Toward the end of april (the 23rd I belive..tis the day we run all our errands)
I started noticing that the car was pulling left. We took it into Big-O’s on May 7th.

We went in with an alignment, and rotation, and even balancing if it needed it.

(Up until the dealership which comes later into the story we had no idea we had a free alignment and oilchange and all that…they neglect to tell you that when you buy the car…plus..we called the dealership first..told them the date of purchase, and stuff, they still quoted a price that was kinda up there for us..)

Well…they pulled the front tires off and the inner front was so shredded it was showing wires. On a limited budget the guy gave us two good used ones of the same brand and tossed them on the back and put the rears on the front. (He saved our rears) (I’ll post the results below from their readout, i’ll even try to take a picture.)

Well..get going toward the middle of June and the car has been acting funny. Same deal – pulling to the left. We talk to the in laws…my wife’s…and they say when we come down we’ll get the full work up from a good year that they’ve been going to for years. Sounds good.

During the down time, my wife has been laid off and we’re pretty much just using the car once a week to get groceries. Still notice a look on the tire…it says..Hey…I’m about shot..my step father and I just peek and stuff and sure enough it’s wearing again. It’s insane. We get down to the parents (in laws for me) and they take it over the following monday on the 29th.

They do the whole work up. Everything in tip top. Drive it the three miles home, and it’s good. It stays parked there for almost over a week while we go on vacation.

On the way back home i notice that it’s lightly pulling at speeds of 75 or more and the tire is already starting to show a smidge of wear.

Yes. Tire wear. Inside driver front.

Let me break it down for you:

175 miles from London, Ky to Bedford, Ky. FUCK THAT SHIT!!!!

There:

So we call a the dealership where we bought it..transferred to service. They want 80 bucks just to rack it up. So I talk to my step dad and swears by this dealership down from where we’re at. Head down there that Wed. the 8th. (July) and got my Mom in the car with me. (She works at Ford. Grampa worked at Ford. We’re a Ford family…) I let go and it almost slams us into the guardrail…yes..you guessed it..

to the left.
And the tire was already starting to show some wear.

We get down there…talk to Tim and he says he’ll rack it up…and have his guys take a peek and give us a call before he touches anything. Said it’d be 40 – 60 minutes. We go grab lunch.

25 minutes later my step dad (drove seperately) walks in with the read out.

1.) They “aligned” the car and “cross rotated” the tires WITHOUT calling us.
2.) There is no BEFORE SPECS just after and under the left front it shows a hand written 0.25 that my step dad caught Tim writing in.

At this point, what would you think? We’re at 35,400 miles and our warranty runs out at 36,000. We go in..he says it’s ready and go pay the alignment because it’s not covered under warranty.

So we start calling out all the crap that is wrong with it. The biggest number…the printout spec is for a [B]2006-2007[/B]. And the fact it took 25 minutes to rotate, and align. No before readouts, minus the hand written one he was caught doing.

We were there for hours. Trying to get a hold of Quality, and customer service. The Quality rep that knows my mom personally called the dealership, but the Manager wasn’t in.

They’re wanting us to take the car home. It’s a 48 mile trip. It wouldn’t take long to wrack up the miles running back and forth.

I refuse. Keep calling. Waiting. Etc.

When he see’s that we’re refusing to leave, he decides to get his mechanic over and talk with us.

So here comes hurricane halfwit the mechanical mechanic grease monkey: He comes back with camber adjustment aftermarket parts. Says that it’s a camber problem. Which…now that I’m looking at the Big-O sheet it states that. No one ever told us..but it’s still under warranty from Ford..

They won’t cover the after market camber adjustments parts or the labor because well…it’s after market…common sense.

Plus they said it’d void my warranty. Fat lot of good it’s done so far. And they still want me to pay for the alignment!!!!!

[hatchet] fits best here.

They ask…what would make me happy? After almost 7 hours of this crap, and NOW they ask…boy they got it:

First…a little common courtesy. You never called us. I’m not paying a damn dime for that alignment.

