The "A Blast From The Past?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Opening the mail and found something that looked as if it had been mailed years ago.  Back in late 1990s my wife and I purchased a Mercury Mountaineer.  We were shopping for a Ford Explorer and when we could find none that we liked, one of the salesmen at New Holland Ford in New Holland, Pennsylvania suggested we look at a Mountaineer since they were a Ford/Lincoln/Mercury dealer.  We found the perfect car for ourselves and just loved it.  After we had paid for it and the warranty had expired, we began to look for another Mountaineer.  This time we found one closer to home at Lancaster Lincoln/Mercury which was about two miles from our home rather than the 13 miles to New Holland.  Our salesman was a fellow who looked like Elvis with a constant smile on his face.  Wasn't long before we had purchased a 2006 Mountaineer and added an extended warranty to it knowing we wanted to keep it for at least seven or more years.  We followed much the same routine with this automobile and after paying it off and using most of the extended warranty, we were ready to look for something else, since Ford Motors had stop making the Mercury brand.  We stopped at the Ford dealer, Mazda dealer, Toyota dealer and Hyundai dealer with no success.  One salesman kept calling my wife honey, one salesman told us he had a buyer in the parking lot ready to take our car that day and another salesman wanted us to visit their repair garage to meet everyone who would service the car.  We ended up at the Honda dealer who had the salesman with the nicest personality.  Didn't even ask for our names before he began to show us a few cars.  Then we looked at the showroom next door that sold Buick cars and when he saw that he asked if we would like to see a Buick since he also could sell us one of those.  Bruce was the nicest fellow and we ended up buying a 2014 Honda CRV from him about two months after we began our search.  Part of the deal was once again an extended warranty.  About a month ago I took our 2014 Honda to the dealer to have the oil changed, lubricated and tires rotated.  The car had only one payment left on it and a few miles over 34,000 on it.  A few days later we got a notice from the dealer telling us they would offer us a fantastic amount if we wanted to upgrade.  We talked and talked and made a visit to meet with Jonathon, since Bruce was now in charge of the service department.  Another fantastic salesman who helped give us information about what they had for sale.  We talked about it and told them we would take the car, but wanted an extended warranty that would last us for eight years on everything on the car but the usual such as tires, wipers, brakes, etc.  The car is now in the driveway and looks great.  Today I opened the mail and found a notice telling me it was time to extend our warranty for our 2006 Mountaineer.  I though it was a mistake until they said they could extend the warranty until 2023!  

Sample of parts prices for my 2006 Mountaineer I got
rid of over 5 years ago.

That's 17 years from the date I bought the car.  WOW!  I have to take out the warranty by February 16th if I was interested.  They gave me a chart showing me the cost of each part if I had to replace it.  I should have called to see if they still made parts for the car, but I really wasn't interested since I had traded the car over five years ago.  I can't believe there is a dealership that would give a warranty on a car that old.  Actually the dealership went out of business since the Mercury Mountaineer is no longer made.  The warranty is coming from a company in another state.  Might be a good deal if we still had the car.  So, you see why I thought it must have been mailed years ago and possibly lost at the postoffice.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.