At $19,500, Is This 2003 Mercury Marauder a Actually Good Deal?

At this time’s Nice Price or No Dice Mercury is a one-owner automotive that, in keeping with the advert, has been pampered all its life. Let’s see if it’s priced to make sure a second proprietor will take over the automotive’s coddling.

The eighth observe on Low-cost Trick’s 1979 album, Dream Police takes its title from a repeated phrase within the tune’s refrain; “I do know what I need,” which is then adopted by the lyrics “and I understand how to get it.” In distinction, the sellers of many older objects are likely to stay by the motto of “I do know what I’ve” which is usually adopted by “and I do know what I need for it.”

These particular phrases have been really absent within the advert for yesterday’s comparatively uncommon 1986 Buick Century Gran Sport two-door sedan. The context, nonetheless, was implied by the automotive’s $7,000 asking worth. Most of you didn’t like that implication, giving the automotive a hefty 78 p.c No Cube loss.

To date, that provides us one win and two losses for the week. Let’s see if at present’s 2003 Mercury Marauder ties all of it up, or if its worth places us additional within the gap.

Mercury initially adopted the Marauder title within the late Nineteen Fifties to indicate its line of performance-oriented V8 engines. The nameplate transitioned from simply naming names on engines to representing the efficiency sub-model for 3 of the model’s automotive strains within the early Sixties.

The final of these Marauder fashions was the X-100, launched for the 1969 mannequin yr and discontinued on the shut of the mannequin run a yr later in 1970. The primary cause for its elimination was the speedy decline within the acceptance of the model’s large-form efficiency fashions by Mercury’s conventional patrons.

The nameplate then lay dormant for greater than three many years earlier than Ford dusted it off and utilized it to… properly, a efficiency model of Mercury’s then-largest luxurious automotive, the Marquis (not de Sade). Those that can’t study from their errors are condemned to repeat them, I assume.

Gross sales of the extra fashionable Marauder once more proved lackluster and the mannequin was dropped from Mercury’s lineup after as soon as once more simply two years in the marketplace.

All that doesn’t make the Marauder a foul automotive by any means. At this time, good examples are wanted not simply by aficionados of the model, however by followers of strong efficiency big-package vehicles as properly.

This one, with a clear title and simply 86,000 miles on the ol’ ticker seems to be a reasonably good instance. The vendor claims the automotive to be in “immaculate situation in and out,” and touts that it’s “fully inventory.”

Energy comes by means of the usual 4.6-liter DOHC Modular V8. On this mannequin, that engine makes 302 horsepower and is partnered with a 4R70W four-speed computerized and a 3.55 restricted slip rear finish. Protecting all that below management is a chassis derived from the Ford Crown Vic’s Police Interceptor package deal. Eighteen-inch alloy wheels carrying recent rubber underpin and are capped with the old-school Mercury “Roman God” logos.

These logos are repeated within the embossing on the backrests of the automotive’s entrance bucket seats. The seating surfaces throughout the board are out of leather-based and that each one seems to be in wonderful form, with simply minor crazing within the going through on the edges. Leather-based additionally wraps the two-spoke steering wheel which oddly sufficient carries the up to date Mercury brand in its middle.

This being an enormous luxurious automotive at its coronary heart, it has a slew of consolation and comfort options, plus it’s new sufficient to have airbags and seat belt snuggers for occupants’ peace of thoughts. In line with the vendor, the automotive has by no means been smoked in nor eaten in.

Mercury constructed just a little over 11,000 Marauders over the course of the 2003—2004 mannequin years. That fell under expectations main Ford to appreciate that massive sedans have been dying on the vine, with efficiency fashions main the march to extinction. At this time, the Marauder has its followers and the vendor of this clean-as-a-bean version is hoping a kind of will come alongside and pay the $19,500 for the distinction of creating this a two-owner automotive.

What’s your tackle this sizzling Mercury and that $19,500 asking? Does that appear like a good worth for the automotive because it sits? Or, does that asking make this a Marauder that’s searching for to plunder?

You resolve!

Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the advert disappears.

H/T to Invoice Waley for the hookup!

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