It's interesting how tunes change (see the comments) when someone loses a bet.
Well, Bodyblue, my boy, you have officially lost. The Mustang rolled through 20K without any fanfare at all this weekend. It's still breaking its tires loose at every opportunity and doesn't give two rips about the way it's been driven over the last 20K miles. It's a durable machine, but probably no more so than most any modern car. Its tranny and clutch are fine -- they feel just as stout as they did on day one and I've experienced none (Zero. Nada. Zilch.) of the noise reported by some.
Tomorrow we'll have a little fun with all this, don't worry. Meanwhile, since I'm certain Bodyblue is a man of his word, I'll be awaiting his resignation from the Fun Police. And we expect to hear no more criticism of burnouts from him. Ever. Again.
Josh Jacquot, Senior editor @ 20,000 miles.
altimadude05 says:
07:03 AM, 01/17/12
Ok, I have a question pertaining to this subject.
When buying a used muscle car, I've always heard that the buyer must be wary because odds are the previous owner of the car beat the snot out of it. Therefore the rear diff, axle, clutch, bearings, breaks, alignment, tires, etc were all going to be suspect.
Does this little bet of yours confirm or negate that the buyer of used muscle cars should still be wary?
blakebyrns says:
07:11 AM, 01/17/12
that makes me sad, i don't want you guys to get rid of it. i like reading stuff about my car. i bought the 2012 because you liked it so much! DO NOT SELL IT
frank908 says:
07:15 AM, 01/17/12
Well so far so good, I think it's working. No sight of the fun fuzz yet.
cr_driver says:
07:42 AM, 01/17/12
Awesome haha.
As I said, from now on, BB won`t mean Bodyblue, instead, will stand for Big Burnouts!
OH yeah.
missmymiata says:
07:44 AM, 01/17/12
Personally, I'd love to see a wrap-up where bodyblue gets to drive the car for himself, as a way of proving the car is fine.
Quite frankly, this whole bet has made burnouts more interesting than they ever were, so kudos to Josh and bodyblue.
bodyblue says:
07:59 AM, 01/17/12
HA! :) This is the first bet that I am glad I lost! BUT I need to see the video before officially surrendering!
Kudos to Ford for making a great and tough car and for making the Camaro look bad (sorry Chevy guys but I was brought home from the hospital from being born in a 65 Mustang)
I will NEVER say again that burn outs are stupid but I will never stop bitching about unsafe driving on public roads...OK?
Congrats Josh, I now officially suck! :) :)
Body(big)Blue(burnout)
aspade says:
08:05 AM, 01/17/12
"It's a durable machine, but probably no more so than most any modern car. "
It is definitely more durable than your Camaro and 370Z, both of which ate their transmissions within the first year. So did the Silverado. And the Raptor. The GTR too IIRC.
bodyblue says:
08:13 AM, 01/17/12
The Raptor needed some work but not a full tear down like the others......remember the Camaros trans in pieces over that filthy shop? Where was Jmatero then?
bimmerjay says:
09:05 AM, 01/17/12
"The GTR too IIRC."
Edmunds' GT-R transmission did not have any problems and did not need replacement. It was replaced at the request of Nissan for two reasons-
1) It had already been removed from the car to fix the fuel system problems so it would not have required any extra work.
2) Edmunds had the highest-mileage GT-R in the U.S. at the time - and one with launch control - so Nissan wanted their transmission back for engineering analysis.
bodyblue says:
09:40 AM, 01/17/12
Lets not forget the Fit's trans failure as well. IL has went through far more transmissions than other car mags in their long term tests. There are two choices.....abuse or bad luck.....ok maybe 3...maybe it is a bit of both.
greenpony says:
10:54 AM, 01/17/12
missmymiata says: "Personally, I'd love to see a wrap-up where bodyblue gets to drive the car for himself, as a way of proving the car is fine."
In the absence of bodyblue, I'll volunteer my services.
litewerk says:
01:11 PM, 01/17/12
Glad to see that the 'Stang held up so far. But, I totally get why our buddy BB made the bet.
bodyblue says:
01:23 PM, 01/17/12
"In the absence of bodyblue, I'll volunteer my services."
I surrender the experience if it is offered! I am afraid the ruptured disc in my back and neuropathy in my legs prevents me from driving a stick shift any more. :( I do miss them quite a bit. I was thinking about this bet earlier today. If by making a big deal out of burnouts, maybe, just maybe somebody will think twice about doing one on a public street. It was totally worth getting trashed on here for the past few months just for that.
I am sure they will nail me tomorrow....I am cringing just to think of it! :)
aspade says:
01:47 PM, 01/17/12
"Edmunds' GT-R transmission did not have any problems and did not need replacement. It was replaced at the request of Nissan for two reasons ... 2) Edmunds had the highest-mileage GT-R in the U.S. at the time - and one with launch control - so Nissan wanted their transmission back for engineering analysis."
Sugar coat much? "Their" transmission "back"? It wasn't a press loaner. Edmunds bought the car at full MSRP at a dealership.
