Even though I think GT350 and Ford are total pieces of XXXX and I posted a video about a GT500 dying on it's first drive, thinking about buying a GT500 anyway. Maybe because a shift was missed and that isn't possible with a GT500.

I think we are being played...

PM me your phone number if you think I'm playing you, you can ask any question you want and pass judgement. I didn't have any agenda other than wanting to complain a little and see if anyone else knew what the problem was before the dealer had a chance to diag it.

 

[Michael_vroomvroom]

PM me your phone number if you think I'm playing you, you can ask any question you want and pass judgement. I didn't have any agenda other than wanting to complain a little and see if anyone else knew what the problem was before the dealer had a chance to diag it.

Commendable of you for having tough enough skin to take all the accusations of lying, trolling,
being unable to shift gears, whatever, on the chin, and not answering back in the same style.

Sorry to hear you had such bad luck. I'd love to have a GT350, but apart from the cost problem vs the GT 5.0, Ford doesn't even sell the 350 in Europe. Can you imagine buying one "newish" as a grey import, and then having something like this happen? I'd not even get half the way home from the shop. At least you have warranty, and hopefully there will be no problem with the buyback from Ford either.

If for nothing else than my own and probably others curiosity, hope you will update with what the dealer diagnoses in the end.

 

[nastang87xx]

I read the first few pages and seriously OP you need to fvcking relax and grow up. It'll get fix and enjoy it. Life isn't perfect. Having expectations is fine and more than reasonable but since when has life ever gone perfect, especially during these times...

 

[galaxy]

At least you have warranty, and hopefully there will be no problem with the buyback from Ford either.

@mk1spyder I'm surprised this hasn't come up yet (or it did and I missed it), but don't get your heart too strongly set on a buy back. They are not customers choice, nor are they automatic just because you're bitter. Ford has a requirement to make you right again. In this case, that'll mean a new engine, not a buy back. There are state laws on top of Ford's policies. They might, if they have some stroke of good will. But I wouldn't go expecting it. You won't get it solely because you demand it.

 

[racingandfishing]

Commendable of you for having tough enough skin to take all the accusations of lying, trolling,
being unable to shift gears, whatever, on the chin, and not answering back in the same style.

Your are right. Meant for my post to be sarcastic as it seemed like there were inconsistencies with the what, where and why. I can see it didn't come across that way. Don't get me wrong, I would be madder than XXXX if that happened to me. I don't have a dog in this hunt and it was pretty crappy, so deleting my post.

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