Second: You’re jerking me off, my wife doesn’t jerk me off, only I jerk me off and that’s only because it’s sex with someone I love. Stop trying to fucking  get us out the door because it’s so close to warranty expiration. I thought quality was job one. Well this is a quality AND safety issue. I can’t pull money out of my ass like it’s Christmas every few thousand miles to replace the fucking tires, pay for a rotation and an alignment. And if you think I am, I got a rotation for you, it’s called a fucking sit and fucking spin!

Third. Get your best mechanic on it. Then find someone better. Hell. Dig up my father, he’s still probably better and believed in safety and quality above all else. If my grandfather wasn’t cremated he’d be turning over in his grave and what a sorry state Ford has become.

(We let them ramble on about how they’re doing their best to help us, and this is the best they can do.) They notice the far off stare in my face the really means that I just don’t give a crap what’s coming out of their mouth.

The guy then repeats. Well..what would it take to make you happy?

Take that car…that Piece of  Shit..because all it is right now is an expensive piece of unsafe shit and rack it. Take the front left assembly apart. Find out what the real fucking problem is, not just fucking speculate. I don’t believe a goddamn word you say after the printout is for the wrong year and it has no before specs, just a penned in mark for the front left. The turn around time for the racking alignment, rotation and test drive, because I know you all have to test drive is unheard of, especially with as busy as you are. I’m hard pressed to say the job was actually done at all.  I’m worried about having to take a shit here because you’ll substitute the toilet paper for fucking gravel!

He asked me to take it for a spin, and I refused to move it still. I told him those are my requests as a customer. As a LOYAL buyer and a Ford family member.

He then told me well, you didn’t buy it from THIS dealership.

My Mom had something to say at that. “Ford is Ford. You get paid for warranty work regardless. I don’t see what the big deal is. I know you get paid. You won’t even look at it, just try to get them out the door…fuck that…”

My words were. “This is a Ford dealership and shop. I was told it was the best….THE BEST…in Kentucky. Apparently I was told wrong. Quality isn’t job one…it’s shafting the suckers after you sell them the car.  I know it’s hard because your manager is out of work, but please…take a look at it. Call him. Wait for him to get back do whatever. I’m not moving it. Call the police if you have to, but I’ll have the media here to meet them.”

8 hours…8 hours over what? Avoiding a warranty job because they’re pricks?

I just want you do take it apart and check it. Don’t throw a quick fix and get us out the door. If you think it’s safe. Get behind the wheel. Go down the interstate and take it up to 75 (the posted limit) and then to 80 (what I go). Drive it all the way to Bedford (where I’m from), hell drive it all the way to Indianapolis and go see a Metallica concert. I will bet my ass that it’s out of alignment again and going to start shredding tires.

Bring it back. Do what I ask. I want an engineer out here. Then…call up Santa at the North Pole to pull a fucking miracle out of his fucking ass!!!!

They agreed to take it until the manager got back from vacation.

Then comes the “we need a loaner”. A family with one car. Damn right. They say it’s not under warranty but they can’t PROVE it, nor can they DISPROVE it. Benefit of the doubt is apparently unheard of.

Tim states that he can’t give us a loaner on benefit of the doubt. I thought quickly..which is an accomplishment since I was so angry…and I had him join me over at the car. BINGO!!

What’s that Tim?
A hood.
What seems to be the problem, Tim.
It looks like it’s a bit out of alignment.
Care to pop the hood, Tim? It’s been like that since we bought it, but I can adjust it myself but I’m lazy. And what was that you said earlier…oh yeah…Body work within a range such as THIS is warranty.
*His thought: DAMN!!!!*

He hooked us up with a white focus 2009. Damn near like ours except an SE. I miss all the gadgets. Most of all I miss the leather wrapped steering wheel and my usb port. But that’s neither here nor there.

Amazingly two days later he talks to his manager (on a Friday), and I’m made aware through voicemail, which I the phone didn’t ring…it just showed I had a voicemail..no missed call. We live in a town with one stop light, but I swear the roads are paved.

