Battery Info 90 200TQW, Interstate

[David Ritter <dritter@mich.com>]

Hello,
Just following up my own post from earlier.
The Interstate people don't seem to do well with the special batteries 
needed by the 200. I spent a good bit of time today making phone calls 
to try and clarify which was the correct part number.
I called a local dealer who looked up a number which was MT-91. I
questioned whether or not this one had a vent tube plugin. They didn't 
know, as it wasn't in stock anyway, and would have to discuss it with
the distributor.
I got bored and decided to call Interstate directly. They seemed to
be interested in helping at the customer service level, but when I
needed to ask about specific features (vent tube), things got worse. I 
found from customer service that the part number I should be looking
for was MTP-91. I was transfered to Techical service at which point
his voice mail picked up the phone, and I gave up. I hate waiting a
week for a call back when I need an answer today. I'd prefer a busy
signal to voice mail any day.
I got in touch with my local dealer and he had spoken with his
distributor and claimed that the MTP-91 was superceded with the
MB-66. To further complicate the situation, they couldn't get me one
of those till next week either.
The next step was a trip to another local dealer for interstate
batteries. Arriving there I found the MB-66 sitting on the shelf,
however it was short a few CCA's from what I had previously in the
car. The MB-66 was only rated for 550 and was a significantly smaller
battery than the Autobahn 650CCA battery I needed to replace.

Finally I had to buy a non-vent tube battery, as a proper one just wasn't 
in the cards this time. I did buy an interstate, a MT-41 which has the 
650CCA's that I wanted, and the same size as the correct battery.

I live in hickville, and sometimes its difficult to do anything
quickly. If I didn't need the car running today, I might have waited
for something else to be ordered.

The problem is, now I am probably exposing the lock pump and
other electronic goodies under the seat to excessive acid fumes.

David