Not a Mustang, but I was impressed

[GOLDENPONY]

I just got back from a 2 week vacation out West. We took Amtrak (not the greatest experience) to Flaggstaf where I picked up a rental car, a new Mercury Grand Marquis. Now, I have been driving Mustang GT's for many years, all 5 speeds, so I didn't expect to like this land yaught. Let me tell you, I was very impressed, like I said, I am a manual shift guy, but this big Merc did alright. It handeled fairly well for a boat, accelerated OK, and was as smooth as butter. It would cruise at 90 all day with some left over. There wasn's a rattle or a squeek anywhere. And I swear, it would cruise at 70-80 with the A/C on and gave me 30 MPG on 87 octane regular. It also had a trunk big enough to haul a weeks worth of dead bodies from the Sopranos. It also had about every bell and whistle you could possible ask for. If I ever decided to get out of my GT, I'd look for a low mileage Maurader.

 

[highvolts]

I'd love to have a Maurader.

 

[V. Barbarino]

they canceled them for a reason..

 

[highvolts]

they canceled them for a reason..

Being?

 

[V. Barbarino]

the car was crap... under powered and vastly outdated. It's a cop car! They should have put the cobra engine in it, then it had a chance.

 

[stanmckinney]

There he goes again.

 

[godfather55v]

i'm w/ ya on the Maurader. I had a cougar xr7 5.0 black. the Maurader looked like a four door version of my old cougar. It is certainly on the list of play cars I'm going to buy when i win the lottery.

 

[07gtfolife]

they canceled them for a reason..

I was about to pull out my be cool fool stick for a second there. I thought you were talking about the Sopranos

 

[ShortThrow50]

I only like mustangs as my second car and garage queen. They arent the best as far as driver comfort, fuel mpg, etc,etc. I have never driven or ridden in the new model mustang though. I base my experiences off of my 5.0 and 03 cobra.

 

[Fourth Horseman]

the car was crap... under powered and vastly outdated. It's a cop car! They should have put the cobra engine in it, then it had a chance.

Those of us with Marauders have found that they are an excellent platform for aftermarket mods. There are Marauders running 10 second quarter miles, not at all bad for a 4200 pound car. The 32v DOHC 4.6 responds very well to super charging. Should it have come with a blower from the factory? Probably. But with Ford hemorrhaging money is it really any surprise that it didn't? I think the real surprise is that Ford made the car at all.

For what it's worth, I get far more positive comments and thumbs up from people when I'm driving the big Merc than my Mustang.

 

[V. Barbarino]

99% of the public don't know what the MM was, they only sold 11k of them for 2 years. It's an outdated relic of Ford's fleet program with nice wheels and a decent engine. They should have slapped a 5 speed in with the cobra motor, then it would have been huge fun.

 

[Fourth Horseman]

99% of the public don't know what the MM was, they only sold 11k of them for 2 years. It's an outdated relic of Ford's fleet program with nice wheels and a decent engine. They should have slapped a 5 speed in with the cobra motor, then it would have been huge fun.

Ford also should have put a bigger engine and six speed trans in the S197 Mustang GTs, but that doesn't mean the cars aren't fun to drive.

It's worth noting that from the very beginning Ford only intended to make the car for a few years. It was never intended to be a high production product. They wanted to use it as a "halo" car for Mercury. This has been well documented from the beginning in such places as Hot Rod magazine years before the car ever saw production.

As a low production vehicle do you really think Ford would re-engineer the Panther platform to fit a manual trans into the car? Of course not. You'll note that Chevy stuck with an auto trans for the '94 - '96 Impala SS as well.

Considering how little budget the project got from Ford the Marauder turned out really well. Gears and a tune is all you need to get into the low to mid 14s in the quarter. Those are things most of us do to our Mustangs as well; cheap, easy mods.

 

[bigcat]

i love the maruader! i would drive one of them as the family 4 door any day!! i love the way they drive, very comfortable for the daily commute.