Tuesday, December 21, 2004 Ford Motor recalls costly GT supercar About 450 vehicles will be brought in to fix defect, which may cause loss of control. By Eric Mayne / The Detroit News [font=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][size=-1]2005 Ford GT.[/size][/font] Ford Motor Co. is recalling its $140,000 Ford GT supercar to repair a defect that could cause loss of control. Nearly 450 vehicles - all Ford GTs built to date - are affected by a suspension component problem that originated with a supplier, said spokeswoman Kristen Kinley. The part can crack because of a casting error. "If it cracks, it could cause the wheel to become unstable," said Kinley, who would not identify the supplier. "And if the wheel becomes unstable at high speed, that's a safety issue." The recall could tarnish the kudos Ford received for the fast-track engineering process it used to develop the 550-horsepower two-seater. Ford rushed the GT into production to mark the automaker's centennial in 2003. "Maybe they weren't quite as thorough as they needed to be," said Bill Visnic, senior technical editor of the Southfield-based trade publication, Ward's AutoWorld. "If I were somebody who bought a GT and was exercising it a bit as it was designed to do, I'd be certainly a little annoyed. This wasn't the dome light switch that didn't work." The recall was voluntary, Kinley said. There were no complaints or accidents related to the defect, which was discovered during an inspection . Of the 448 vehicles affected by the recall, 111 are in the hands of private owners. Ford has contacted the owners and warned them not to drive the car until the automaker determines how to fix the problem, Kinley said. Ford will pick up vehicles in private hands. You can reach Eric Mayne at (313) 222-2443 or emayne@detnews.com.
I dont understand why you would be mad. Its called human error, if it wasnt for mistakes like this. We would never learn and move on.
You wouldn't be mad if you dropped $140,000 on a supercar and couldn't drive it because you might lose steering control?
I'm sure that if you can spend $140000 on a piece of shit ford you must have a couple ferrari to make up for it
I'd be happy if that happened! Whether I got mangled or not. . . that would mean that there would only be 449 of them to go!
Meh. . . I have a honda, yeah! Do I drive it, no. . . as a matter of fact, I don't drive anything. But, like Bootsie said, 140k for a car that can become unstable when the suspension falls outta it, go ford for proper testing. If I had to purchase a supercar though, some POS Ford wouldn't be my choice. I'd go with something that has some class and bring home a Koneigsegg, or perchase hold off a little bit and pick up a ME4-12.
What about them? Plus, you're comparing a possible recall on a 35k dollar mass produced sport utility to go get groceries and make yuppies feel important, compared to a car companies attemp to compete in the supercar race. . . hardly a comparison.
Okay, thats fair, I'll let you have this one. . . Either way, you would think that for would put more time/research/testing into their car before sending it out to the general public with WEAK control arm castings. . . this could make or break the car, and they wanna clean their act up soon. For a year an a half, Neon's had "poor" headgasket construction, and look where that left them! POS neons.
lots of things though eh... i was reading about vehicle manufacturers not issuing safety recalls until a people die directly related to that problem... that's kind of shitty
Yeah, it sucks, but prettty much every car company has recalls on cars. Cuddos for finding the problem. And im sure they do test them, hense how they find out about the problem. And probably most of the cars wont have a problem. But if they suspect it, they replace it, "just in case". This is actually the 2nd part of the recall.
Good point Scott. . . much better they swallow their pride and fix it to avoid and legal action. Better safe than sorry. And you are right, most car companies do go through a lot of recals. I remember when erin was working at Carrol, she was constantly changing ignitions in newer Sunfarts due to a recal. Speaking of which, where VW's ever recalled for electronics that caught fire?