The Mercury Marauder was the name of different automobiles made by the Mercury division of Ford Motor Company.
Early Models
The early Marauder was a V8-engined large automobile. It débuted for the 1963˝ model year as a two-door hardtop version of the full-size Mercury, a spin-off of Mercury's return to stock car racing. Marauders were offered from the 1963˝ to 1965 model years, then again from 1969 to 1970.
In 1964, Marauder became only the name of a special package available for the Mercury Monterey, Montclair, and Park Lane models.
However, in 1969, the Marauder became a distinct model again, competing in the personal luxury segment typified by the Pontiac Grand Prix, but with large engines: the X-100 variant possessed a 429 ci engine developing 360 hp.
2003-2004
For 2003, Ford produced the Marauder, which is a "high-performance" version of the Ford Crown Victoria sedan. This run lasted 2 years.
The 2003 Mercury Marauder is based on the 2003 Ford Panther chassis which utilizes a hydroformed steel frame, front rack and pinion steering, totally revised front and rear suspension with monotube shock absorbers. The Marauder also has a naturally aspirated 4.6L DOHC V8 producing approximately 300 hp. The 2004 was the last year for this Marauder mostly due to lackluster sales, blamed by some on bland styling, gutless performance, and incorrect target audience. Originally, they were produced in "any color the customer desired, so long as it was black." Eventually they produced them in silver, blue, and red but in limited quantities.
Ford attempted to market the new Marauder as a "modern muscle car" but unfortunately it lacked a lot of low end performance and was not even close to matching the 1994-96 Chevrolet Impala SS that Ford tried to use as an example of its competition.
The aftermarket parts availability for the 2003-2004 Marauder is high for a low run vehicle, but expensive due to the low number of orders. Mercurymarauder.net[1] is currently the largest online community for the 2003-2004 Mercury Marauder and is also home to a myriad of vendors. Trilogy Motorsports (based in Michigan) outfits Marauders with custom Eaton Supercharger kits propelling Marauders into the 12 second 1/4 mile bracket.
