First introduced as a 1963 model, the Marauder was an on-again, off-again offering at Mercury, which included a more than three-decade hiatus when the moniker was used for the last time in 2003-2004. The third and final generation cars are some of my favorite turn-of-the-century sleeper sedans, and it’s a mystery to me why the sales were so low. The brand had hoped to build 18,000 per year, but just over 11,000 were made in total over the two-year production span, so it’s sort of a modern-day rarity. This 2004 Mercury Marauder here on eBay appears to be a top-notch example, with the seller claiming that its 38,000 miles were put on there by one owner. This one’s said to have been in Florida most of its life, but it’s now located in Victoria, Texas, with a buy-it-now cost of $27,999 and no option to make a lower offer.
Based on the popular Grand Marquis, the Marauder offered buyers considerably more than the car it was based on, such as suspension components borrowed from the Ford Crown Vic Police Interceptor. A limited-slip rear end with 3.55:1 gears was also utilized, along with more heavy-duty brakes, also the same components found in the pursuit counterpart. Under the hood was a DOHC 32-valve 4.6-liter V8, which produced 302 horsepower plus a four-speed automatic transmission, as no manual was available. With only 38,000 miles of use, the engine is said to still perform smoothly, and everything in the bay appears to remain in good order.
Lots of the exterior is the same as the Grand Marquis, but it’s the subtle touches that really make this one stand out. Much of the chrome trim outside was eliminated, but that finish was used for the wheels and dual tailpipes, expressing to passersby that this is no ordinary family sedan. The rear bumper proudly displays the model’s name, while the front unit features an air intake and fog lights, along with a black painted grille. The body seems to be in excellent shape, with the Silver Birch Metallic paint still displaying a mostly glossy finish.
Plenty of luxury can be found inside, with the charcoal-colored leather seats appearing as though they would provide comfort and support for hours at a time. The interior’s condition seems just as I would hope for an auto with so few miles, indicating that the odometer reading is probably correct and that this one has likely been exceptionally well-cared-for. One dollar shy of twenty-eight grand isn’t exactly cheap, but for a RWD high-performance sedan of this caliber, maybe that price is in the ballpark. Is this 2004 Mercury Marauder destined to be in your future?
Peak Panther right here. When we see for example a Crown Vic with reasonable miles in reasonable condition, the comments are often along the lines of their tank-like durability and that it will be serving the new owner well for many years. So here we have that situation, but with a heavy dose of sportiness added. Which makes this a very desirable car. Perhaps, this perspective is more clear than when these Marauders were new. But, the price of admission is considerable.
Thanks Mike, good job.
No 302 ever made it into this platform. Since the redesign in 92 its been a 281 (4.6) and ONLY a 281. It made 302 hp however. My brother had one and was pretty dissappointed. Compared to dads 96 Impala SS it was a slouch. Just couldnt compete with that pushrod LT1 lkw end torque
Agree w Bob peak of the platform, all the panther goodies on-board from the factory… just wished they could’ve used a more elegant shifter handle than that clunky Taurus looking one. Matt is correct on the motors too 👍
I agree with Bob and Stan. These are just simply great cars. And all the goodies these Marauders have is a huge bonus. Until Stan pointed it out, I never gave much thought to the Taurus/Sable style shifter. This one looks like a creampuff.
If you actually read the article, that’s what it says. DOHC 4.6 with 302 hp. Maybe read twice before you “correct”. Just a thought…
If you read the original write up BEFORE edits you’d know they changed their story. Thx
Just a thought….maybe next time consider they read my comment and changed their copy. Thx
I dunno, it was a little too late and not enough. Those impala ss in the 90’s are the ones that got it right
Agree with a little too late, but, the Impala’s were hideous compared to these.
W/a user name like yours, who wouldn’t expect as absurd a comment as this?! Those early 90s SS’ were absolute rockets & equipped to the hilt. Comparing Marauder’s to SS Impala’s is like apples to oranges! Ask ANY cops who spent their careers behind the wheel of a Caprice 9C1 vs those who piloted a Ford CVPI, then tell me which side of the fence lamented the MOST when production of their steeds was terminated.
