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Early production issues/concerns

6K views 23 replies 22 participants last post by  Zmw 
#1 ·
I am one of the lucky few with a scheduled date in the near future.

It looks like it will be one of the first 100 units built (at least by whats tracked on this forum). Whats the real risk to having such an early production car?

The quality control issues should be constant for all the cars right? Whats the risk of something be discovered after they build like 500 units?

It would be terrible to get such an awesome car to just end up plagued by warranty issues.

Thanks
 
#2 ·
We will find out in a few months. There is nothing that you or anyone else can do about it, so why bother worrying about it?
 
#7 ·
I think the post came out wrong, Trust me i am nothing but excited, as soon as i saw the date i started telling any one who would listen, most of my friends are tired of hearing about the RS.

i guess i was just opening the discussion to see what people think?
 
#10 ·
I think the post came out wrong, Trust me i am nothing but excited, as soon as i saw the date i started telling any one who would listen, most of my friends are tired of hearing about the RS.

i guess i was just opening the discussion to see what people think?
My girlfriend is a very supportive lady, she knows how much I want my car, and she is excited as well...

But she rolls her eyes SO HARD now if I ask her if she wants to watch another focus review with me lol.

I feel your pain.
 
#8 ·
Probably better to have a later build since they are having to pull RDUs out and swap in new units (rumor). If your car is one of the first 100, I assume that it's already been built. Otherwise, if it's not yet built, then I assume that any issues that Ford currently knows of will be fixed in any new builds. That being said no one knows what they might find later.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Just as everything in manufacturering, the longer you wait the better the build quality usually as well as the better the features.

However, the longer you wait the longer without the vehicle.

So don't sweat it as you'll be having fun long before much of us will.
 
#11 ·
Anything is alright by me, as long as it's not the Chevy Cobalt SS Supercharged fiasco. Or terribly reliability to the common knowledge point.


(Cobalt SS supercharged flopped pretty hard, and went Turbo thus making the supercharged worth as much as a discarded chair gum.)
 
#15 ·
The first cars out of the factory may not end up being the first delivered.

Seems like a few of the new releases I've followed, C7, GT350, 6G Camaro, wound up sitting at the factory on quality hold for months while cars produced later were already being delivered. I would expect many of these early produced RS's to sit for a bit or go through some very through inspections before being sent to the port.
 
#16 ·
My wife tells me "shut up already, the car is yours. What's there left to talk about?"

I'm not to worried about to many problems. The chassis has been out for 5 years, the engine since the end of 2014, transmission we know is reliable with all the ST guys making a mountain of torque with just a tune. The only thing I'm worried about is the RDU over heating but a hope an aftermarket cooler is both cheap and easy to install.
 
#17 ·
I'm not to worried about to many problems. The chassis has been out for 5 years
The C1 chasis that the Focus sits on is much much older. It first saw duty in the way back in 2004. But many upgrades have been made over the years.

Really this RS is a parts bin special, so to speak. The newest thing is the RDU but even that came from elsewhere. I don't think there will be many foibles to deal with. Besides this car has been in development for an extremely long amount of time for a limited production that is essentially getting the best parts of other cars.
 
#18 ·
IMHO..the only "early production" ones to worry about, are the cars in the test/show/auto journalist fleet.

I bought a 1990 Audi Coupe Quattro in August of 1990, that was an early production test car. This was one of three in N America, that was part of the test fleet, I have multiple magazine articles that show the car during tests. Audi was supposed to scrap em...but at least this one made it to auction. They stickered at $35 k, I got this one for $15.5k...had 66k miles on it. Less than a year in, $hit started happening...the center diff went bang, literally went bang. Audi initially disavowed the car, would not acknowledge its existence to the dealer even. I was lucky enough to get a replacement tranny from a junk yard for the car, and was also able to retain the core. Electronic gremlins then entered the picture, repetitive problems, that had me replacing TPS, resetting co levels, ignition components et all. Finally my local dealer stood up to Audi, the GM literally told the rep " what a ya mean this car doesn't exist, you built the damn thing...and it's right in front of me!" The wiring harness color code, didn't match anything Audi provided...literally weeks of free labor later, after the car was practically tore apart...the best guess the master tech had was the ecu was bad.

So, new ecu at dealer cost goes in...and it flagged a handful of faults. Bad knock sensors, bad crank sensor..lots of other bits. Lots of new parts in...and better than new. Car was practically flawless for the next 200k miles, finally sold it at 276k.

Personally, any normal production cycle car...doesn't worry me.
 
#21 ·
Def just have to hope for the best. I really hope my early build correlates to an early delivery. Im in so-cal so no snow or salt to worry about here, really be a drag if it sat for a while.

The SO posts are funny. Lots of us in the same boat. Im lucky enough that she understands that i am an enthusiasts and plays along mostly, but i get the same thing, ill point out a sweet car and she just comments on the color or something. And the best is trying to convince my drunk friends that the $40K focus is better than a BMW 328 or base C class, cause you know brand image > than everything else.

its nice to know there are others out there like me!
 
#23 ·
Soooo.... you gonna kill her? Haha
 
#24 ·
I would tell you to drive it like you stole it because frankly if something goes wrong it'll be early enough that hopefully you're still under full warranty... I plan on tracking my car with in the first few k miles and beating it hard - I am not a car abuser but a car with lots of new bits does worry me a bit as well.
 
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