Ford Quashes Cobra Crisis

Ford Motor Co. is downplaying an engine problem that stopped production of its '03 SVT Mustang Cobra. We'll make up our target production of 12,000 units, a spokesman says. We didn't lose any Cobras. All the customers are happy. All the dealers are communicated to. A dealer communication publicly raised a red flag concerning the defect, leading Ford to admit production was suspended in October. It

Ford Motor Co. is downplaying an engine problem that stopped production of its '03 SVT Mustang Cobra.

“We'll make up our target production of 12,000 units,” a spokesman says. “We didn't lose any Cobras. All the customers are happy. All the dealers are communicated to.”

A “dealer communication” publicly raised a red flag concerning the defect, leading Ford to admit production was suspended in October. It was supposed to resume in mid-November.

“It was an issue that was found during the manufacturing process quality control checks. Engineering was involved,” the spokesman says.

While Ford is mum when asked to detail the glitch, the auto maker is vocal about what the glitch is not. And it's not the intercooler problem that caused the '01 SVT F-150 Lightning to leak coolant and force a 9,000-unit recall.

The '03 Cobra is powered by a 390-hp supercharged 4.6L V-8.

Please login or register to post comments

Related Resources

Navigation-system maker TomTom is offering downloads of celebrity voices (including some of these) to guide you on your route. Who would you like to have tell you where to go?

Data Center

There are a number of ways to find data on WardsAuto:

BROWSE : Explore the breadth of WardsAuto data by geography and data type.
SEARCH: Use keywords and filters to search all data.
Reference: View reference and non-time-series data.
Public Data: A collection of data tables available to non-subscribers.

A subscription is required to see locked content.
We also welcome requests for customized data.

Go to Data Center