Totally Off Topic (new ride)

[cyclone]

Here's my new car, I traded my wifes Exploder. It's been a week and I'm still in the doghouse. She says it looks like a cop car and the 18" wheels make it look too "urban" She refuses to drive it  

It goes like stink and the cops don't mess with me because they think I'm one of them.

[cyclone]

Oh yeah, here's the car. It is totally cool and destined to be an orphan.....

[re-pete]

Those Marauders are awesome!  I really like the metallic red--only seen black on the road so far; seen pictures of blue and silver.

How's it handle and stop?

I was considering trading in my Accord for one until I saw the price--pretty steep, although I would imagine they are pretty heavily discounted?

Were you able to get yours for under $30k?

By the way, do you still have your Cougar?

P.S. Post some more pix!!

[cyclone]

Hi Pete,
It has 4wheel disc and stops great. It handles great too, it has Tokico (cop) shocks, cop sway bars, etc. It is really good for big sweeping on and off ramps.

You can get them heavily discounted, they are not hot sellers. I have seen people say they got them new for just over 23k. I paid 28k, 7k off sticker. I didn't really bargain, I think you could get one for 26k no problem if you are a better negotiator than I. I put 1k miles on it this week, it is awesome in every respect. I love it.

Check out www.mercurymarauder.net

[cyclone]

The Cougar is sitting next to it in the garage

[re-pete]

Pete-

Now ya got me thinking..

I was considering an RX-8:  with 4 seats and a real trunk, outstanding handling and braking, and hideous gas mileage for a 2900 lb car( 14-20 mpg), it is a left brain/right brain compromise at about $27k, but for 23-26k, maybe a Maurader might work: tons of room, about the same or better gas mileage, good handling (albeit way different than an RX-8) and braking.

...hmmm!

[cyclone]

The Marauder is rated at 23 hwy, throw some headers on it and it gets 26!!

[cyclone]

Put 2k or so into mods and the thing is unreal. I mean it will waste an M5 Bimmer. I mean bolt on stuff, exhaust, chip, etc. and it's in the low 13 quarter mile. I don't intend to do that (yet) but it's a lot of car for the money. Go drive one, flog it hard, and tell me what you think. It's a super nice road car.

[toyotafreak]

Pushups are definitely required because of all this impure talk.

[re-pete]

Derek-

Don't ask, don't tell!

Better talking about this off-topic stuff now than 'in season'---although I just realized that  for you, boating is ALWAYS in season!

See ya!

[toyotafreak]

Pete(s): car talk is not impure. Non-Toyota talk is impure. Unless we're talking Powerstroke or Duramax since our favorite boat ex-manufacturer has left us wanting in terms of bulletproof tow vehicles.

You need a hot sedan, you go get a Camry and put some terd stuff on it. Camry's got me so hard a cat can't scratch it.

Two weeks in Alaska down, one more to go. Humor's bound to get sicker....

Where'd all this friggin ice come from?

[cyclone]

You gotta quit pissing off your boss Derek. What's next, Siberia?

[toyotafreak]

Will be in Kauai in two weeks :-) And this time, I'm taking the family...

[Dwayne]

That looks like a Andrew dish behind you.

[re-pete]

Pete-

How about some more pix and an update on your Marauder?

I'm seriously thinking of getting one of those and test drove a used one with 17k miles on it yesterday at a L-M dealer.  Quite nice.  Healthy sound, good handling and braking.  Seemed a little slow off the line, and quicker to updshift and slower to downshift than I expected, however I've heard it has a higher stall speed torque converter, so maybe I wasn't leaning on it as hard as I should've been to make it perform.  Overall a sweet ride, a BIG step up from my parents '03 Grand Marquis.

How are you liking yours so far?  How's the gas mileage?  Is it true you have to use Premium or is that for max performance?

Since I know Derek is reading, and has warned us about this non-Toyota sacriledge, I'll throw a little fun into this:

I am also considering a 3--4 year old, low mileage Lexus GS400 with 35-45k miles on it.  Have seen several in the high teens, low 20's--probably 8-10k less than a new Marauder.

So my question is this guys:  A new Marauder, or a GS400 with the same sweet engine in our Epics(see the tie-in here?)?  Could probably do some nice TRD performance mods with the savings over the Mercury.

Whadaya think???