2003 Mercury Marauder #2- 2006 - A nightmare Ends

At this point it was painfully clear that this car HAD to go. Only problem was that it didn't feel the same way. It honestly was all I could do to try and get rid of it, but it just wouldn't let me. Where do I start?

First of all... is it normal for a car not even 3 years on the road to look like this underneath? No biggie, I was expecting this after the experiences with the other car.

I digress... as discussed elsewhere, the rear shocks had finally been properly diagnosed as faulty and replaced, greatly improving the ride. However, the front end still felt jiggly and in a last ditch attempt to rescue the car's fate, I also asked my dealer to look into the possibility of the front shocks being faulty as well.

I must specify that at this point, my favorite technician at the dealership had left the trade altogether. This left me at the mercy of the worst incompetent grease-monkeys that could ever work the trade. While reassembling the interior of the car after finally fixing the leak that resulted in that back seat flood, the panels were put together in a half-assed manner where things no longer lined up properly. Worst of all, they reported I had improper springs on my car and that there was a TSB describing this problem. This worried me: I had never heard of any such TSB, and neither had any of the online enthusiasts.

The result: when I went to pick my car up (camera in hand to take photos of the car to immediately put it up for sale), I was greeted with this:

Does this look in the least bit normal? The Marauder is meant to have a forward rake: this car is now higher up front than in the rear!

The explanation? The TSB indicates that there could be complaints of improper ride heights and harsh ride, and the fix was to replace the springs with heavy duty police models instead. Hang on.... this sounds just like the TSB that applied to a small number of Grand Marquis that inadvertently left the factory with Marauder springs!!!!! So these guys removed my correct Marauder springs and downgraded them as per the TSB, even though it doesn't apply to my car!!!!!!!!

Besides the VERY STUPID look, the car rode absolutely odd, to say the least. I immediately had them schedule the replacement of the previous springs... thankfully they kept them pending my report of satisfaction. Again, I had to wait for the opportunity to shoot the "for sale" photos, who cares that the car rode poorly as compared to my other car, I had to get rid of it.

Can't get any worse? Think again... when my car was finally ready, I was called to go pick it up. I couldn't wait, but was busy until later in the day. Then I got the message: my car had been "hit". The story was that some "very important client" of theirs had left the parking lot too quickly and nailed the front end of the car. For all I know this could have been completely fabricated, and the damage could very well have been a result of some dumbass technician going for a joy ride in my "musclecar". Fearing being stuck with the full repair cost for a "hit-and-run", I demanded it be handled to my satisfaction and I was assured that the perpetrator had given his assurance that he would pay for the entire cost of repairs for the bumper and headlight assembly. The owner of the dealership personally promised that I would NOT be stuck with the bill in any case, as I was seriously considering calling for legal action to protect myself. Little did I know...

Months later, I did receive a statement of account. Seems I owed them about $3000 for the work... this same work that was supposedly authorized by the alleged perpetrator of the incident, if it actually DID ever occur. Nevermind that I never signed any sort of authorization to perform this work, nevermind that I specifically indicated on the telephone that I was not in the position to care about how much it would cost since the other party was to pick up the whole tab, as per the dealership owner. The story was now that when the perp saw the final total, he balked and suggested I go through my insurance instead. This was the "very important person" that was wealthy enough to buy the dealership several times over... a comment made to me perhaps in an attempt to keep me from going to the police with a hit-and-run report.

Going through the insurance company was completely now impossible, as the repairs had already been executed... no insurance company would ever accept a claim after the repairs were completed.

Never mind, I still continued to be hassled by the dealer.

If I walked away with any lesson learned from all this, it was the harsh realization that Luc Soucy and the rest of the shameless androids at Terrebonne Ford are lowlife scum who have no sense of honour. I cannot believe I stood there in the early evening in plain sight shaking Soucy's hand as a result of the agreement that I would not end up getting stuck with the bill for this repair. It's no surprise that Ford as a company is teetering on the edge of extinction, as this company is corrupt from top to bottom.

The repairs took forever due to vacation scheduling, but once I got the car back, I hurriedly put it up for sale. Sadly... the adventure was not yet over.

I decided to use the car to take the family to an amusement park like we do every year... I had already purchased the replacement car for the Marauder at this point, so if any car was going to be stolen from the parking lot, I was hoping it would be this one! Anyway, the moment the car got on the highway, the temperature soared straight into the red! Quick thinking on my part saved the day: putting the heater on MAX immediately dropped the temperature like a rock. This seemed very much like an air bubble issue... no doubt since they had to undo the whole front end to get at the blower and the leakage issue?

The next day, while running errands with my kids in the car, same story: at this point, I'm thinking an air bubble should have flushed itself by now! The worst was yet to come: the air suspension compressor had begun to make horrible noises and on this day it finally died. I had to limp the car home on its ass looking like some sort of pimped out ride... I'd had enough, a call to Roadside Assistance got the car to the dealer where it was diagnosed with a failed suspension compressor and a stuck thermostat (which I disagree with, since the temperature immediately returned to normal and remained normal the moment I'd turn on the heater... once the temperature stabilized, I could use the A/C all day without any fear of overheating... I'm thinking someone goofed up pretty bad on the re-install).

One blessed afternoon later that summer, a transaction was completed taking that car out of my life once and for all. It was the last time I'd be looking at the car... a truly gorgeous machine that shouldn't have been this fucked up. As it drove away, I felt a sense of numb elation... it was over, the nightmare was over, I was free at last, we were free at last. It was time to begin healing... I'd begun to hate cars, and now it was time to start enjoying them again.



I walked away from all this having learned a few hard lessons. My ownership of the Marauders exposed me to the absolute worst I'd seen in human nature. From the ridiculous antics of the online enthusiasts to the corrupt behaviour at the dealership level, to the absolute incompetence of Ford on the whole. I could go as far as to claim that these cars were possessed by demons, but that would be some sort of crazy talk... wouldn't it?



It's over.... It's finally over.....