PonyGuy
01-22-2008, 10:56 PM
Greetings from an old guy in Oswego, Illinois...
About 4 years ago, our old 1998 Mercury died in the middle of no-where; about halfway between "Fence Post" and "Cow Turd" in Tennessee. We limped (in second gear) about 50 miles down I-40 into a town called Dickson, Tennessee and a FoMoCo Dealer.
The service manager said "It'll take a week and about $3000 to fix it; you need a new transmission."
I asked if they couldn't just fix it?
"Nope! We replace 'em with a Ford factory remanufactured unit. Comes with a warranty."
So, there we were, in a spot. The dealer had us over a barrel, and he was fresh out of Vaseline. So, we fiddled around, got a motel room, and decided to just bite the bullet and buy a new car. We called around, and one dealer had just the car we wanted. He came to pick us up. When we got to his dealership, "That car was just sold a few minutes ago..." He didn't have the car we wanted. He tried to push us into something else. We wouldn't budge.
We went to another dealer the next day, and he had a gorgeous new 2004 Silver Birch Marauder with a light grey interior sitting on the lot. PERFECT!
Wife: "I hate that spoiler thing on the back."
Me: "But it's exactly what we decided to get!"
Wife: "I hate that spoiler thing on the back."
Me: "Why?"
Wife: "I'm tired of car-shopping. I want to go home now. They have a nice Gold colored Mercury over there... I like it."
Me: "But we decided on the Silver car with a Grey interior! And this one has it!"
Wife: "We'll take the Gold one, sir."
Me: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/ponyguy/rant.gif
Wife: "Let's go home. It's ours now."
Me: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/ponyguy/banghead.gif
Anyway, here's what we drove for the next 650 miles:
2004 Grandma Marquis LS Ultimate with HPP. It has every available option except the sunroof, which wasn't an option until after this car was built. Heated seats, side airbags, extra-strong security window glass (yes!), full-size spare, trunk organizer, AM/FM/Cassette/SingleCD/CD Changer, EATC and whatever else they could hang on it. Since then, I've added the chrome mirror caps, the GS "Special Edition" door sills, and I'm in the process of performing the "Marauder Intake & Tune" modification.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/ponyguy/Datatransfer11-28-20061689.jpg
I shoulda hadda Marauderrrr... :bigcry:
About 4 years ago, our old 1998 Mercury died in the middle of no-where; about halfway between "Fence Post" and "Cow Turd" in Tennessee. We limped (in second gear) about 50 miles down I-40 into a town called Dickson, Tennessee and a FoMoCo Dealer.
The service manager said "It'll take a week and about $3000 to fix it; you need a new transmission."
I asked if they couldn't just fix it?
"Nope! We replace 'em with a Ford factory remanufactured unit. Comes with a warranty."
So, there we were, in a spot. The dealer had us over a barrel, and he was fresh out of Vaseline. So, we fiddled around, got a motel room, and decided to just bite the bullet and buy a new car. We called around, and one dealer had just the car we wanted. He came to pick us up. When we got to his dealership, "That car was just sold a few minutes ago..." He didn't have the car we wanted. He tried to push us into something else. We wouldn't budge.
We went to another dealer the next day, and he had a gorgeous new 2004 Silver Birch Marauder with a light grey interior sitting on the lot. PERFECT!
Wife: "I hate that spoiler thing on the back."
Me: "But it's exactly what we decided to get!"
Wife: "I hate that spoiler thing on the back."
Me: "Why?"
Wife: "I'm tired of car-shopping. I want to go home now. They have a nice Gold colored Mercury over there... I like it."
Me: "But we decided on the Silver car with a Grey interior! And this one has it!"
Wife: "We'll take the Gold one, sir."
Me: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/ponyguy/rant.gif
Wife: "Let's go home. It's ours now."
Me: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/ponyguy/banghead.gif
Anyway, here's what we drove for the next 650 miles:
2004 Grandma Marquis LS Ultimate with HPP. It has every available option except the sunroof, which wasn't an option until after this car was built. Heated seats, side airbags, extra-strong security window glass (yes!), full-size spare, trunk organizer, AM/FM/Cassette/SingleCD/CD Changer, EATC and whatever else they could hang on it. Since then, I've added the chrome mirror caps, the GS "Special Edition" door sills, and I'm in the process of performing the "Marauder Intake & Tune" modification.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/ponyguy/Datatransfer11-28-20061689.jpg
I shoulda hadda Marauderrrr... :bigcry: