Marauder adventures

[marauder307]

As most of you know, I've been out here in Honolulu for the last few months...the Hulk joined me out here a few weeks after my own arrival.

I'd like to dedicate this thread to Marauder adventures of a semi-international flavor...Hawaii's about as far out on the fringe as you can get and still be in the U.S.

There's a few MMs out here; I've seen one other one, up in the Kaneohe area, and street rumor has it that U of HI's campus police have a few (including a blue one, which if it's for real would most likely be the only one in HI). The aforementioned CVE (Crown Vic Effect) is kinda hit-or-miss out here; with the foglights on the Hulk doesn't quite resemble the CVPI and folks don't pay it a lot of attention. But in the daylight the CVE seems to work more often.

Traffic sucks out here; getting home through Waikiki on H-1 takes about 30 mins to cover 5 miles. The stretch of H-1 that runs by the airport is more open, but HI drivers are notoriously timid, so I end up looking like a runaway jerk just trying to maintain a decent highway speed (i.e. something in excess of 45 mph). Speed limits are posted at 50-55 (H-3's up to 60) but driving the limit is something you'll never see; the local wahines are either driving like a bat outta hell or crawling along at 10-15.

One of the funnier sights you'll see here is on the road signs: the interstate symbol (the red/white/blue shield) with the letters "IH-1" or -2 or -3 in the middle of it. Technically speaking, these are interstates, because they're funded by the same federal monies that run the system back on the mainland---but unless there's a Pacific Tunnel that runs between Hono and San Diego that I haven't heard about, they're not actually interstates.

Some of the best cruising sights are here too...for those of you that visit, try the H-3 from Hono to Kaneohe. When you break out of the tunnel on the Kaneohe side, you're halfway up a sheer mountain face, driving down on a long curve toward the Marine Corps base. The entire bay is laid out and the view is unobstructed. Beautiful! Apparently the North Shore along the Kamehameha Hwy is supposed to be good too, but I haven't gotten there yet...

One day last week, during a lull in the action at work, I decided to go on the open-access computer at work and bring up MM.net. One of my coworkers, a USAF officer who'd just reported aboard from Germany, looked over my shoulder, and remarked that he'd seen a couple of MMs at Ramstein AB in Germany, both standard-issue black. Sounds interesting...anybody else heard of MMs operating on the autobahn?

Wonder if the Porsche and BMW drivers have seen 'em....or maybe they're just sitting around wondering what that big black car was, that just blew their lederhosen off.....?

I'll post again here, semi-frequently. Consider this a sort of auto-blog for the Marauder set. See ya later!

[marauder307]

A week or so gone by, and more adventures. Met a lady today at the Koko Marina Center; happened to see her pull in with her 2003 MM, black, sporting a Light Flint interior and T/C, but no heated seats. I introduced myself and invited her to visit the site. Sorry to say I've forgotten her name now, but she was very nice and was apparently having some trouble with her transmission---sounded like torque converter "chatter", from her description.

The car apparently has an erstwhile showbiz history: by her account, it was the showpiece Marauder for the Honolulu Auto Show back in 2003. If you're reading, ma'am, please feel free to join up; you won't find better support for your car anywhere.

Got my oil changed today; RP 5W-20. Good stuff. With the weather being its usual level of nice, I decided to hit the road this evening and run the Hulk, HARD. It needed it...the front end has picked up a squeak, most likely the Addco swaybar bushings (I've had it happen before). At fillup tonight at the Koko Marina 76 station (92 octane), I clocked 19 mpg even out of this last tank, the best I've ever had for intown mileage.

I digress. I took the Hulk out tonight for a hard trot, like I said, and had some fun with a battered older-gen Acura Integra on H-1 and H-201. I don't think he was ready for the sight of a blacked-out fullsize fordor running up his tailpipe...pretty sure I gave him a scare. Good... There were cops everywhere tonight and not one of them gave me a second glance as I went blazing by at 75. It's nice to have a "cop car" sometimes...

Sure wish I could hear from some of the other MM.net Honolulu owners...Gunslinger's a busy guy, I know, but that still leaves hawaiimarauder and one other guy....RWTsomething.

Will have some pictures next week...may have to get Bunnylady to do some more photocropping for me. See y'all then...:wave:

[CBT]

A gal pal of mine is stationed in Hawaii, NSG Khunia or Kuhnia can never spell it right. She don't own a Marauder, though.

[marauder307]

36,018, to be precise.

36,018. This is now the number that registers on my odometer; the 36,000 mark was hit a few miles from the office as I was speeding home along the H-1 by Honolulu Int'l Airport. It was dark out; I work the afternoon-to-evening shift at the office these days, and H-1 was less crowded than it is in the daylight.

