re ford probe opinions centered around the gt in article apr ncsu edu chuck eos ncsu edu chuck kesler writes jeremy g mereness zonker cmu edu says can anyone offer any opinions of the ford probe ala how they do in the long run repair records reliability mileage etc some other owners on the ford probe world std com mailing list have commented about this problem but i haven t seen it happen on my month old probe gt i think this may be something that ford has corrected since the initial batch of cars also someone said that ford has issued a service bulletin to inform dealers about how to correct this problem so you may be able to get your dealer to fix it i have had my probe looked at twice by my local dealer where i purchased the car the first time they made this problem worse the second time after advising them of the service bulletin mentioned on my ford probe mailing list they said they didn t know of the bulletin they adjusted the window and made it much better however it now makes a scritch scritch noise on rough roads and still squeals when i open close the window in wet weather anyone elses s do this ford only gives key with the car c mon ford spend an extra few pennies i got two keys with my car but only one remote entry push button thingie but then i bought my with miles and i think it may have been a repossession so i m not surprised something was missing horn buttons behind air bag in spokes and not in center personal preference i am seriously considering following the advice in the owners manual where it describes the procedure to follow if you discover something on your ford that could cause serious injury threaten lives etc something about notifying the national traffic safety group as well as ford those little you ve got to position the fingers perfectly to make it beep buttons are terrible the latter is probably because of the air bag it s pretty much takes up all the space where you d expect to find the horn speaking of the horn i was surprised to find that the probe comes with one of those nice merican sounding horns instead of the japanese sounding kind the previous probes had japanese horns well i guess that s good in a way but in a way it s bad when someone hears that kind of horn they expect to see a big american car they may not associate the sound with a small jap car style car like the probe is tires fling dirt mud onto side of car yeah not very badly but enough to be annoying sometimes the mudflaps help a lot transmission the speed is a must i have always been a speed guy almost every car i ve ever owned has been a speed because i got a good deal on this car with the miles i knowingly overlooked the fact that it has an automatic but it is a pretty high tech automatic it is a fully electronicaly controlled speed with torque converter lockup even with the automatic i m getting mpg on the highway driving but of course driving is illegal so i probably made that sentence up around town the mileage has been around not bad for an automatic of course it doesn t have the control of a speed but since i do a lot of city driving it turns out to be very convenient it s nice to be able to drink a cup of coffee and drive at the same time although that too is illegal here in we like to control your life massachusetts no shake rattle noises when going over bumps potholes still shakes and rattles has been my main gripe i ve gotten them to fix the worst of them but i fear that with the rather harsh ride the car will be a virtual potpouri of rattles when it gets older tires vr goodyear eagles left hoping for k on my probe gl i got about k out of the original goodyears and had driven the replacement tires bridgestone k miles when i tradeed the car the vr firestones on my probe look like they re designed for performance ie rather wide shallow tread etc so they probably won t last as long but the car handles very very very well it sticks to the road like glue even on a rough surface interior is very very nice too very pleasing to the eye and ergonomically sound definitely ford mazda did a very very nice job on this one the car has a much more expensive than it actually is look and feel to it yes this car s stiff suspension isn t for everyone i personally like it but if you find it a little harsh but otherwise like the car i d strongly suggest looking into the mx having driven an probe for years i find the suspension interesting the car actually drives much better than the it is a very firm ride and you definitely know about each and every bump in the road yet the car remains very civilized on even the bumpiest roads you hear and feel the bumps yet the car retains its posture very well if you have passengers by all means bring them along too they ll find that they have no room in the back and you ll find that the car rides differently if that s better is up to you well i wouldn t encourage passenger carrying in the probe unless the person in the front seat likes to sit with his knees to the dash as mentioned in the consumer reports write ups consider the back seat as a parcel shelf no biggie to me though if it had been i d not have bought the car but it s definitely not a family car also there s a lot of glass around you which i wasn t expecting the temperature inside the car gets pretty hot in the summer a c is a must on any probe from the in particular sends out a real blast of cool air when the ac is on max that lots of glass you mentioned is what gives the car the very good visibility reports you see in all the write ups most sports sporty cars don t have that good visibility i ve heard that the exhaust system has trouble but mine works fine i haven t heard about this one i know that some of the very early probes and maybe had problems with prematurely rusting mufflers which the complaints i ve heard re exhaust system on s have been on the gt of course being a different engine that is a differeent exhaust system i was one of those with an who qualified for the free replacement since i had already replaced the muffler when i received the notice i was am due a refund from ford i applied in february and am still waiting gave me a free rental car for the day and a half that i was without my car i was quite happy with the way they handled especially considering that i was expecting the worst from them yes i was pretty amazed when i had my car in for some touch up adjustments this past week and they had to keep it overnight too busy for them to get to it and they offered to pay for a rental they did make me pay for taxes and insurance though from what i ve heard it sounds like ford mazda had some qc problems with the probe and probably mx when they first went into production but i think these problems have mostly been corrected at this point that s almost always to be expected with a completely new car like this though i have to agree that they seem to have some qc problesm but i seriously feel the car design is sound and expect it to do very well bill heiser heiser acs bu edu heiser world std com boston university boston ma
