Photo: jlord8 / Instagram
The Mercury brand is dead and buried by the corner office head honchos that called the shots at FoMoCo at the time – but that doesn't stop people from dreaming about its hypothetical return.
Slated to bridge the narrow gap between Ford and Lincoln models, Mercury was founded in late 1938. It carried itself with dignity and poise until 2011, when diminishing sales (it had delivered fewer vehicles than Oldsmobile or Plymouth, two other discontinued brands) forced it into retirement. However, that doesn't mean people have already forgotten the brand or some of its greatest nameplates.
For example, Mercury was an integral part of the golden age of muscle cars with some of its models, and some may even consider the Marauder as one of the greatest products they ever created. Well, it's a two-fold appreciation – the nameplate was used for both the most powerful engine available for the Mercury brand as well as a trio of distinct full-size vehicles that lived at the top of the line during each of their stints.
The first and second generations (1963 to 1965 and 1969 to 1970) were offered at the height of the muscle car era as two-door and four-door hardtops (only the first generation). After a hiatus of more than three decades, Mercury revived the nameplate for the 2003 model year, and the resulting four-door sedan was the very definition of an American sleeper with upgraded everything (chassis, suspension, powertrain, etc.) over the Grand Marquis.
This was a full-size saloon with no equivalent in the Ford lineup and served as the 2000s Blue Oval interpretation of the 1994 to 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS. Immediately following its demise, Chrysler also jumped on board the niche with the newly reintroduced Chrysler 300 featuring the then-new Hemi V8 powerplant. Today, we all know what has happened with the latter – it's as dead as the Impala and Marauder.
Anyway, not everyone is content to let them die – and sometimes, they take matters into their own hands. Or rather, it is at the tip of the CGI brush, as is the case here with the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. For example, Jim, the virtual artist known as jlord8 on social media, loves messing around with all digital things from GM and Ford, so maybe a Mercury Marauder revival isn't such a big surprise.
However, this pixel master usually relies on same-company donors for the rendering procedures – this was recently the case with a virtually reborn Buick Roadmaster sedan, which is clearly based on the DNA of a big Cadillac saloon. On this occasion, though, his idea of bringing back a dead model from a defunct brand is obviously taking him out of his digital comfort zone. Thus, meet the reborn Mercury Marauder sleeper sedan rocking the classic design from the 2000s updated to a modern view on top of Mercedes-Benz S-Class underpinnings. So, do we like it or not?
For example, Mercury was an integral part of the golden age of muscle cars with some of its models, and some may even consider the Marauder as one of the greatest products they ever created. Well, it's a two-fold appreciation – the nameplate was used for both the most powerful engine available for the Mercury brand as well as a trio of distinct full-size vehicles that lived at the top of the line during each of their stints.
The first and second generations (1963 to 1965 and 1969 to 1970) were offered at the height of the muscle car era as two-door and four-door hardtops (only the first generation). After a hiatus of more than three decades, Mercury revived the nameplate for the 2003 model year, and the resulting four-door sedan was the very definition of an American sleeper with upgraded everything (chassis, suspension, powertrain, etc.) over the Grand Marquis.
This was a full-size saloon with no equivalent in the Ford lineup and served as the 2000s Blue Oval interpretation of the 1994 to 1996 Chevrolet Impala SS. Immediately following its demise, Chrysler also jumped on board the niche with the newly reintroduced Chrysler 300 featuring the then-new Hemi V8 powerplant. Today, we all know what has happened with the latter – it's as dead as the Impala and Marauder.
Anyway, not everyone is content to let them die – and sometimes, they take matters into their own hands. Or rather, it is at the tip of the CGI brush, as is the case here with the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. For example, Jim, the virtual artist known as jlord8 on social media, loves messing around with all digital things from GM and Ford, so maybe a Mercury Marauder revival isn't such a big surprise.
However, this pixel master usually relies on same-company donors for the rendering procedures – this was recently the case with a virtually reborn Buick Roadmaster sedan, which is clearly based on the DNA of a big Cadillac saloon. On this occasion, though, his idea of bringing back a dead model from a defunct brand is obviously taking him out of his digital comfort zone. Thus, meet the reborn Mercury Marauder sleeper sedan rocking the classic design from the 2000s updated to a modern view on top of Mercedes-Benz S-Class underpinnings. So, do we like it or not?
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