Darkness has always favored my particular MM. The very day I picked it up, I'd driven for 8 straight hours from Montgomery (AL) to Daytona and I'd just spent 45 mins at the Ford dealer looking for a Mach 1 (the only one they had was an automatic and I preferred a standard), and then looking at a CV-LXS. I'd already been talking to Daytona L-M about one of the two MMs they had on the lot; after leaving the Ford place I went straight over. There they were, nose to nose under the floodlights at the front of the lot...4 hours and a lot of haggling over interest rates later, I drove Double-0-Eight---aka "The Black Hulk"---back to the hotel. Later that night, I was restless enough to get out of bed and go for a drive. I went around to all my favorite spots, the places I used to enjoy...on the way back to the hotel, on I-95, I had a Clint Eastwood-in-"Firefox" moment and decided to see what this thing could do. After blowing past a couple of late-night truckers, the familiar sight of red/blue strobes came on about a mile behind me. I figured I was done...pulled into the right lane and waited for the inevitable.

The trooper went right by me and never even slowed down...and the legend of the Black Hulk was born. That was February 18th 2003.

Fast forward a year later. Late February 2004, and I'm in St. Louis, muttering at my cursed luck for getting stuck in a place that gets not just cold, but EFFIN' cold. I'm getting ready to close on a condo with a carport; not the best arrangement but the best that I could afford, given my salary. The paint has already begun to show its flaws and all I can do is try to keep a wax job on it, but the industrial fallout from parking next to the Anheuser-Busch brewery isn't helping. The odometer reads somewhere in the neighborhood of 11-12k miles. There's a mysterious tick in the engine; nobody can tell me what the devil it is. My gas mileage hasn't fallen, and nothing else seems to be happening so other than worrying, there's not much else I can do. The daily runs up and down I-55 are a pain in the a.ss. Already, the Hulk has traveled far: from Daytona home to Montgomery, then up to St. Louis, a round trip home to Montgomery for Christmas '03, and of course, LOTS of commuting...not to mention putting the occasional ricer back in its place...

Another year passes...February 2005. I'm down in Port Arthur, Texas; my USCG Reserve affiliation has gotten me into a another fine mess. I spend my days/nights/all the bloody time on duty at the Marine Safety Office there in sleepy little Port Arthur. Not much to the place, but I like the small-town feel, much better than St. Louis. By now the Hulk's odo reads around 24-25k; it was a long two-day drive to get here from STL. The ricer contingent in Pt. Arthur/Beaumont is out of control, but the sight of a monstrous black 4-door usually brings the smarter ones to heel. The dumb ones simply get blown into the weeds. By now, the first few mods have gone on: the full Metco rear end suspension kit, PowerSlot rotors, Hawk HPS pads, and a real OP gauge from Autometer. Haven't touched the engine yet; I keep telling myself that I'm gonna wait until the warranty runs out. The Hulk's bug-impacted nose has seen a lot of road by now: A 30-mile daily commute 5 days a week in STL, two days' travel to get here to Pt. Arthur, a round trip from Pt. A to Montgomery for Christmas '04, and it's even gotten its first "sea legs"---a trip to Galveston and a round-trip ferry ride on the Bolivar Ferry across the mouth of Galveston Bay.

By now, I've added the Addco swaybars fore and aft, and a lame attempt at a warranty repaint has only gotten the hood, roof, and trunk. The shipping company trashed the rear bumper in the effort to get it here to Honolulu, and then denied my claim, so I'll just have to wait until I've got 300 dollars to fix it myself. The engine tick is still there, but I've never gotten a consensus on just wotthhail it is so I'm just going to stop worrying. If/when it craps out, I'll just get it redone, to MY specs.

How long will the legend of the Black Hulk last? Who knows...I visited a Ford dealer on the north side of Oahu last weekend, looking at the first Fusion to arrive on the island. My fiancee arrives out here in February; she'll be needing a car because she's selling hers (anybody want to give $1500 and take over payments on an '03 Grand Am?). The salesguy comes out and promptly slobbers shamelessly all over the Hulk's debadged trunklid; tells me he's got 3 Honolulu PD officers that would give me 25g for it on the spot. I still owe just under 22. There's a real nice Bright Silver Charger R/T at a Dodge lot on the west side of Honolulu...I dunno. I enjoy the Hulk immensely but I worry half to death about all the things that could happen, and I'm tired of worrying. Being a Marauder owner in Hawaii is double trouble; not only do you have an ultrarare musclecar that demands a certain level of attention, but you're out on the very fringes of the U.S. itself, and very, VERY few folks out here even know the Marauder exists, and fewer of those are qualified to work on it. My last serious maintenance was conducted at a dirty lean-to shed on Pearl Harbor with old equipment and native Hawaiians speaking pidgin as they turned the wrenches. The one saving grace is that Marauders are generally pretty stout; their G-Mark/Crown Vic bloodline dictates that they will last longer with lesser maintenance than other cars. Time will tell.

What's in a number? Quite a lot.

[merc6]

I love the CVE! When I am in the left lane I drive slightly left center of the car in front so all they see is headlight, corner and black panther body. Seat belt goes and and then blinker goes on!