“Sorry, we’re not able to cover it under warranty, please come down as soon as possible to turn the loaner in, and pick your car up. We drove it 30 miles and it’s still driving straight. We can put those after market camber parts on it to adjust the camber, but like I mentioned before this won’t be covered under your warranty…thanks…*click*” – This was recorded via voicemail time at 4:30pm..they close at 5pm. It’s a 45 minute drive speeding folks.

No dice. I’m not turning the rental in, and I’m not moving my car until it’s fixed or at the bare minimum ANALYZED PROPERLY by the engineer: via quality.

So now it’s 3:22am, technically Monday. Quality get’s in at 7am. We shall see what the next step is.

The famous first words uttered by Ray when the first three Ghostbusters (Pre unlicense positron-colliders) when they encountered the first, and one of the most memorable ghostss in the movie(s). (I mean…let’s be serious here. The second one wasn’t nothing to scoff at, but it was hard pressed to top the original.)

With two sucessful films, a very very sucessful animated series, and wave after wave of great toys, and even better “role playing” gear. (I mean..who didn’t have the ghost trap, proton pack and pke meter? I know I did…) The only thing that never quite hit the mark…alright they down right sucked…was the games.

Now…don’t get me wrong. I DO own Ghostbusters II for the NES, and sadly…it’s cheap, and too repetitive. I mean…hell AVGN covered that over at Cinnemasacre. Let’s not touch the badly taken relaunch of the series along the same time they decided to relaunch all the good titles. Transformers (Armada) He-Man (2000 – because it ran through the same name, no subname) TMNT (the official relaunch name of the Ninja Turtles, and then……and then…and yes…and then…you have “Extreme” Ghostbusters. My memories of it are shady at best, but I don’t remember it too fondly. I have since picked up the entire series and will be reviewing it soon.

Hopefully, it’s like Beast Machines – the sequel to Beast Wars. At the time, I hated it with a goddamn passion, but now…I absolutely love it. The story is way ahead of it’s time, and is directed more towards the higher end of the age spectrum. Soon to come on all that though…this is about one thing…and one thing only…

A Ghost.

With a huge red international “no no” sign slapped across it.

Yes.

Ghostbusters.

The game.

You can burn out all memories of any shitty Ghostbusters related games right nwo and just revel in this one. You know once you pop the disc in and you hear it kicking up…it’s going to be epic.

I’ll try not to ruin the story for those who haven’t played it but let’s just say that I’ve been playing for just under about 3 hours and “holyyyyyyyyyyyy shit” comes to mind. All our favorite toys come back. The basic ghost trap, and the slime gun. As well as two new little guys, that you’ll love. Each direction on the directional pad (360 wise) can access any of the four configurations on the new era packs.

I have to say…it’s just awesome straight from the get go. Slimer is shown in the main area of the firehouse and he is doing ESP with the cards (a throw back to the first movie), and then get’s pissed off when he get’s it wrong. Even my five year old thought this was hilarious. For reasons I can’t say he of course get’s lose, and you chase him around the firehouse as a “training level”.

Here, many may be appalled to know that you do NOT play as one of the BIG four, but that just adds to the character of the game so much more. You’re referred to as the “new guy”, the “rookie”, etc. It just builds up into it. For the short time I’ve played I’ve actually felt like I’ve become part of the team.

I’ve actually brought my system on vacation with me just so I could play it. Every time I start playing and my eye lids get heavy I have to play just a bit longer. I wanna see what’s next.
It’s not a “random” ghostbusting game. It all is part of a story. Technically it CAN be considered Ghostbusters III. All the voice actors are in TOP form. The smart assed womanizing remarks of Venkman are there. The over the top speedy delivery of what just happened to you from Ray appear. The smirk and know it all, but down to earth Egon brings it home, but we can’t forget Winston. His patened “I’ve seen shit that will turn you WHITE” attitude hits the mix. The rookie, so far in the game is silent, but he does give looks that are spot on to Venkman and rolls his eyes..which…

Damn…because that is what I was doing sitting on the Hotel room bed.

