Ford's late and sometimes—but rarely—great Mercury division made only 11,052 of these "Panther-body" Marauders in 2003 and 2004, just 3,204 in 2004, so finding one these days is relatively rare. This 2004 found me for sale on Facebook Marketplace in the town just west of the Triple Wide out here on the far west side of Cleveland, Ohio. The asking price is $10,000.
Before you go running to the ATM, buyer beware. Apparently, the seller didn't heed the warning signs
Founded in 1938 as a mid-priced brand intended to bridge the price gap between Ford and Lincoln, Mercury spent much of its existence occupying an awkward spot in the Ford Motor Company hierarchy. Save for a smattering of models, such as the 1967–1970 Cougar, a Mercury was generally either a dressed-up Ford or a scaled-down Lincoln. Being sold primarily through Lincoln-Mercury dealers didn't exactly help establish Mercury as a brand with an identity of its own, either.
These 2003 and 2004 Marauders, resurrecting a name Mercury had previously used on full-size models in the 1960s and again on its 1969 and 1970 two-door models, not only did little to define what a Mercury was, they certainly didn't do much to buoy the marque, either.
Answering a question that no one was asking, the Marauder was essentially a high-performance Mercury Grand Marquis, sharing the Panther platform with the Ford Crown Victoria and Lincoln Town Car. It got a number of heavy-duty chassis components and suspension upgrades, along with the 4.6-liter DOHC, 32-valve V-8 related to the engines used in the Mustang Mach 1 and Lincoln Aviator.
Stripped of much of the Grand Marquis' usual brightwork and dolled up with a monochromatic, blacked-out treatment, the Marauder also received plenty of chassis hardware to go with its sinister appearance. The suspension was considerably firmer than that of a standard Grand Marquis, with unique front springs, Tokico monotube shocks and a larger front anti-roll bar. In back, the car used load-leveling air springs, while the 2003 revision of the Panther platform brought rack-and-pinion steering and other chassis improvements.
The rims are 18-inchers shod with appropriately meaty tires, and they're staggered, meaning the rear tires are wider than the fronts. From the factory, the Marauder wore 235/50R18 tires up front and 245/55R18s in back.
The rear axle ratio was also bumped from the Grand Marquis' typical 2.73 or 3.27 gearing to a 3.55:1 setup with a standard limited-slip differential.
If these cars had an Achilles' bumper, it was under the hood.
Despite Roush Performance's involvement in developing the intake manifold and dual-exhaust system, the big 4.6-liter DOHC V-8 made 302 horsepower and 318 lb-ft of torque. That's respectable, but moving a roughly 4,200-pound barge with a four-speed automatic transmission isn't exactly a recipe for tire-smoking acceleration.
Contemporary road tests put zero-to-60 mph at roughly 7.5 seconds, while the quarter-mile came in around 15.5 seconds at roughly 91 mph. Good, but hardly remarkable.
Fuel economy wasn't exactly the Marauder's strong suit, either. EPA ratings were only 15 mpg city and 21 mpg highway, and the 10.1:1 compression ratio meant Ford specified 91-octane premium unleaded for optimum performance.
An attempt to fix the lack of real go-power on this car was apparently made by the person from whom the current owner bought it.
An Eaton M112 supercharger was added, along with an Aeromotive 340 fuel pump, heat exchanger, intercooler, high-pressure fuel injectors and various other baubles and bits, all in the interest of literally boosting horsepower and torque.
There are no raw numbers indicating what those modifications did to the engine, but there's a caveat: Although the person who posted the ad claims the car passed local emissions testing when they first bought it, something has apparently gone kablooey with the engine tune since. Not only will this thing no longer pass a local e-check, but it's not even running.
They can provide video of it running, though.
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