[TRP460]

There's a few MMs out here; I've seen one other one, up in the Kaneohe area, and street rumor has it that U of HI's campus police have a few (including a blue one, which if it's for real would most likely be the only one in HI).

I believe the blue MM you're seeing may belong to a guy named Tommy Carreiro. He's occasionally posted over at MM.org and I don't believe he works for the campus police at the U of Hawaii. His e-mail address as listed there is tcnascar@aol.com (tcnascar@aol.com?subject=(MMC Chat) RE(10742): Automatic garage door opener in the overhead console) . Since I'm relatively new to this site myself, it's possible that Tommy may already be registered here........

[marauder307]

I believe the blue MM you're seeing may belong to a guy named Tommy Carreiro. He's occasionally posted over at MM.org and I don't believe he works for the campus police at the U of Hawaii. His e-mail address as listed there is tcnascar@aol.com. Since I'm relatively new to this site myself, it's possible that Tommy may already be registered here........


Haven't heard from him, but he may be just hanging out...Thank you! I'll try dropping him a line at the address. :up:

[TRP460]

There's a few MMs out here; I've seen one other one, up in the Kaneohe area, and street rumor has it that U of HI's campus police have a few (including a blue one, which if it's for real would most likely be the only one in HI).

I believe the blue MM you're seeing may belong to a guy named Tommy Carreiro. He's occasionally posted over at MM.org and I don't believe he works for the campus police at the U of Hawaii. His e-mail address as listed there is tcnascar@aol.com (tcnascar@aol.com?subject=(MMC Chat) RE(10742): Automatic garage door opener in the overhead console) . Since I'm relatively new to this site myself, it's possible that Tommy may already be registered here........

[marauder307]

Got the Hulk serviced today at the local L-M dealer, Jackson Auto Group. 2 and 1/2 hours for a chassis lube and troubleshoot a rattling a/c. They scared me pretty bad at one point when the service writer came out and said (after I'd asked him to go back and look in on the progress) "Sir, I'm not sure where your car is...I can't see it back there." In my mind I was already dialing 911...

I went back there myself and looked for it...it was 4-wheels-to-the-air on the lube rack. Don't ask...I dunno what he was thinking either...I got it back a hour and 1/2 later.

The good news, at least, is that they did the lube job free of charge and I've got new a/c parts on the way; it hasn't failed yet but they're going to replace it anyway, and under warranty. Additionally, they discovered a leaking right rear shock, and will fix that under warranty as well. Don't know when it broke. I'm guessing that it's lingering damage from the shipment over here...probably messed it up putting it on the hauling trailer out of STL.

I promised pictures a few posts back and have thus far failed to deliver. Sorry folks...believe me, there's some great photo opportunities here...

Test drove the one Mercury Milan that the dealer had on the lot. Not bad...I won't trade the Hulk away for it, but it's got some nice aspects about it.

[DEFYANT]

Neat lil thing you got going on here.... I was thinking about documenting my MM experiance too. Except time and the fact that I cant keep up with how fast my car has changed, and will change..

Perhaps I will try.

[marauder307]

Neat lil thing you got going on here.... I was thinking about documenting my MM experiance too. Except time and the fact that I cant keep up with how fast my car has changed, and will change..

Perhaps I will try.


Thank you! I was inspired to this because my particular MM has earned an erstwhile prize for being the most well-traveled example on this site. Daytona to Honolulu---pretty well covers the U.S.

To quote the immortal Johnny Cash: I've been everywhere, man.

Forgot to mention in my previous post: I didn't notice until I walked out to my car last night to start home from work, but those so-and-so's at Jackson decided to help themselves to my car a little bit and bolted up one of their dealership license plate bezels to my rear license plate. Never consulted with me on this...THAT's going in the trash as soon as I get dressed enough to go out to the garage with a screwdriver. My standard fee for advertising duty is $50 a day...there is no grace period, and I haven't been paid. Out it goes.

I think I will get in touch with C.J. at Dynopros and get some anti-advertising protection; i.e. a more personalized license plate bezel.

[marauder307]

Finally have come up with some pics...The body of water that you'll see is Moanalua Bay, out here in Hawaii Kai. The big dead volcano visible from my back porch is Koko Crater...I've climbed it since I've been here. There's an old WW2 bunker/railway/ex-radar site at the top. Helluva climb. Better than a Stairmaster, and probably a lot more fun.

Had some fun on H-3 today, coming south from Kaneohe...Camaro Z28 with riced-out taillights doing the "impatient driver" weave. He ended up stuck on my rear bumper. Can't help it pal...maybe if your fellow Hawaiians actually drove faster I could let you be on your way. Traffic finally opened a bit; he never did see the front of the Hulk....

Here you go...:D

[wchain]

One day last week, during a lull in the action at work, I decided to go on the open-access computer at work and bring up MM.net. One of my coworkers, a USAF officer who'd just reported aboard from Germany, looked over my shoulder, and remarked that he'd seen a couple of MMs at Ramstein AB in Germany, both standard-issue black. Sounds interesting...anybody else heard of MMs operating on the autobahn?

