Last Tuesday I had my first chance to have a good look at and test drive the 93 Marathon I talked about in previous posts. Unmitigated disaster may be too strong a term but I certainly have concerns. My first "oops" factor came when I noticed the DDEC had recently been replaced. That means no history is available. The dealer said he had a new one installed at great expense but didn't explain why. The unit is clearly marked as a "reman". There were lots of other little things but the big problem came on the test drive. Weather here was crummy (Canada in the winter: go figure!) and we were late getting to the dealer who is a few hundred miles away. On arrival, the coach was sitting out front at high idle where it had been for more than an hour. The dealer pointed out that no PDI or other work had yet been done but the coach was good to go for a test drive. The temperature was hovering at around 20F and a snow warning was in effect. We got out of town for some highway test driving and drove for about 20 minutes at around 60 to 65 mph. We made the turn to come back to town and 2 minutes later, the engine died. Long, long story about several hours of me and the service guys trying to restart the coach ended in the unit being hauled back on a trailer. The dealer says it was due to gelled summer diesel but I had the powerplant running fine. I also bled the lines and got fuel to flow although at poor volume. I made the comment that it looked like the Racor and on-engine fuel filters had never been changed and got no argument. Also, the dealer seems to have a "thing" about me taking the coach to the main Detroit/Allison dealer for a checkup. He has agreed to have the full PDI done by a Prevost approved shop so I have not yet thrown in the towel. Although the "Marathon" part of the coach seems to be in good shape, I am concerned about the excessive wear on the leather of the driver and passenger seats. Maybe it has more than the 150T miles reported. I suspect the "Prevost" part of the coach had poor maintenance. Prevost has told me that they can't divulge any history on the coach without the approval of prior owners except for outstanding recall notices of which there are two. (flexible hoses on front & rear brakes). The dealer swears these recalls were done by some outfit in another city but not logged by Prevost for some unknown reason. BTW, I didn't touch any air controls but an hour after the engine quit, the coach had "bottomed out". Is this normal? I have an uneasy feeling guys but would appreciate your input and comments.

D'Bug