Ford GT Works Gummed Up as Company Issues Delay Notices to Customers

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

Handcrafted automobiles are a rarity these days but, if you add enough digits to the vehicle’s price tag, companies can still find a handful of buyers willing to fund the expensive production method. One model included on that short list is the Ford GT, the iconic American mid-engine two-seater assembled in Canada. With the help of Multimatic, Ford can usually slap one together every 24 hours under ideal circumstances.

Unfortunately, deliveries of the GT are starting to fall behind. It’s a little embarrassing, especially when you consider Ford only wants to build 250 a year, but it’s also entirely understandable, as a large portion of the assembly process seems to involve pushing the chassis around on a dolly through a mostly empty factory. You can’t rush perfection, and handcrafted perfection takes even longer.

At least, that’s what the automaker cites as the reason for the delivery delay.

In a letter sent to customers waiting on their GT, Ford stated, “The craftsmanship required to build these vehicles for global markets has required that we adjust our original timing projections.”

Exactly how much of an adjustment is required was not unspecified, but we know the company was supposed to build 250 GTs this year and isn’t anywhere close to the halfway point. A Ford spokesman puts the number of vehicles produced so far at the Markham, Ontario factory at close to 50.

Ford claims it will provide customers with a new three-month projected delivery window within a week.

According to Automotive News, supplier constraints and official testing regimens in certain markets is behind the production stall. A little red tape and a missing part doesn’t sound too terrible; hopefully the automaker can get production back on track and make deliveries a little more predictable.

[Image: Ford Motor Company]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • NeilM NeilM on Jul 22, 2017

    ghostwhowalksnz writes: "Sure robots weld the body together before but there is nothing wrong with that." The Ford GT's body is carbon fiber, so there would be lots wrong with that.

    • Ghostwhowalksnz Ghostwhowalksnz on Jul 22, 2017

      I was clearly referring to the standard assembly line process to emphasis the one part that was done by robots while the rest is 'hand built'. Hand built of course means made by human hands. Heres very good look at the factory as one of the buyers talks about the process.-16 mins http://fordauthority.com/2017/06/each-new-ford-gt-takes-multimatic-nine-days-to-assemble-video/ Those optional carbon fibre wheels seem awesome. Its does cover the assembly process and internal details well. Has an internal roll cage as I know in my town a driver of a top end Mclaren rolled his

  • GiddyHitch GiddyHitch on Jul 24, 2017

    Matt and the commenters seem to be focused on Multimatic and the assembly process as the root cause of production delays, but take a moment to consider how many thousands of individual parts which in turn are made into hundreds of subassemblies have to be delivered in spec to Multimatic in order for them to build a single car. Now ratchet up the difficulty level several orders of magnitude because the parts needed for the GT are almost all going to be bleeding edge, low volume, and single sourced. So while there may be issues at Multimatic, I would wager that the problem is further down the supply chain.

  • SCE to AUX It's fun when liberal interests fight each other.
  • Varezhka Suzuki Jimny, Toyota Century, and I know it technically just ended production but Honda e.
  • CoastieLenn For those that care to read the details of the crash NOT included in this article but published elsewhere- this happened at nearly 10pm when the CRV was stopped in the center lane of travel, lights off, with the driver remaining in the car. Not only is it not known if Blue Cruise was being used, it would have been a nightmare for most alert human drivers to mitigate that driving the 70+mph speed limit on many sections of I-10 in Texas, much less an AV system.
  • Jeff This is what I would want: Toyota has now released an affordable truck called the Toyota IMV 0. The newly developed vehicle made in Thailand comes with a rear-wheel drive and a gasoline 2.0-liter inline-four matched to a 5-speed manual transmission. NEW $10,000 Toyota Pickup Has Ford & GM Crapping ... YouTube · Tech Machine 8 minutes, 46 seconds Dec 26, 2023
  • Jalop1991 At the same time, let's take these drivers off the road--at least the ones that haven't yet taken themselves off the road.I can guarantee, at no point was this guy or any of the dead Tesla-stans actually driving the car. They were staring at their phones, because, HEY, SELF DRIVING!!
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