Dealers Will Have To Go Through Hell To Service The New Ford GT
Servicing the new Ford GT seems like a total nightmare based on an article from
All Ford Mustangs, which
claims to have a Ford internal memo detailing what dealers have to go
through to do even basic work on the sexy GT. The hurdles include
requiring a special clean room, transporting the cars to and from
clients on $30,000 trailers, and flying in “doctors” from Canada for
major repairs. Clearly, this car is kind of a big deal.
All Ford Mustangs says only a select few certified dealerships
will be able to service the GT, and only Master Ford technicians with
training from Multimatic—the Canada-based company that assembles the
GT—will be able to turn a wrench on the hypercars.
Though
All Ford Mustangs says that “in unique circumstances
the certified technician may be required to perform repairs at the
clients home,” most of the time, the cars will need to be serviced at
dealerships. And to get the cars there, dealers will have to drop
$30,000 on specialized enclosed trailers, which they’ll use to pick up
the cars from clients’ homes or workplaces.
Once the car is at the dealership, it must be covered and kept in a
special “clean room work area,” which will be off-limits to anyone but
the Ford GT-certified Ford master techs and “Ford GT Designated member
of service management”—who also happen to be the only two people allowed
to drive the car while it’s in the shop.
But even once the car is in the clean room, those certified master
techs can only conduct basic repairs. As soon as a GT needs major work, a
Multimatic “fly-in doctor” will have to swoop in to the dealership and
save the day.
Then there are the
really serious repair jobs, like body
work, major powertrain rebuilds, and fixes that require “splitting the
back half of the car from the main vehicle tub assembly.” Those jobs,
called “Group 3" repairs, will require the car to be transported to a
Multimatic repair facility.
Clearly, fixing these things isn’t exactly straightforward.
But that’s not all. In addition to the approximately $30,000 that they’ll have to spend on a trailer,
All Ford Mustangs says
certified dealerships also need to spend approximately $1,500 on four
GoJak 4520 wheel lift dollies (to lift the carbon-fiber monocoque) and
about $700 on a transmission jack adapter.
On top of all of the money they have to spend and all of the
provisions they need to make in their shops in order to service the GT,
Ford dealers will also have to have someone on their management team who
is “directly reachable at all times should they be required to receive
the car after hours and store it inside the building for the sake of
safety.”
So, not only are dealerships going to have to spend lots of money,
pick up and drop off cars, train their technicians, and fly in
specialists from Canada, but they’re also going to lose sleep. That’s
rough.
(Jalopnik.com)
