Talk about a freak-out. I'm driving the GT and I look over and see the gas gauge past empty. A few minutes earlier I'd had just under a quarter of a tank, but now I'm in heavy Friday afternoon traffic and no fuel stations are in sight. I couldn't believe the car gulped nearly a quarter tank in the 10 minutes since I'd last looked at the gauge (sure, it will go that fast during top speed testing at the Nardo track in Italy, but not in stop-n-go on PCH)...
Then I happen to glimpse the tach, which was also sitting at zero (bizarre because I had the engine on and was moving at about 20 mph). A glimpse at the speedo, temp and oil pressure dials confirmed the obivous -- the gauge cluster was dead. Suddenly I wished I was back to simply driving on fumes. But the car seemed to be running fine, so I kept going and started wondering how hard it would be to schedule a dealer visit while also driving around without any fuel, temp or oil information (not to mention speed or rpm data). Then I had an inspiration. My old 1970 Plymouth GTX often suffered from intermittent gauge failure, but flipping the headlights on always cured the problem -- at least for awhile. I reached down, flipped the on GT's toggle switch for headlights, and BAM! Every gauge jumped to life. That was over 500 miles ago, and the issue hasn't re-appeared, so maybe it was a fluke (actually, it was obviously a bad ground, but so far not a recurring one). Either way, I love it when my history of driving old Mopars actually aids me in 21st century automotive diagnostics.
Karl Brauer, Editor in Chief, Edmunds.com @ 5710 miles
eric_l says:
07:22 PM, 09/24/06
Well at least your GT hasn't stranded you half a dozen times like Jeremy Clarkson's (of Top Gear). He wrote a hilarious article a while back about how he never made a complete trip with his GT. He would drive it somewhere, and it would break down there.
editor_karl says:
02:11 PM, 09/25/06
I always felt like Jeremy was a bit of a whiner (or is it wanker, since he's British?). The car's problems were basically all traced back to the alarm system, which is supposedly required by British law on cars of a certain expense (sounds like a somebody made a great backroom deal on that one...). So the law requires him to put on a silly alarm, and the installation causes problem with the GT, and it's supposed to be the car's fault. Maybe I'm missing something.
One thing I do know is that at 5,700 miles the car has been nearly flawless (the dealer adjusted both doors for rattles almost a year ago -- and they've been fine since). And I know another GT that just finished a 7,000-mile trip from L.A. to Detroit, then into Canada, then back through Wyoming and Northern California along the coast. Total number of problems: 0.
desmolicious says:
10:26 AM, 09/26/06
Umm, in England a "wanker" means something much ruder. Whiner applies there too.
Even if Clarkson's car troubles were unrelated to the alarm, using a sampling of 1to gauge the reliability of that model car is not exactly representative. Turn it the other way around. By that reasoning if he did not have any problems that that would mean the Ford GT is the most reliable car ever made!
editor_karl says:
12:22 PM, 10/ 3/06
Exactly. And since that's my experience, then obviously the GT IS the most reliable car ever made. (Well, okay, except for the gauges...)
milt721 says:
02:35 PM, 02/ 8/08
Why does the "Volt Meter" use "L" and "H" for the extremes? Shouldn't there be numbers present?