Wonder if the Porsche and BMW drivers have seen 'em....or maybe they're just sitting around wondering what that big black car was, that just blew their lederhosen off.....?

Yup, I have sold CV Amber Tail lights and wiring harnesses to MM Owners on the Base in Germany, since you must have an amber rear turn signal on those cars!

[marauder307]

And now for a break from my Hawaii adventures...

I started thinking about it this past week: y'know, there's a lot of people that I haven't seen/heard/whatever on this site for awhile. Jrzygrl...ANY of the KC or Midwest Marauders (excluding Chicago because we hear from SargeantMac on a pretty regular basis, and Rider90 as well)...93tealcobra...NAVCHAP (particularly concerned about him; have been reading some most disturbing information on the net implicating him and the Reinhart special)...Gunslinger...STLThu nder...Bob Mathis, the organizer of MV1. I remember talking to him; he was in southeastern Alabama and he and his wife had his/hers Marauders. Haven't heard from him in a very long while, coupla years at least.:depress: Don't seem to hear from a lot of folks much anymore.

I think I might know what happened to 93tealcobra. When we last communicated via pm through here, he told me that he and his missus were expecting. They were about halfway through the pregnancy. That was it after that, no further contact, and that was about 2 years ago now. I suspect that he probably had to part with the KB MM-S that he was sitting on; that wouldn't be unusual for someone looking down the barrel of parenthood, to try and liquidate some assets in the act of preparation. Sooo...following this line of thought, there's a KB MM-S floating around, possible last known location in the St. Charles, MO area, and it's one of the first production batch of KB Specials.

I almost added Petrograde to this list, but I see we've had an active ping from him in the last week so enough with that...:D

[MM03MOK]

http://userimage.gaiax.com/goo/tokaica/aloha.gif

BAKER!!
:wave:

[marauder307]

BAKER!!

Hi Mary!:wave:

[HwyCruiser]

I started thinking about it this past week: ...ANY of the KC or Midwest Marauders

A lot of us are still here, I hear from the KC crew from time to time... we're just burrowing in for the winter. Have fun over there guy. Oh yeah, I hope you got everything squared away with the kitties.

[marauder307]

... Oh yeah, I hope you got everything squared away with the kitties.

Thank you! Shadow and Tabitha are currently providing my fiancee with "portable heat" during the latest cold snap in Ft. Riley. Those two...Terri tells me every morning, "Sweetheart, I'll be glad when I've you to help me with them...I can't put my cereal bowl down without Tabitha putting a paw in it!" Apparently our little boy, Shadow, likes to try climbing into the tub while Terri's in it. I'll be glad when all three of 'em (Terri and the two cats) are finally here...February 1st is the day!

LATE EDIT: Here's a couple of pics of our little furries...Shadow's the silver tabby, and Tabitha is the brownish tabby-tortie mix.

[marauder307]

Well, another week, and some more adventures. Went to one of the local cruise nights this past Saturday, not bad. Will post some pictures in a late edit...they're kinda dark, but hopefully you'll still be able to see a few things.

Worked some unbelievably late hours this last week. Got off work at midnight a couple of nights, and discovered that the Oahu roads, at 1 in the morning, are actually quite open. Good for me! Made a couple of speed runs to Kaneohe and back, managed to burn the plugs off a bit.

Unfortunately, I discovered some problems...the front end's still squeakin'. It's actually two squeaks: one that sounds like sawing lumber and is only present at low speed (like going over the speed bumps in parking lots, or my apartment complex) and one that sounds like mice loose under the hood and is present all the time. I suspect the mice are actually my hood bumpers; they probably worked loose in shipping. I don't know how to field-repair these, and I don't want to waste time with the dealer. Ideas?

I shudder to think what the other squeak might be...sounds like the entire front end's coming apart.

Speaking of the dealer,....had to get ornery with 'em this last week. They cancelled the scheduled warranty repair on my A/C and rear shock absorbers!
Their excuse was, "oh, we're sorry, we're too busy to do it that date, we'll have to reschedule." This has been scheduled since the second week of November; the parts have been here since the Tuesday right after Thanksgiving. They actually sent me a letter saying that the parts had arrived and that if I didn't use them right away they were going to return them to the vendor!

I raised Cain with the service dep't manager; I was supposed to take the car in Tuesday (tomorrow, as I write this)---they pushed me back to Friday, and then said that I'd have to get a rental car. I explained, through gritted teeth, that I was leaving the islands next week to fly home for the holidays; when did they think they were going to have this done? They said they'd have it done the morning of the day I'm flying home (done by 1030; I'm at the airport by 2 that afternoon). We will see. Jackson Auto Group isn't too good at promptness; kinda hard to run a shop when everybody's out catching waves or taking 55-min smoke breaks.

Some days, it just ain't worth chewing through the leather straps....

