26th Jan 2008, 20:03
A vast majority of people who drive a manual transmission have absolutely no idea how it works, or particularly in the case of those that buy high performance cars, that there is a HUGE difference between a race transmission and a transmission made to be operated on the street. A racing transmission is not suitable to be driven on the street, just as a street transmission is not suitable for racing.
A racing transmission is a completely different design than a street transmission and was meant to be slammed from one gear to the next at high RPMs without matching revs. In fact, the transmission will not even function properly if you don NOT do that. But, if you go slamming a street transmission from one gear to the next without matching revs. (or even slam it with matching revs.) you WILL destroy it.
With a proper shift, the transmission should "fall" out of the initial gear and into the next. If at any time you have to apply any more pressure than it would take to break an egg shell, you are doing it wrong. I have seen so many manual transmissions destroyed by people who simply have no idea how to operate them, and then when the transmission inevitably fails, go blaming the car for their butcher job. I strongly suspect this is what happened here.
22nd Jan 2009, 10:25
This what I never get? Why buy a car like a Mustang and then drive it sensibly?? If I want to drive a car sensibly, I'll go get myself a Focus.
But I wouldn't slate Ford either for their customer service; at the end of the day, they're a company, and this may make some of you upset, but once you have bought the car, they don't care about you, you're just one of hundreds of thousands of people that they sold a car to. I doubt they care about you!! As long as I get my car fixed, after that I don't care.
Another thing; Mustangs are not the cheapest cars in the world (not the most expensive either) and have high performance parts in them, which if you stress them a lot they will eventually break, but if you have the money to buy a performance car, you should have the money to keep it running.
Another thing (LOL!!), Ford have made these cars so that it is possible for people that earn less than a tycoon can afford them!! Can you really expect them to be flawless?? If you do then at this point you might think you're some sort of animal or that you can fly.
If you want reliability, speed, comfort and all the rest, go buy a Bentley.
28th Aug 2007, 11:25
I have to agree with comment 13:41.
As a mechanic and car enthusiast, I meticulously maintain all my cars, and drive in such a way that the components last a very long time. That doesn't necessarily mean driving slowly, but it does mean avoiding hard braking and excessive fast starts.
I routinely get 100,000 miles out of a set of brake pads, and I have never had an engine or transmission failure. This includes a Dodge and a Buick that went a quarter of a million miles, and a Ford that topped 300,000, all with only routine servicing.
Driving style has a tremendous effect on the way any car holds up. Most cars made today by any manufacturer will go well over 100,000 miles with absolutely ZERO repairs unless they are abused unmercifully.