Nissan didn't swap a $15,000 transmission for high mileage analysis. They swapped it because they discovered it was leaking fluid.
teampenske3 says:
02:15 PM, 01/17/12
Nicely done Josh. I too would like to see video. Not for proof mind, I take your word that the car is fine, but just for kicks and grins.
@ BB
Way to be a good sport in the face of defeat. I too oppose unsafe driving on public roads but I usually define that as street racing, tailgating, weaving, texting, etc. For the most part, I believe burnouts are a parking lot affair, with the occasional one on an empty, arrow straight road out in the middle of the desert or flyover country (where you're probably not endangering anyone). And you don't have to worry about me doing a burnout. My car is FWD, and as the Burnout Super Test Part 3 pointed out, FWD burnouts are rather lame.
This has been a fun ride, but this moment is bittersweet, for I know that soon this car will be going to a new owner, leaving the 911, NSX, and Miata (all used) as the only sporty cars (not including the Wrangler, which looks like fun, but only off road) in the long term fleet. I do sincerely hope that you get some hot hatches. Perhaps a Veloster and Focus ST, as those seem to be the two big ones? You've gotten all 3 of the RWD ponycars, so I don't know what to suggest for a RWD long-termer. Though I await the return of a 335i to the LT fleet (you know it'll happen).
bimmerjay says:
04:28 PM, 01/17/12
"Sugar coat much? "Their" transmission "back"? It wasn't a press loaner. Edmunds bought the car at full MSRP at a dealership.
Nissan didn't swap a $15,000 transmission for high mileage analysis. They swapped it because they discovered it was leaking fluid."
Conversely, why would Nissan replace a $15,000 transmission when the customer wasn't reporting any problems with it? Edmunds stated in their long-term wrap-up that they never had even a hint of trouble with the transmission. It wasn't leaking fluid either, the exact words were that they did see moisture present on the seals. It was not stated what it was.
Their car wasn't a press loaner but Nissan engineering was involved in the fuel system repair, so they knew the trans had come out and asked to swap it. With the early-build transmission problems the car had I'm not surprised at all they did this, automakers do it all the time. Both Mazda and Ford have done this to me.
miamifan1 says:
07:29 PM, 01/17/12
@bimmerjay:
put yourself in their shoes. they buy a $80k nissan then nissan, out of the kindness of their heart, decides to abduct your transmission. would you be:
1. happy? thankful?
2. suspicious and angry.
you sound like this is par/course and it's not. that car was riddled with problems. nissan getting involved with exchanging a tranny, gratis, is fishy as hell.
i don't know about you, but i've never seen/heard of such a thing as a manufacturer voluntarily alter a private car, unprovoked.
bimmerjay says:
08:37 PM, 01/17/12
"you sound like this is par/course and it's not. that car was riddled with problems. nissan getting involved with exchanging a tranny, gratis, is fishy as hell."
I agree it's not normal. But in context it's understandable, in my opinion. There were reports of all kinds of problems with GT-R transmissions at that time, and Nissan was certainly scrambling to fix it. Hearing that a high-mileage car with active launch control was in for a service - and the trans had to be dropped anyway - is a golden opportunity for them to obtain some field service knowledge. That would have been a wasted opportunity on their part NOT to ask for it back.
"i don't know about you, but i've never seen/heard of such a thing as a manufacturer voluntarily alter a private car, unprovoked."
It's happened to me twice, both with newly released/redesigned models:
I had a Mustang with the Mach audio system that blew a subwoofer. While it was at the dealership for the warranty repair, a Ford customer service rep (not the dealership) contacted me and requested to replace the head unit and the amps even though she assured me no problems were found with them. The reason she gave was that they wanted my complete system electronics back for testing.
The other occurrence was with my Mazda6. The clutch was making a strange noise practically right off the dealership's lot. After a week at the dealership they called me and said Mazda had come out to look at the car and asked if they could replace the entire transmission, even though the problem was specifically with the clutch. In that instance I went on an extended test drive with the Mazda engineers themselves - who had flown in from Japan to try and figure out what was wrong.
Given these experiences it doesn't surprise me at all that Nissan would do that with their brand-new $80K halo supercar.
bimmerjay says:
08:41 PM, 01/17/12
"put yourself in their shoes. they buy a $80k nissan then nissan, out of the kindness of their heart, decides to abduct your transmission. would you be:"
... not to be too pedantic but Nissan asked for permission to do it, Edmunds could have easily said no. In both my experiences I was given the same option to say no with the assurance that my car would still be fixed properly.
510fivepointoh says:
10:32 PM, 01/17/12
I second Blakebyrns, I love reading this blog. Not that I need the reassurance as I get to enjoy firsthand my 2012 Mustang 5.0 with the brembo daily, but it rocks to hear more experienced and savvy drivers giving props to my car on a weekly basis. Social psychologists coined the term BIRG-ing, which stands for basking in reflective glory. I'm happy to say that I get to BIRG each time I get behind the wheel of this wondrous automobile. Thanks for the great entries, guys!