On a side note...got an email from NAVCHAP today. He's doing fine, headed out on assignment. Ol' Blue's in storage. Be seein' ya man...take care, out there...

[marauder307]

A last post for awhile, then I'll rejoin y'all after the holidays.

Hulk's in the shop; went in yesterday and should come back to me with new a/c components and a new rear shock on the passenger's side. Coincidentally, that's the same corner that I had to replace the tire on after getting it off the ship. What in the world did those apes do to my car?

I'm in a Charger SXT until Tuesday morning...say nothing Donny! Tuesday afternoon, I get on a plane and fly through the night for my annual Christmas pilgrimage home to AL. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why planes bound for the mainland only leave in the late afternoon/evening hours. There's not a lot of things that I want to be doing at 4 in the afternoon, and that short list does not include sitting around an airport.

Wanted to post a few pics of the local cruise night, but my camera's set for high-res and this place only accepts low. 100kb is way too low a threshold; nothing I've got is less than 250. I can't crop them/des-res them/or anything to them enough. Had to hack the bejesus out of the ones in my previous posts. Suffice it say, the Hawaiian cruise night scene is about the same as it is most other places; we just get to do it year-round due to lack of snow. Somebody brought out an old Pantera. There was a wide variety of Mustangs, and even got a look at a '69-'70 model GTO Judge. As you might expect, the ricer crowd was out in force. Saw a Cadillac CTS-V up close; looks alright but I really gotta question the reliability of a FWD setup trying to channel that much horsepower. Even had a few REALLY old 1920s/'30s vintage Fords; there was one guy from the Model A club with a mint condition example.

I'm getting daily reports of snow in Kansas from my fiancee. Things look pretty rough, weather-wise, around KC and Chicago. I imagine Mac musta put in some overtime on the Southwest jet drama. Hope everybody's bedded down; makes me glad I'm out here.

All for now. Everybody have a Merry Christmas and I'll see you again in a few weeks!

[BUCKWHEAT]

KC seems to have some active Marauders (HwyCruiser). Raced with him the last day KCIR was open this year. St. Louis seems to have no evident MM interest on this site. I/ve seen a few cruising around, but no-one seems to post here.

[marauder307]

Well, I'm back.

As folks seem to be relating their Christmas tales...here's mine.

This was a bittersweet Christmas this year. For starters, it's the first time in many years that I've had to fly home for the occasion; I will never, ever, 26-times-ever, fly through LAX again. I'm a DoD analyst and a USCG veteran. I damn near got strip-searched at the TSA checkpoint. *******s. It was slightly better going back but LAX can kiss my a$$.

Got home and discovered the place in a shambles both literally and figuratively. For some months now, my maternal grandmother's health has been declining badly. She's survived 39 years of lupus affliction, the loss of my grandfather (her husband) 13 years ago, a small number of minor strokes, and a bite from a timber rattlesnake in 2003. Now her mind is gone. Last September, she called the police 3 times in the same weekend claiming the house was being burglarized (it wasn't---her memory's so trashed that she just didn't recognize the new TV that we bought for her this last year). She threw out an entire brand-new box of vanilla ice cream because she said it had ants in it (it didn't---she got confused and thought the vanilla beans were bugs). Her eyesight's fading fast and her physical strength is well and truly sapped. The house is a mess because she's neither physically strong enough nor mentally together enough to take care of it. But we're still trying to avoid a home---the idea being that she's in familiar surroundings at the house and we've been able to rally her bridge club and church group to help out, as well as the neighbors. If we put her in a home in Alabama, she's as good as dead.

The visit to the family farm in west AL was heartbreaking. The old farmhouse that I remember and love so much has been torn literally to pieces by the various hunting groups that have been using it. This visit, we found it with the roof of the kitchen fallen in. (the hunters had failed to turn off the water in the place and had left standing water in them. The pipes burst during a hard freeze last winter.) There was broken glass everywhere; apparently the hunters like using mason jars; for what, I don't know, and I don't wanna know. Some folks who had come out to spray weedkiller on the crop areas had abandoned a pile of 5-gallon weedkiller jugs in the driveway; from the looks of things they'd been there a while.

(Side note: My uncle, who has assumed the position of landlord over the various properties that the family owns in west AL, moved out of the farmhouse in 2001, after living there for 55 years. As is his way, he doesn't actually have a palpable sentimental attachment to the place; it was falling apart before he left it, and even he has said that he should probably pull it down. But it means a helluva lot to me....)

So where's the good news, you're wondering? Well...

This was the first trip to AL for my fiancee; it wasn't any surprise to me that she charmed the dickens out of everybody in the family. Everybody loves her, and we were able to line up the church, minister, photographer, and florist for our wedding next summer. Still working on the reception. Nothing's paid for yet, of course, but at least the arrangements have been confirmed...
The candlelight services at the old church in Montgomery were so much sweeter this year with her at my side.

