This is actually the source of a lot of controversy on the Mustang forums. It's largely a misrepresentation of the issue at hand. This article is based on
one thread on a Mustang forum with around 3,000 posts in it from around 250 different users. At least 90% of these posts are attributable to select few. The article is very vague and just assumes that these 250 posters account for the "hundreds" of "broken" transmissions, which is not true.
So far we know of one user that actually had a defective transmission, which was replaced. Unfortunately he turned out to be the type of person who would make it his personal crusade to go after Ford because of it.
The rest of the complaints are about clunky shifts, mainly when cold. As anyone who has driven a manual transmission - especially a direct-input or semi-remote style - will tell you, on cold starts the 1-2 and sometimes 2-3 shifts can be a little rough. Anyone who has been on this forum since the early days will remember all the complaints from nubs we would have to respond to because they thought that clunky 1-2 shift was a grind and something was wrong with their transmission.
That's what's going on here. Inexperienced manual transmission drivers are reporting every little clunk they hear or feel and in many cases are misdiagnosing them as "grinds." A clunk is fine. After the transmission warms up it's buttery smooth.
I have 13,000 miles on mine so far and I have not had any issues. I definitely experience a cold shift clunk on the 1-2 over the winter or on chilly mornings, but never a grind or anything truly faulty. I am an experienced driver, though, so I know not to freak out and cry to Ford because the Getrag in my 412 HP car is making a little noise.
As a Z community, we went through these complaints in '09 (remember the infamous Modshack one-liner, "is this your first car?"
), and for the Mustang community they are dealing with the same thing in 2011. The 5.0 has brought on a lot of newer, inexperienced drivers to the Mustang ranks. And it so happens that these nub owners are some of the whiniest I have ever observed on an internet forum.
Why do you think I have 24k+ posts here?
Overall I'd say the Getrag MT-82 is a fine transmission. Would it have been my number one choice? No, I'd have loved to see a beefier T56 in there with a true direct input, but it does seem like the MT82s are holding up to repeated abuse... there are a few 600-700whp cars running the stock transmission without any issues yet.
I think all this is is the 2009 370 6MT saga all over again. You have a few transmissions replaced for bum synchros (it happens) and then a lot of complaints from inexperienced drivers for things that the experienced guys know are normal. The only difference is that the Mustang is getting a lot more exposure because the nubs are more vocal and there are just more Mustangs out there (the MT-82 is used in the V6 and V8 models, so you have to figure at least 25k manual transmission 2011 models have been sold).
Oh, and there are a lot of old-guard Mustang "buy 'murrcan" owners that are just bitching because the transmission is designed by a German company and built in their
Communist Chinese factory. I guarantee you if this was a Tremec (Mexico) there'd be far fewer complaints, because most good 'Murrcans have learned to accept that some goods can indeed be built in Mexico and Canada... 'cause we're attached to 'em and can supervise 'em, ya know?
