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