The Marauder didn’t look like a beached whale, though.
I have a 1995 Impala SS with a Lingenfelter engine upgrade (around 60K miles.) and the 2011 Crown Vic I bought new that has 245,000 miles on it. (Worth nothing so kept as an extra vehicle.)
The Impala is far more comfortable. A friend commented that it was similar to a golf cart. Designed for big, fat, drunk guys to get in and out of easily. Except for the drunk part I resemble that comparison. But lousy quality. Interior pieces are always breaking, the clear coat paint failed and I simply never repainted. The Lingenfelter is a blast. Made the car come alive.
The Crown Vic is “tossable.” you go downtown and need to park, this is the car you want. Easy to drive and but for the HVAC, no problems ever. Still on original transmission. However, it is slow. Real slow. Always needed another 150+ HP. It is not a muscle car.
The Mercury may be slower and not handle as well. But it will last longer than the Chevy. Both the Carice and the Merc. are good long lasting vehicles. The mechanicals of the Chevy are old school and the Ford product is the beginning of new school. I do like the style of the Merc. better. I like this, but not at this price!
Ford attempted to replicate the success of the ’94-’96 Impala SS with this car, but I believe they made two significant mistakes. 1) While the SS was a throwback to sixties muscle cars with its strong low-end torque and burbling exhaust, the Marauder took a more sophisticated route with a smooth DOHC engine strong on power, but weak on torque and visceral thrills. Something a little rowdier probably would have done better. 2) Ignoring their long history of failing to sell anything without opera windows and a padded roof, they gave it to Mercury dealers to sell. They didn’t understand the car or the customers.
Since I own both, I have first hand knowledge and agree with your observation but a few years of Impala SS did not pay the bills. The Caprice was not selling and so they made the SS and could have saved the car but for GM wanting the plant to make more profitable Tahoe and Suburbans. The Crown Vic was selling but the Marauder did not for reasons including what you wrote about.
Ford could make money offering a modern Vic. Rear drive with a 4wd option. Knobs and toggle switches and no screens. Analog. Simple for old people. Charge more for less. Nice and comfortable along with lots of leg room and top quality seats. Maybe build it on the Tahoe architecture. Body on frame, wide doors, a bench seat up front, (buckets being optional.) They would have a hit, IMHO
Unfortunately,you have to have a screen in the dash of
new cars,as the backup cameras are required by law.I have a ’97 Miata,& it’s fairly simple for a modern car.
I recently rented a KIA K4,& couldn’t figure out how to operate
the cruise control,or find the radio stations that I wanted.It also had
adaptive cruise control,so it would slow down any time that I came up
behind another vehicle.I couldn’t find any way to disable it.
I would buy one of these if I had the room & money to do so.
The Grand Marquis out sold the Crown Vic. To the general public.
Joe you must mean build it on the Explorer architecture. I wonder the same thing. There’s a market out there and folks who can afford it buy German or Japanese full size sedans. The rest of us not so much.
Having operated Crown Vics for about a million miles there is not much comparison to the Chevy Caprice. The 5.0 Crown Vics with lights on top would hit about 110 MPH. The Caprice police car with the 5.7 would hit 150 MPH. The Impala SS might do the same. The 4.6 Crown Vic would get 136 MPH. I bet the Marauder would do the same. I would buy Marauder if I win the lottery.
Chevy caprice that hits 150 mph, marijuana must be legal in your state. There’s a reason chevrolet got out of the passenger sedan police business, while it admitedly had more power than the crown vic, ford topped it in every other category, including ride, room, handling, durability and build quality. Majority of used crown vics, after retirement from police duty, began new careers as cabs, never seen another vehicle that would take that kind of abuse.
Definitely top police vehicle ever produced.
