New Ford Mustang Dark Horse Delivered With Mismatched Taillights From The Factory

Everyone makes mistakes, but when a major automaker like Ford sells a car with mismatched parts, it suggests there were several slip-ups along the way. That’s precisely what happened to an American owner of a new Ford Mustang Dark Horse, which was delivered with taillights from two different regions: one from North America and the other likely from Australia / New Zealand or Europe!

While this story might conclude with a sheepish grin and a replacement taillight, such a glaring oversight shouldn’t have made it past the factory gates in the first place.

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If Ford were to allow this owner to replace the ‘correct’ taillight on his car with a matching ‘incorrect’ version, it would make his Mustang very unique – although we find this unlikely as logic (and perhaps regulations, too) dictate that the company will in all likelihood install the U.S.-spec unit.

The Dark Horse belongs to Jim Manderano from Texas, who recalls trailing behind his wife on their way home as she drove the 500-horsepower pony car. At some point, he realized there was a problem: the tail lights on the couple’s new ride didn’t match.

While the right-side housing boasted simple amber reflectors from top to bottom, the left housing presented a different picture, with the bottom section of the lights sporting a darker shade.

They seem to be identical to those designed for other countries and regions such as Australia, New Zealand and Europe. It wasn’t until Manderano went onto a Facebook owner’s forum that he found that out. Other owners confirmed that he’s in a unique situation as nobody else is reporting a similar problem.

Essentially, this Mustang not only had the wrong light installed, but the light in question should never have been available for a US-spec car.

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On top of that, it had to pass through several checks before it ultimately ended up in the hands of its new owners. That means that quality checks at Ford corporate didn’t catch it and neither did the pre-delivery inspection at the dealer. Obviously, neither Manderano nor his wife saw it at that time either. Functionally, there’s no major issue as the lights work as intended.

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That has left the Manderanos hoping that Ford will replace the US-spec light with another AU / EU specification version. It would make their car a one-off factory-produced Dark Horse with these lights.

However, this endeavor has proven challenging so far. According to Manderano, “[the] Dealership said they would replace it, but could only be with the US spec one unless corporate tells them to do the AU/EU one. I’m just waiting to hear back now.”