New car = new boot logo :)

The picture came from the wikipedia entry.

I don't wish to cause offence, but if you had showed me a photo of that car I would have guessed it was from the 1980s. It is intriguing how different parts of the world have very different ideas about what a car should look like ;-)

Just so you don't get the wrong idea about the US, the vast majority of people would never personally purchase such a car. First off, the Mercury Marauder is a slightly upscale version of the Ford Crown Victoria (I have no idea why it's called that). 90% of the Crown Vics you see on the road are police vehicles. Another 5% are fleet vehicles. The remaining 5% are owned by octogenarians. It's actually kind of useful, as it's usually pretty easy to pick out the police by the car, as there are very few other cars that they use. (Unfortunately, they've discontinued the Crown Vic, and there's no obvious police-only replacement.)

Anyway, the Mercury Marauder was only made for two years and there were only 11,000 made, total. (In comparison, the Lincoln Town Car, which is the "very" upscale version of the same body, sold well over 100,000 for the same two years. Comparing the sales numbers of the Crown Vic is not valid since so many were fleet vehicles. And Ford's best selling automobile is the F-Series pickup truck, which sells about 80,000 a month.)

Yep, no offense taken here The Marauder is the type of car that only certain people (like me) would get. I like it because it is big and comfortable but yet has good power, and yes it is kinda rare. It is definitely not a car for everyone but I have always liked big cars.
Now this one is from the 1980's --------->
And of course ----------->

Gorgeous

Used to have a red 5.3L V12 one a *looong* time ago
The thing went like stink - but the back end was incredibly 'loose'

Seeing the black gear knob reminds me I still have the walnut gear-lever somewhere... !

Good work on the install! The Marauder is such a beast and a sleeper. I love to see them on the road, distinguished only by the mirror-reflective "MARAUDER" on their rear bumper. And nice retro Mercury logo on the animation!

Thanks for the comments. Actually the mirror-reflective "MARAUDER" on the rear bumper is an aftermarket item, they did not come like that, but it does look cool.

Hey mrfixit,

Digging up this old thread because I just got myself a 2005 Crown Vic P71, which has the exact same factory stereo system that your car had. What did you use for an installation kit?

I'd like to do pretty much the same thing you did. No remote buttons on my wheel, though, so no SWI-X for me.

Where'd you mount the amplifier?

I picked up the new beast to replace the old Volvo 245 that had 235k miles on it. The Crown is good for that many miles at least. It's a retired police car, so it has 3.27 limited slip rear axle and 10 extra horsepower, but nothing like your Marauder. 68k miles, 3 years old, $7000. THAT's what I'm talkin' about!

Thanks in advance,

Jim

And what happened to your old Volvo 245? If it's dead, I could sure use the left and right rear quarter panels to replace mine; one from rust, and the other recently got hit.

Aw, 235k miles is just getting broken in!

Yeah, I know. A Volvo guy could get another 200k out of this car, and one bought it to do just that. The body was pretty decent, actually. There were some expensive mechanical problems, though, and the engine is way down on power.

These things never made that much power (112hp when new), but after 235k miles I bet it didn't even make 85hp any more. That's not enough in a 4300 lb. car, even here in the Great Plains. The beast couldn't maintain 60mph on the freeway coming up the very gradual (but long) grade up from the river valley. Going over the mountains on I-70 it would only do 40mph. Needs an overhaul...

I might have even done that, the transmission is still very strong. But the A/C is out, and the windshield is leaking down onto the master fuse block. The last rainstorm shorted the power windows, defroster and shifter interlock.

It was just too much hassle for me with a car that needs to be 100% reliable, so time for a new beast. Sorry I can't offer it to you!

For the record, the Crown Vic is not being discontinued. It will be sold strictly for police or fleet vehicles. They will no longer be selling it to end user consumers.

Are the police even still buying them, though? The new police cars I've seen around here have been Dodge Chargers.

Well, a while back, Ford said it was discontinuing the Crown Vic Police Interceptor too, and police forces started looking elsewhere. Since then they reneged, but I'm sure that those police forces figured that they'd put enough effort into the Chargers that it didn't make a lot of sense to switch back.

Also, Chevy discontinued their police model Caprice back in '96, and between then and 2006, when Dodge introduced the police version of the Charger, the CVPI was the only car in the US specifically made for police work. (Well, Chevy did notionally make an Impala, but it was much lower powered and front-wheel drive.)

My point being that the CVPI was basically the only police car there was for ten years. Before then, though, you saw about half-and-half Fords vs. Chevys. Now that there's another viable police car on the market, I imagine you'll start to see a lot more of the Chargers. Which sucks since it won't be as easy to pick them out in your rear-view mirror.