Agree. The only way the Caprice would achieve this speed is dropping it out of an airplane. The Crown Vic was a superior cop car and sales reflected so.
You guys need to do some research, the Caprice was significantly faster than the vikky and was almost double the price. That’s why Ford always goes all out on providing fleet vehicles, built and sold cheap…the walmart of the automotive world!
Car and Driver claims a curb weight of 4200lbs+ wow.
I had no idea they weigh that much!!! I drove my fathers 2000 Grand Marquis a few times and quite honestly, it feels lighter than that in how it accelerates, amd handled.
I like what they stood for. But I could never get past the fact that it just looks like a ‘grandpa car’. I like a good sleeper, but it has to have a bit more than a black grill to get my motor going.
That car badly needed traction control and it wasn’t available.
If McGarrett was still on, he’d be driving one.
There’s a youtube channel, Chris Sullivan.. that bought a Marauder and swapped in a 4.6 supercharged engine from a GT500! go check out the channel for how this car should have been built.
Had a black 03 Marauder and it was a fun car to drive.Took it to Hot Rod Drag Week, Best Run Was 15.25 in the 1/4.
As I attended Michigan’s cop car evals. ’89 thru ’96, the top speed of the ’94 9C1/LT1 Caprice was 141, 135 in ’95, & 139 in ’96. The 6mph drop in ’95 was attributed to a civilian-oriented torque convertor to eliminate so-called harsh up-shifts. That change made its way into the 9C1 police option. The down-side was that it allowed slippage in overdrive, thus the 6mph top end drop. Slippage for 9C1 Chevy’s was reduced somewhat for 1996.
Having sold commercial and municipal vehicles you find out all kinds of interesting info. The one that surprised me the most. Is that when the hiway patrol purchases vehicles (at least in Nevada) the only 3 things that are considered. Price, speed and driver comfort. Reliability is never considered as maintenance is funded from a separate account. Which (as explained to me by the top “vehicle guy” ) is why they bought the Chargers. I sold 50 GMC Sierra 2500 crew cab short box trucks to the NHP DOT patrol as they included sliding racks in the bed for portable scales. The only common failures were power door lock actuators. They turn them over at 150,000 miles and received very close to 50% dollar return at the state auction. At 150,000 miles the Chargers are used up and have spent many days in the shop. The auction return on a Charger is a joke.
I used to think that the Crown Vic with the police interceptor package was really cool. Until I rented a car and got one of those. Was really surprised how slow it was and how poorly it handled. I never drove an Impala SS but when we were buying another car, a salesman who worked at the dealership drove one of the Impala SS cars new and said that it handles like a small vehicle. Very interesting.
I DESPISE,what they did to the Panther Ford and Mercury sedans in 1992! The 1979-1991 version was traditional and handsome, in my book: likewise for the 1980-’89 Lincoln — especially after they stopped making the two-door coupes. With 404,000 miles on my 1988 Mercury Grand Marquis, with nothing re-built or swapped-out, I can attest to the “runs reliably for ever” aspect of these cars. Run through every northeastwrn winter since 1988, it still has but tiny hints of surface-rust in the usual places, and a clean frame. The velour seats remain about like-new, and the faux wood still gleams richly. The air-conditioning, never re-charged or up-dated, still blows ice-cold. The heater is adequate (it always was a bit anemic). I’ve given up on trying to fix the electric door-locks and the cruise-control. But it always gets me to where I am going, and back again. It is far from the “last word” on all-out POWER; however, it runs smoothly as silk. The radio/cassette player is nothing to exclaim about: plays tapes okay, but the radio (especially on A.M.) is just less than adequate, in my opinion — nothing close to the days of tube radios in cars. I’m only about 180 miles from New York City, and yet the New York radio stations are faint and very hissy during the day (whereas, on my 1961 portable transistor radio, they are close to local-quality clear during the day). And the F.M. side simply can’t cope with the many more stations licenced onto onto adjacent channels since 1988. Too bad that there is nothing on rhe radio in rhe way of MUSIC, just infernal frantic NOISE.And my dependable old Mercury still is modern enough to have fuel injection, and to get better than 20 m.p.g. on a full-sized body-on-frame classic V-8 FOOR-DOOR sedan with a cream-velvet-smooth ride: What’s not to like? By the way, I don’t want anything “sporty” or “performance”-oriented or “fast” in appearance; and you can KEEP those “hot”-looking wheels! Just let me have the standard steel ones with traditional hub-caps, if you please. I am told that my car looks like it belongs to some 93-year-old man living in “The Villages” in Florida — a real “grandpa” car: As a white-haired great-grandfather many times over with teen-aged great-grandchildren, I resemble that!