And the Black Hulk? Well, after I got home in the wee hours of this morning (Thursday the 29th, as I type), I found a package of coilpacks waiting for me with the neighbors who had been picking up my mail during my absence. Thank you Wes! The old boy was waiting for me in the garage, persistent front end squeaks and all; we charged off to work this afternoon like I'd never been away.

I hope everybody has had a great Christmas and has a Happy New Year!

[LCSO34]

Glad to see you made it back! Nice weather for C-mas wasn't it? Where at in West AL is the farm?

[marauder307]

Glad to see you made it back! Nice weather for C-mas wasn't it? Where at in West AL is the farm?

Thank you! As to the weather, it was mostly nice; Christmas Eve/Day were really dreary though---had a storm line come through.

The farm's located around Safford, AL; tiny quiet wide spot on the old Mobile Highway. Was a big farming community, but most of the houses there are abandoned now. I say "around" because over the years my uncle has managed some reasonably shrewd land dealing. Consequently he's got probably a couple thousand acres to his name now; doesn't actively work any of them any more---too old and his doctors have explicitly told him to quit---but he manages/rents the various properties for a variety of uses. Right now the Uniontown stockyards are storing cattle on the old property, and the cotton fields on the newer areas are fallow for the winter.

The old place means so much to me. I was an Army brat, then a Coast Guardsman in my own right. I've spent my life traveling the world; I think the longest I've been anywhere was 5 years living at Ft. Leavenworth in the early/mid 80's. It was always easy to do because I knew that no matter where I went, or what I did or where I did it, I could always come home to Alabama. My family's always been there, spread around between Birmingham, Montgomery, and all points around there. That farm has always been my rock, my beacon in the darkness...and now, it seems, the beacon is fading away.

I think my fiancee came along just in time.

[marauder307]

[QUOTE=marauder307]

Unfortunately, I discovered some problems...the front end's still squeakin'. It's actually two squeaks: one that sounds like sawing lumber and is only present at low speed (like going over the speed bumps in parking lots, or my apartment complex) and one that sounds like mice loose under the hood and is present all the time. I suspect the mice are actually my hood bumpers; they probably worked loose in shipping. I don't know how to field-repair these, and I don't want to waste time with the dealer. Ideas?

I shudder to think what the other squeak might be...sounds like the entire front end's coming apart.
[QUOTE]


Front end's fixed....and from now on, MacKenna's Windward Ford is getting my business. Those nitwits at the L-M dealership screwed up the front swaybar; the thing was slapping against the chassis and that's where the new noise was coming from. While I was there I also had the GMS coilpacks installed. We're rockin' now, Wes!

Discovered some other neat stuff while I was there...they're offering nitrogen service for the tires now. Only $5/tire. And they're detail shop will do a complete exterior detail, including engine compartment, for $130. AND the parts room has some really cool stuff....oh boy. Must not spend money....got to pay for wedding...:rolleyes:

[marauder307]

Unfortunately, I discovered some problems...the front end's still squeakin'. It's actually two squeaks: one that sounds like sawing lumber and is only present at low speed (like going over the speed bumps in parking lots, or my apartment complex) and one that sounds like mice loose under the hood and is present all the time. I suspect the mice are actually my hood bumpers; they probably worked loose in shipping. I don't know how to field-repair these, and I don't want to waste time with the dealer. Ideas?

I shudder to think what the other squeak might be...sounds like the entire front end's coming apart.




Front end's fixed....and from now on, MacKenna's Windward Ford is getting my business. Those nitwits at the L-M dealership screwed up the front swaybar; the thing was slapping against the chassis and that's where the new noise was coming from.



Follow-up to this follow-up:

Came home tonight to a message from the L-M dealer, specifically the service writer: "Hello Mr. ------, this is Thomas. I need to let you know there's a $100 warranty administration fee that you'll need to come down and pay. It's okay....." I didn't hear the rest.

So lemme get this straight: I spent $187/change on a rental car for 4 days while the Hulk was laid up, and it came back to me NOT fixed and squeaking worse than ever, AND then I had to spend $128 actually getting it fixed somewhere else, AND now the L-M dealer wants to stiff me for $100?

So....after I turned green, quadrupled in size, and threw the sofa through the back door....I settled down and actually tried to figure this out on some sort of rational level. Has anybody ever actually heard of a warranty administration fee?

Need to hear back quick...it's 11:00 p.m. here in HI on Wednesday night as I type this; I plan on calling the dealer in the morning. I usually get up about 8:30 or so (work second shift at the office so I'm typically up late); HI's 2 hours behind West Coast time, 5 hours behind East Coast time. If anybody's got any "ammunition" I can use to deflect this, I sure would appreciate.

And send me the name of a good sofa cleaner too....gonna take a while to get the mud off of it....:baaa:

[fastblackmerc]

In my 10 years of working for Ford and L/M dealerships I've never heard of a charge for warranty work. I've never been charged or asked to pay for warranty work on my MM.

