Fordnatics List Archive

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: (email redacted)

Howdie, everybody...

My fiance and I went looking for a Black/Black 5spd '94 GT this last weekend.
As you may recall, our factory order (made in March) was recently cancelled
by Ford - they said that they could not make our car by the end of the pro-
duction run for '94. Apparently, too many orders had been bumped in front of
ours, so we were out of luck.

To make a long story short, I called just about every dealer in the LA/Orange
county area (this is > 20 dealers) to find out if they had the Black/Black
5 spd GT combination available ON THEIR LOT. We spent all day Saturday
looking at these cars. Nobody had exactly the right set of options on cars
available. Many dealers could come close, but only with a 'Laser Red' exterior
(dark red metallic - quite attractive, actually).

Saturday afternoon, we got a call from a dealer 30 miles away who had a
couple of Black Cobra Coupes. We figured - what the heck, what can it
hurt. Well, one of them was in front of the place, loaded, with leather
interior - we wanted cloth. We eventually found the other car on a back
lot, dusty, radio missing, 10 miles on the odometer - with cloth. It had
all the options my fiance wanted, plus keyless illuminated entry (which
has actually come in handy already!) and the bit about being a Cobra...

Sunday, we bought the car. We were prepared to forget about it if the
price stayed up in the stratosphere - but they ended up selling it to us
for under sticker (email me for more info - they have at least 3 more
Cobras). Since the service dept. was closed, we did not
get to see the car cleaned up, or with a radio. Monday, we arrived to
take delivery. Problems at that time were:
1) Paint on the hood had a light overspray of white paint. They agreed
to fix it.
2) Front right tire had a screw in it and only held 15 psi. Good thing
I brought a tire gauge. They agreed to fix it, but wanted me to take it
home - I told them no, since I would be driving 60 miles round trip to
bring it back.
3) No Luggage net. It turns out that while this is included with the
keyless entry sytem on the GT, it is not included on the Cobra (so saith
the sticker and the product literature). We'll pick one up later, if
necesary.
4) The wrong radio head unit had been installed - they put a 'premium
sound' unit in instead of a 'Mach 460' unit, which has a computer controlled
soft touch tape transport and can do Chrome tapes. They said they would
fix it.
We left the car until Tuesday...

Tuesday (our 5th trip to the dealer), we took delivery of the car. The
following problems were still around...
1) The paint requires a colorsand and/or respray. They will respray the
hood, since they also found a scrape in the paint elsewhere on it. They
say it will take two days, and I should make arrangements with the
service manager - they will provide a loaner.
2) Tire was changed out (along with the wheel) for another one. We found the
original tire - with screw - on another Cobra.

Since taking delivery, we have found the following problems -
1) The driver's side window has a chip in the edge, about half way up. My
neighbor found it when she grabbed the door by the window to open it
(and almost cut herself).
2) The radio has a problem with ignition noise - either the plugs are
wrong (not resistor type), or the speaker wires are improperly routed. Is
there a technical service bulletin out about fixing this problem on the
Mach 460 stereo - or is it just my car?
3) The very wide plastic vent that air from the defroster comes out of,
for the front windsheild, is not completely snapped in place. It looks
like it might have been 'forced' at the factory, but they still missed
a snap - it may be warped from sitting this way in the LA sun.

Comments - I love the car - it has abundant power (more than I expected,
having only test driven GTs). It's performance limits are way beyond
my own, and it is absolutely NOTHING like my '66 GT. Too bad it's
my fiances car - maybe she'll let me drive it once in a while...

I would appreciate any input from the list on how to handle some of the
problems I seem to be encountering - way above average, judging
from J.D. Powers' polls.

Thanks,
- --= Eric =--
'66 Mustang GT Coupe, AT
'94 Mustang Cobra Coupe, 5 spd