Harrison, Great car. And as far as the frame and suspension goes. I was surprised when we had a car in the shop (1989 I believe) that had an altercation with a large rock that came off the mountin side and damaged the left front suspension. All the part numbers were 1965 part numbers. (Easy to read Ford part numbers) Not bad for 45 + year old suspension design.
Hello, Wayne! Thank you for affirming the greatness of these cars! ONE liability I forgot to mention, however: they can slide and skid rather easily on snow and ice, and hydroplaning is a problem in a very heavy rain. My 1946 Ford held the road like a rock, with solid traction under any weather condition, by contrast. But no car is “perfect”: you really had to watch out, with that old flathead, for over-heating in sultry weather, or when sitting still at idle in a traffic jam behind an accident up ahead. In the Mercury, in 404,000+ miles, I’ve never had the “check engine” light come on: how many car-owners with computer-control can say that?
I worked in radio for 32 years. I had a Marauder for a long weekend and said I wouldn’t buy it specifically because of the radio. It sounded like two tin cans and my mother-in-law was more sensitive. Then there was the lack of traction control and having to buy tires every other month.
Nice idea, but I’d rather have a ‘69 Kingswood with a 427 if I was going for brute force family cruising.
Hello, John! IS there a decent car with a fine A.M. radio, without going back to 1959 or earlier? Since you are a radio-professional, what thoughts do YOU have?
Recent prices of 96 Impala SS models far exceed low mileage Marauders. I am retired and watch prices closely every day. And this is coming from a guy with two Panthers, a 156,000 mile 03 Grand Marquis and 38,000 mile 09 Lincoln Town Car. I looked for a 96 SS, they are either beat up, were smoked in, modified or have 10,000 miles and the sellers want $30,000 plus. Nice Marauder here in the same color as my Town Car. The rarest color is blue available only in 2004 I believe.
A manual swap is all this needs to raise the fun factor.
I’ve had the Crown Vic, which I enjoyed a lot until it hydroplaned one day & bounced off a rock wall. I’ve also owned a 2004 Lincoln Towncar. I bought it with just under 100K miles. At about 120K it started blowing Spark Plugs out of the right head. I now own a 2007 Town Car with 64K. With the new engine design, I’m optimistic I’ll get better service from the 4.6 engine. I’d rather have the Chevy SS though…lol
Hydroplaning is a product of tire width, tread pattern/depth and speed. A ’46 Ford had nowhere close to the tread width of a Panther series car. REMEMBER, UNLESS YOU ARE TALKING DRY PAVEMENT OR SAND. A NARROW TIRE IS ALWAYS BETTER. WETHER IT IS “SLICING THROUGH” THE SNOW, MUD OR STANDING WATER TO GRAB SOME TRACTION OR JUST TAKING ADVANTAGE OF MORE TRACTION PER SQUARE INCH. OR BOTH! Having been on the wrong end of a hydroplaning issue, and totally losing control in deep snow, I can tell you first hand the wages of the tire impact and speed can be very scary. I also know the satisfaction of blasting down the far left lane that no one is venturing out into because the snow is deep and slippery at extra legal speed because I have excellent skinny tires and not having any skidding or control issues. Put the wheel and tire combo that was on the old Ford on the Panther and It would be just fine. Naturally, cornering and ride will suffer.