Bye Bye Bossy - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

BossyXR8 · 03-26-2005, 02:35

Well , that's it for me.
I'm off to the land of mediocrity as my beautiful XR8 has been sold and replaced with a car more suited to moving the family. It is a sad day for me, as this has by far been the car I have most liked to drive.

Owning the XR8 has had it's ups and downs, I've had a number of problems with it, the worst of which was the extremely poor quality standard brakes that were on the car when I purchased it. I got a set of RDA fronts rotors and lucas pads, along with some lines and decent fluid and the problem was solved immediately. The braking performance, and therefore overall car performance increased dramatically. You can believe what you will as there has been plenty of threads posted on this topic, but I've proven that the metal used in the rotors was garbage, as the new rotors do not warp with heat or wear over time to produce the dreaded shudder, as the originals did. It cost me $660.00 for the solution out of my own pocket, and I should never have had to pay, and Fords band aid style re-machining solution was just not good enough. I'm still annoyed that such a poor critical system was allowed to be fitted to an otherwise fantastic car. I think the Series II has an improved system, which is good for you guys buying them. That's not teh reason I sold it though as I still liked the car (once the issues were fixed, one way or another).

Mine wasn't the fastest out there by any means, but with the breathing mods I made, it sounded absolutely fantastic from in the cabin when stretching it's legs (Never heard it from outside). Better than any of the other V8s I've been in. I loved jumping in to it early on a crisp Canberra morning, getting out onto the highway and letting it sing.

I traded it in at a Mazda dealer, and immediately on delivering the car a young salesman and a mechanic jumped in and took it for a spin. A bitter pill to swallow but one I inevitably had to take.

"It's great to drive a car with this much power" that salesman said, and I dare say he never even turned the traction control off.

"Mazda don't make cars like this". Well you're right there mate !

But would I buy another one ? I've seen too many horror stories of warranty issues, and I just don't believe Ford are looking after all of their customers. They appear to be focused on deadlines and not quality, which, as any project manager will tell you is a fundamental mistake. I also believe the BOSS motors are capable of way more. I'd like to see a lighter model sports V8 being produced. Perhaps Ford should have dumped one of these motors into the Cougar (yeah that does start sounding like a mustang!) In the future I'll have another look at FPV vehicles as I think there are some really great things to come out of that organisation. But that will be a number of years away, and the culture of Ford as a national organisation must change as well.

Anyway, the next day a couple of kids were skateboarding down my street, and being the friendly bloke I am I said g'day.

Kid: "You own that blue Ford don't you ?"

Me: "I used to mate"

Kid: "That is such a cool car"

Me: " It sure was fella, it sure was".

dawal5 · 03-26-2005, 06:02

sad story mate.... i hope you find your way back to the blue oval some time down the track.

btw out of interest what mazda did you buy?

BossyXR8 · 03-26-2005, 15:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by dawal5

sad story mate.... i hope you find your way back to the blue oval some time down the track.

btw out of interest what mazda did you buy?

With 9 month old twins and a 3.5 year old toddler, the best car we could find in the class was an MPV. We looked at the Territory, but it just wasn;t quite what we were after.

Till_Lind · 03-27-2005, 02:46

Sad, sad story. :'(

Cam · 03-28-2005, 11:31

So a Ford Falcon sedan isn't a family car ? ... news to me.