Long story guys but I would appreciate your advice.... On Sat. Dec. 17th, I picked up my new White/Blue Ford GT (2005, #421, old MSRP). On Christmas day, I drove to my parents house (130 miles). The car ran beautifully. That evening I planned on returning home, but the battery was dead. On the way up that day, I had smelled rotten egg (sulfuric acid) type vapors in the car. Turns out the battery had fried and the Optima had been venting gasses. I had to stay the night at my parents since nobody was open on X-mas day. Next day I bought a new Optima and returned home. The Ford dealership in my parents' town didn't carry the Ford GT black top optima so I ponied up just to get on the road and home. I went to my dealership here to have the car checked out, to make sure the charging system wasn't bad. The battery cradle had some corrosion from the boiled over battery and they took it out, repainted it and were going to reimburse me for the red-top Optima I had installed. I felt better having a new battery in the car anyway, as stock batteries don't seem to last long. This car had been in the showroom for sometime, so battery failure didn't really surprise me. They also got me a new luggage insert as the original one had some damage from me hauling the old battery back to them (only place I could put it other than in the car with me and my girlfiend). At this point the car had 350 miles on it and I'm good to go, but the service people call me and tell me they want to test the car "under driving conditions". Turns out the service technician takes the car for a spin and the next call I'm getting is that the front air dam and rear air diffuser have been damaged by a dip he drove over. I went to the Ford dealership today to look at my car. The story has changed and now apparently the technician lost control and had an "off". He is their lead mechanic with 18 year experience, etc... "GT certified". He says he just lost control?! Damage as best as I can tell includes the front and back aero pans and also the front left carbon fibre body panel under the fog lamp and some cracking of the nose piece under the air intake. The carbon fibre rear air diffuser sits quite a bit off the ground and I think the car swapped ends into a roadside ditch, although the story is muddy at this point. I am somewhat upset at the situation to say the least. I met with the main GM of the dealership and have demanded that a factory based technician work on the car. If they can't get their story straight, I don't have much faith in them technically. The story I am hearing is called a "wreck" (usually happens when you leave the road surface), not "we bumped the underside of your car". I am concerned that a hit that damaged the front and back underpanels of the car may have done damage to the frame and suspension. I have warned them about being careful with putting the car on a lift, and they are aware of having to use boards to raise the car prior to placing lift pads. It's the holiday weekend so I'll hopefully have a full damage estimate Tues. when its up on a lift. The head GM seems earnest in making the car "whole and new" again. He's petrified for sure and knows I won't accept anything but perfect. I can tolerate a couple of underpanel pieces being traded out, but if it gets deeper than that I'm gonna have problems. Am I out of line for asking for outside factory help? These guys have sold only 2 GT's in '05 and I doubt they have any experience with service or bodywork. The stigma of having a car that was in a "shunt" also bothers me. Is there a point where I demand a new car since they essentially wrecked my brand new one? Anyway, sorry for the long sob story. My year really can't get any worse actually. My girlfriend, who is a nurse, battled ovarian cancer this year and after 4 abdominal operations is really doing well. We have been through a lot together and getting this car at Christmas was supposed to end the year on a positive note. She loves cars as much as I do. Hopefully things will turn out OK. Happy New Year to all.