I’ve seen people bitching about this game much in the same way they’ve bitched about the Transformers 2 movie. (I’ll be sure to touch on that in a later, much longer post…) but I’ll tell you this…

NO FUCKING SHIT IT HAS A LEARNING CURVE. YOU’RE BUSTING GHOSTS. This isn’t a pick it up and play for the fuck of it game. This is a “goddamn busting makes me feel good” game. Your basic proton pack has two beams. The standard burn the fuck out of shit beam. And then the Ghost Wrangling Beam.

You wear the ghost down with the first one, then it will auto switch (I prefer to manually switch) to wrangling. Wrangling is the fun part. You grab’em, and they pull and fly every which way. You pull the opposite way and your slam meter fills up. You pull the trigger and slam them…that takes some of the fight out of them. After about the first or second slam I throw out the trap and slam them around as I move them into it…then…as the trap opens..you have to fight and keep them into the area of effect. Then…shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooooooooop.

One trap can hold many ghosts. Bitch all you want…you’ll be thankful of it as it goes along. It also has a nice little beam of light emitting from the trap to show you where it’s at.

Overall, the music is perfect. You have the theme. then you have the standard Ghostbusters style music ensemble. It fits. Perfect.

The controls are very well done, and the phsyics are fucking as close to perfect as you can get for busting ghosts. One thing I’ve noticed is that when you’re laden with equipment..you can’t jump high at all. More like a quick bounce. No problem. The same effect is there when you’re not geared up as well, but come on…that’s a minor bitch. The graphics are damn good. The voice acting is spot on. I’ve read of people complaining about Murray’s job of voice acting and so far I’ve seen them just looking to poke holes into the game. It sounds just like him from the movies. The pseudo-suave, poser smooth “doctor venkman”.

Another complaint I’ve seen is your “teammates” and shit. You fall down, they come and grab you up as soon as they can. Sometimes it takes a few seconds. Big fucking fat hairy deal. You’ve got four – five people busting many ghosts, or maybe a boss ghost with many sub ghosts and it takes them a second to get over to revive you. Get over it. Minor complaints.
One that really really REALLY get’s on my tits is “you have to vent your pack”!!! Yeah? So? For those of you who don’t know, your pack shows your health, as well as it’s temperature. It can overheat. You can purchase multiple upgrades for better control, more power, etc. Your pack can and will overheat. This makes you think about taking shots and when to take a second to hit the bumper button to vent it which immediately cools it. It takes a second to perform, but it adds a bit of strategy to the game as well.

Makes it more realistic.

As realistic as you can get playing a GAME about CAPTURING GHOSTS.

To be honest it makes it feel less cheap. I’d be pissed off if you could just hold down the trigger and have no repercussions. It takes away from the fun of it.

This game will make every man, woman and child want to bust ghosts, watch the original movies, and break out the old VHS bootlegs or downloads of the original cartoon series.

I’m in love with the game Prototype, and it’s officially been put on hold until this game is whored out.

Which also leads me to say that I do have the “cartoony version” for the DS and it’s just as good taking into account the miniscule size and cartoon visuals.

Finally, a game that is as addicting as the movies, cartoons and toys themselves…

I give this game 10 pirated copies of the animated series out of 10. Just based on effort, visuals, story, controls and sound alone. The “minor drawback” of having to vent the pack, and the “learning curve” and such that I’ve seen bitched about is a bunch of bullshit just picked on to drag the game down by shitty players or even worse, shittier game reviewers who are a bunch of sackriders for their favorite brand. They fall into the same catagory that bitched about Metallica’s newest album “DEATH MAGNETIC” being “too loud!!!”…

I mean…come on…

It’s fucking Metallica. It’s heavy metal. It’s supposed to be loud. Ignorant bastards need something to bitch about. Find something useful to bitch about…like standing in line waiting for medicine that SHOULD be readily available on the shelf. Like the lack of good prizes in the boxes of cereal…

Oh wait…already been done…

Damn I’m good!!

Oh! And…

Mind you this is my opinion, and if you don’t like it feel free to respond. Hell. Call into the Show’s voicemail and leave a message. 1 – 888 – DOWN – FCC. Leave your message, and if you want a number. We’ll call you live on the show and have a chat about it. It’ll make good listening. heh. detuned.axalonstudios.com

~M.