eBay Find of the Week: This Mercury Marauder won’t put you to sleep
The Mercury Marauder is a sleeper. Sure it’s blacked out and a bit intimidating, but it is also a big four-door sedan with very subtle cues to its performance capabilities. Basically, it’s a sleeper.
Panther-platform Fords, Lincolns, and Mercurys have an avid following and the Marauder may be the most collectible. The full-size rear-wheel-drive platform underpinned luxury, police, and livery cars from 1978 through 2011. But it wasn’t until the 2003-2004 Mercury Marauder that a performance variant was available directly to civilians.
The car sported a 302 hp 4.6-liter V-8 built to Mustang Mach 1 specifications. Besides the cosmetic differences, the Marauder also included a limited-slip differential, an aluminum driveshaft, high performance suspension modifications from the Police Interceptor version of the Ford Crown Victoria, and upgraded interior trim.
Today’s listing appears to be original other than somewhat menacing window tint. The seller claims this Marauder has only 24,900 miles since new. The $17,500 Buy-It-Now price splits the difference between Hagerty’s #2 and #3 condition values. As modern cars go, these don’t seem enormously collectible, and indeed, they weren’t big sellers when new. However, the rear-wheel-drive, body-on-frame V-8-powered American sedan once so ubiquitous is now extinct and the Marauder represents the concept’s final hurrah.