[marauder307]

Nobody looks at this thread besides fastblackmerc?!? Ooooookay....:depress:

First: Thank you for replying, FBM. I appreciate it. :up:

Second: Called the dealer this morning. Their contention is that the car was off warranty when the work (to wit: A/C replacement) was done, which it was. But they also told me, at the time, that as long as they recorded the mileage at the time that I reported something was wrong (which in this case was ~35.8k) then it wouldn't matter.

So....they took my mileage down at the time, and then told me they wouldn't be able to take the car in for at least 3 weeks, during which time the car drove off-warranty. They took the car in, did the work under warranty during the middle of December (last month), and then decide to pop me with a $100 warranty admin fee a month later. BTW, they claim the fee is being charged from L-M itself. This story just doesn't feel right, at all. But because my MM.net "family" hasn't spoken up, giving me no means to fight it, I'm out for a rental car and the $100 admin fee.

The $128 was to get the suspension work (that Jackson L-M claimed they fixed) REALLY fixed somewhere else. I'm not doin' business with these jerks anymore...:shake:

[Mad1]

Sounds like you have a pretty solid argument. If they didn't charge you a fee at time of service, what makes them think they can come back and "add" it to your bill post service. Make them put everything in writing ... when you came in, why it wasn't serviced immediately, etc. Tell them to eat the bill 'cause why should you pay for their "error" in not charging it at the time, if appropriate. (Would you let any other service provider "up" their bill after the fact?) You could also call the regional Lincoln-Mercury rep and demand an answer why they're trying to force a customer to pay "post" service fees for covered Warranty work, when it was their shops scheduling that put it "out of warranty."

Jeremy
Mad1

P.S. I sympathize man ... I just found out yesterday that the $4,000 that I put into a CD with the bank to secure a loan can't be found by them after I paid off the loan. I'm giving them a day to sort out their answer and then I'm going to start going ape-**** on them. (They tried to suggest that maybe I didn't give them the $4 grand and that I got lucky in getting a great interest rate without any collateral. Yeah right, I've got the signed copy of all the documentation for the CD, so my next step is to cry "fraud" to the feds and state banking officials.)

[jabird56]

Baker, Opening a complaint with the Better Business Bureau over there is one option. If they didn't state it on the bill when you picked the car up last month, I don't know how they can come back and tag you for more money now, sounds like a scam to me.

[marauder307]

The final upshot of all this (I hope) is that I gave 'em my credit card number the morning that I called, expressed my displeasure with the quality of work and with their bookkeeping skills, and hung up. I checked my CC statement online yesterday. They only charged me the $100 and that was it.

I've considered all the options put to me by you guys, and decided to just pay it and chalk it up as a VERY expensive lesson....it's over, it's done, I got ripped off, and I learned not to do business with Jackson Auto Group ever again (Gunslinger, I hope you're reading this...!).

As it is, the squeaks have returned. I'm absolutely convinced that one of them is a body creak; I can't duplicate it sitting still in the garage, it only happens while underway, and it gets slightly less up at speed. It's really nasty when traversing speed bumps in the parking lot. The other creak was diagnosed at Windward as exactly what I knew it was---the bushings on the Addco swaybar up front. I guess the lube wears off after a couple of days; Hawaiian tropical climates have a tendency to do that, particularly now that we're in the rainy season and the roads are wet and salty most of the time.

Anyway, on with the adventures...

Had some fun-and-games last night. Went to a promotion party for a couple of my office coworkers; we had a guy make Captain in the USAF and another make CPO in the USN, so they rented out one of the Waikiki bars on Hotel St and we all got together for awhile. Now...for those of you not versed in HI urban legends, Hotel and King Streets in Waikiki were, for the longest time, the most notorious dives in all of Honolulu. Even the Marines started to shy away from 'em after a while; a Marine that gets busted up in a brawl on Hotel St. is a Marine unfit to go to the field. These two streets have been significantly cleaned up over the last decade or so, but a lot of the notoriety still remains. We just had one of our DoD guys get beat up---BAD---barely a week after he reported aboard.

Anyway, I go down there with the Black Hulk, freshly detailed, and start cruising the neighborhood looking for this place. It was at this time that I got my first palpable view of the "CVE"; as I made a slow pass down Hotel Street, all I saw was *********s-and-elbows diving behind dumpsters and ducking into doorways. I wish SergeantMac had been with me...I'd 'a had him plug in a spotlight and start beaming the sidewalks...

I do believe there's a part of me that's possessed by the devil himself. When I saw THAT reaction, why, I made sure to go ahead and make at least 2 or 3 passes down Hotel St....wasn't sure where the bar was, y'know? Anyway, I found the place. It was a good time.

Left the party about 2 hours after I walked in. Couldn't do any drinking, because I was driving AND I had the weekend recall duty. Couldn't hang out with the local pigeons, 'cause I got a pretty bird of my own now, and she'll be here in just a couple of weeks. So my appearance was purely token in nature...although I did spend the night repeating the mantra "I'm engaged...I'm engaged...I'm engaged...."

