Ditto,Ditto,Ditto,corner carver

 

Norm, no flames, but you've never dealt with the Ford division on something major have you? I've corresponded with way too many Ford owners (mostly Cobra owners and more than I can remember) who have been screwed over by Ford's engine divisions. The Cobra engine's are handbuilt. The Romeo engine plant has the say so, not the dealership, not the service manager, not the regional service rep., not even the divisional service rep. It would be easier for Ford to deny warranty covereage and have you be tied up in litigation fro who knows how long at YOUR EXPENSE all the while you're out of a vehicle. It's one of those risk/reward scenarios: How much will it cost to fix it vs. how much will be tied up in litigation if , and IF, the consumer will carry it that far. It's a poker game. They bluff and most people don't have the resources or the knowledge to carry it any further.

A perfect example is a fellow '99 Cobra owner who had the EXACT SAME FAILURE as mine. Warranty denied. After SIX months of fighting to prove it, they finally replaced the engine. Not bad huh? He paid six monthly payment plus insurace on a vehicle he couldn't even crank up! Yeah, I have a little animosity towards Ford's warranty coverage and their deny first wait and see who yells the loudest attitude. For the most part, both dealerships I had experience with were very helpful and didn't comprehend WTF Ford was thinking!

Now for something Lightning specific:
Intercooler leaks - why doesn't Ford issue a recall and replace all IC's on the 99 and 00's. They will leak eventually. Why not do the right thing and fix the problem?

The clunk- All years. Fixed by a pair of bolts. How much cheaper can they be?

Still love my truck though. Waiting for something bad to happen 'cause I know I'm on Ford's $#!t list.

 

Spiro: did you read the part when i said i thought they were my friends? in other words i'm saying they may make us feel comfortable about this issue of mods and not voiding the warranty but i think i just proved otherwise...Now here i go with all the ledigation thats involed.. since there was nothing wrong with my truck except the spare tire mechanism. ive decided to spend whatever it cost just to prove a point! somebody was totally WRONG! for how they voided my warranty! that individual person went out of thier way to make my life a little harder therefore i'm going out of my way to make thier's a little less enjoyable! i'm going all the way. even if i lose! thier going to know the way this situation was handled was totally WRONG! JL

 

JL,
I now understand what you mean ,I also would be "ticked off" at that certain person. I do know this.....me and you have been around here since the fall of 1999, and we have had the privelidge to meet some "SHADY" people along the way.

E-mail me if you would like to discuss this further

EMPTYPOCKETRACN@aol.com

 

I was recently contacted by an Engineer from SVE about what I do to a transmission, what I would do with unlimited resources and what can be done, realistically to a production version. We talked about me building them one and sending it up to them, and how they could incorporate some of these mods into production parts.
I trust them, but for a different reason, the guy I talked to was an engineer, not a bean counter (strangely enough, I am an accountant by training, but that's another story) Whether the higher ups will ever go for any of this is another question, but the "car guys" at SVE are interested, they see ways to improve both the actual product and the whole ownership experience.

G

 

Hmmm...looks like I will need to buy another L the next time around

 

OK guys, come on. Lets look at this without your Ford blue oval jammies on. j/k
Ford is a very large corp. Job #1 is NOT the customer, i.e. you. Job # 1 is the execs bonuses then the stockholders, which most recieve large stock options. If you cut 2% off of a $500million deptartmental budget at a large corp. That would be a $10million savings, what do you think my reward would be for that. A new 911 turbo!
Remember -
Screw me once, shame on you. - Cobra, L I/C, Explorer...
Screw me twice, shame on ME.
I think we all all just saying is protect yourself. Do not let them too close.

 

I wrote a quote from the SVT supplement guide in an earlier post about SVT not allowing racing of any kind.

Now that I think about it, its so contradicting to the way SVT wants to be known. I thought about this when I was reading the "High Octane Newsletter" from SVTOA and all they talked about was performance mods and "RACING"

If SVT does not condone racing then why is John Coletti racing his Cobra R and making SVTOA track day apperarences???

Of course we are in no place to question why SVT attends events that they don't want YOU to attend.

I just find it annoying that we cannot enjoy ourselves at the track and enjoy making our Ls faster without Ford or SVT breathing down our necks and in the end they are doing the same excact thing with the mods and racing with SVTOA!!!

 

the bottom line is with a good attorney you could beat any denial of warranty issue(s)....where you have them is that dealerships who are representatives of "the company" by displaying the blue oval moniker are selling aftermarket chips....its ludicrous for them to deny any warranty coverage....this is BIZARRE.... and simply "WRONG" there is obviously not uniformity amongst the ranks.....

 

I get a kick out of that myself. Ford advertises "high performance" numbers like 1/4 mile, top speed, slalom, skidpad, but yet they say the vehicles are intended for "racing". Hmmm, that kind of sounds like false advertising if you ask me

Oh, BTW 2_FAST4U, your point is taken, but you can't really use a Cobra R as a good example, because Rs don't have any warrenty

 

Sal,

Dohh, I forgot about the warrenty thing on the cobra R.

Do you belong to SVTOA? If you do, you got the High Octane Newsletter.

In the newsletter all they talk about is racing events and even have an article about a 2000 Lightning running at a cut down 1/8 mile track!

I know that SVT is CTA(covering their a$$) on this issue by publishing one thing and doing another.

That just pisses me off!!!

I guess all I want is Ford and SVT to be at racing events and say to us, "Great time, I hope you hit those 12s!!", and not sit around taking names and VIN numbers to void warranties, because everybody here knows we give their flag ship vehicles a run for their money and in many cases whoop their a$$es.

I guess I also want Ford to start saying that the Lightning and the Cobra R are the ones to beat when it comes to performance vehicles. They do give a little credit to the cobra Rs, but what kind of credit do we get from Ford? NONE !!

Sorry for ranting here guys, it just gets my goat.