Had some more fun on the way home; a pimped-out Lincoln Navigator decided the road was his and his alone. Didn't want to share with the Hulk. Hulk not like people who don't share....a bit of a stoplight joust ensued. I ended up losing because he sc***** me off against some stopped traffic in my lane. Be seein' ya, punk....:fire:

Anyway, I'm off. It's a beautiful sunny 80-degree day here in Honolulu...sorry Windy City folks. I hear you got snow yesterday.....:baaa:

Catch y'all again a little later...

EDIT: Gonna piggyback this on here; Mary, don't be mad. Does anybody need a matched pair of burgundy table lamps, an office chair, or a Philips/Magnavox DVD player? I've got some stuff that I've got to get rid of---need the room. If anybody wants these, the going price is free, but I will ask you to cover the shipping...

[marauder307]

Whoever's in the Washington D.C. area, drop me a line. Going to be there for a week starting Sunday 22nd January.

[marauder307]

Another few weeks, more adventures.

The big news of this past week is that my fiancee and cats have finally arrived! She got here Wednesday late into the afternoon; it was about an hour and 1/2 getting home from the airport because Waikiki rush hour sucks. The kittens---CATS---are doing alright after their decidedly traumatic trip. They've already tried to do their "flying squirrel" imitation off the 2nd floor railing straight down to the first floor...and scared the hell out of my girl when they did, because they landed kinda hard. Guess they won't try that again....

Anyway, we've been spending the time trying to find work for her; the local Century 21 office has made an offer which we'll take only if we can't find anything else better. $32k/year is starvation wages in Honolulu; as an Army Reserve officer (O-3) and a former IL state IRS employee, I think she's worth better.

'Course, my opinion's prejudiced....:cool4:

The next big news of the past week is that the two of us swallowed hard and went to lease her a vehicle yesterday. We now have a 2006 Ford Freestyle Limited sitting in our outside parking space; Silver Frost, zone A/C, leather seating, nicer rims, premium stereo with the 6-CD changer in the dash, pw/pl/hell, power everything. Shoot, this doggoned thing looks and drives so nice, now I want one. Originally we wanted to lease one of the leftover 2005s they had on the lot (about 10 choices), but the salesguy said that the lease programs on the '05s had all been dropped---it was an '06, or nothing. And the only '06 they had on the lot was this one. It's really tough trying to acquire cars out here; you can't just go to another dealer if you don't like what you see, and to special-order a car takes months for delivery as we're on the very a$$-end of the supply line.

I choked it up and put the downpayment on the credit card....ooooh, that's gonna sting. We'll work something out, but we had to do this. She's got to have wheels to function around here; we don't live close to anything and all the job prospects are out of my way to work so she's got to be able to get herself to interviews.

As the salesguy's running around with the paperwork, I took a pause and went outside to get my breath. I love buying cars but I truly despise dealing with dealers; can't get somethin' for nothin', I guess. As I'm breathing hard and trying to get calm, I look over and see....another Marauder.

I've noticed this one before; it's been laid up at this dealer (Mackenna Windward Ford) for some months now. Low-profile tires on aftermarket blacked-out rims, trunklid "lip" wing, and a rear license plate bezel that reads "GOTHAM CITY SQUAD CAR". I ask the head wrench about it. Turns out that it belongs to one of the local LEOs; he was using it for duty, until it succumbed to the same old valve-tick problems that have plagued so many of our cars. According to the wrench, it was in very bad shape when the officer brought it in; the valve train was pretty well gone and cylinder 7 had almost totally lost compression. Since then, it's been one thing after another. The shop ordered 2 new built-up head assemblies (cost: 3k per, including the cost of shipping to get 'em out here). The assemblies came in, but the cam sprockets were wrong. Ordered in the new sprockets, got everything built up and installed---cylinders 7 AND 8 went dead. Pulled everything apart and found burnt pistons; ordered those in, pretty much overhauled the engine at this point (this is all happening under warranty, BTW), and they fired it up again----only to have it break 4 rocker arms.

At this point the car is dead on its wheels awaiting new rocker arms and yet another engine rebuild. The head wrench just shook his head and told me he's never seen anything like it---this car's been the biggest pain in the azz he's ever dealt with. Ford's into the warranty for about $20k at this point and there's no end in sight. The guy listened to my engine, shook his head, and said, "yep....we'll be seein' ya." I explained that I knew what I was getting into, and that despite the valvetrain racket I was still getting 18+ mpg in town. I told him that I figured on running it until it dropped; he said that when that happens, ship it off to Sean Hyland Motorsport. I guess the wrench is a big believer in SHM.

Whatever happened to them anyway? Weren't they building tuner MMs, same as Kenny Brown?

All for now...the missus and I have to head into town. As a parting note, I sure would like to hear from the Oahu-based MM owners; it's feeling kinda lonely out here.:depress: