They're just not moving......

[JohnnyB]

Was visiting family in Long Island yesterday and took a solo ride to Hempstead LM just to take a peek. They had 5 MMs on the lot. The window stickers on a couple had delivery/build dates of 5/02, so these cars have been sitting for months. No advertising or anything. I think this is interesting because I have not seen another MM on the road since they were introduced, which means we are driving a rare car.. Also, if the demand keeps slumping, then it is only a waiting game until the 2003 Mercury model closeout at which time the rebate will be $7,000 we can all get another one........... :D

[jgc61sr2002]

I have to agree with you Johnny B. I checked several dealers on Long Island and one has 8MM's in stock. When I check their inventory they always seem to have the same cars in stock. I have yet to see one with Traction Control but I have located one and will check it out on Monday. This might be the ride I was waiting for. I found a buyer for my 2000 GM (Black)with the handling package and 7400 miles. John

[the fat bastid]

around here they only have 1 on the lot..the dealer says they have been selling but who knows. :shrug:

[SaxGuy]

Ive checked 5 dealerships in the suburbs of Chicago IL, and every dealer had a range of 4-8 MM sitting on the lot not even being looked at. Although thats a tragedy to the line, its a great way to buy the car at a bargain price.

[Geo]

I think if Ford updated the sheetmetal (for the Ford and Mercury Panthers) as was promised years ago now that the sales would pick up. They updated the Town Car's sheetmetal in 1998 but the waiting game is still on as the current sheetmetal dates back to eartly 1991 where the 1992 Ford and Mercurys had their early start.

I had heard that the Crown Vic and Grand Marquis were to maybe grow longer and wider. This formula worked well in 1990 when the 1991 GM 300 B-bodies were rolling out. The 1991 Caprice fetched the Motor Trend car of the year award (the 2nd time the frame had this award; the 1st was the 1977 Chevrolet Caprice). Any talk about rising fuel prices and potential wars with oil producing nations need not apply as the 1991 Caprice was introduced while in the middle of opertation Desert Storm.

Geo

[looking97233]

Out here in the NW (Oregon) there are very few MM's. Seems as though the dealers didn't buy buy one or two each. So, they are rare, there's no advertising to sell them, and I paid top dollar for mine. Just kind of funny, I read the posts, on the east coast they can't give them away, here on the left coast you can't find one.

[Bigdogjim]

Checking the dealers in my area (Phila.) one dealer(Reedman, Langhorne,Pa)) has 20 Maraudres in stock. Check their web page and sure enough 20 listed.
Big Dog

[RCSignals]

looking97233

Is correct, but it isn't because dealers only bought a couple, they couldn't get more, for some reason.
I understand a few dealers out this way are still waiting for their first one!

The same thing happened with the new Thunderbird. Fords distribution needs a review, it's obviously broken

[Ray Snyder]

Tons available around the Houston area. Finally saw a Mercury add in this Sunday's Houston Chronical for the GM and the MM. Half page add with Pictures of both cars and offering $3,500 rebate.

[merc]

Jerry's LM in Manassas VA has sold 5 MM this year and they have one of the Ugly Blue models in the show room with T/C control. Lets start taking bets on when the Blue MM will sell ?

[LightningVic]

woohoo, I only have 2 or 3 years of school left. When I get out, I can give my lightning vic to my brother, and I can get a marauder to make into dare I say a GT40 marauder?

[derik]

Big Dog
Bought my MM at Reedman. Put $200 allocation down in May 2002 to assure I would get the car I had wanted for the past 2 years. Was told they were only allotted 5 cars. Picked mine up in July. Only 3 had been "pre-sold." Mine was the second. Live in central NJ and travel daily to Somerset county. Have only seen 1 other MM on the road. That was Tuesday afternoon. All others have been parked in dealer lots. Feels good to have a rarity.

[Bigdogjim]

derik: First MM I saw was there. It was 6-6-02 on my way to work after a meeting at Goodyear just down the street. It was sitting right in front of me at the light! Mi. dealer tags! Follow it into dealership. Needless to say I was late for work.(hahahaha) Talked to the factory guy for an hour. They were doing salespeople training. Held off till Sept. to get one. Longest 3 months of my life :lol: I have yet to see one on the road?

Enjoy the ride. :rock:

Big dog :banana:

[Mark McQuaide]

I do a 90 mile daily commute round trip in congested SE PA roads, not a single Marauder sighting yet.

[jpatricktaylor]

I know the local dealer has sold two - I bought mine from another dealer - but I've only seen another MM on the road twice. One here in town last november and one on the DC beltway last September.

[MAD-3R]

What was the day, and what part of the beltway? Could have been me.

[jefferson-mo]

The dealer mine came from had 3 when I got mine (early Dec) and mine had been there since late Sept. That dealer is in the center of San Diego. The one in Carlsbad(on the coast 30 miles north) where I was to get mine can't keep 'em in stock! They move everyone almost right off the truck. There clientele is older retired golfers and wealthy peaople with time on their hands. La Costa and Rancho Santa Fe($$$$$$:BEER:$$$$$$) are close by.
Our dealers seem to only get 2 or 3 at a time. Haven't been by my dealer lately to see if the others are gone......

[jefferson-mo]

people not peaople

and it's :beer:

:lol:

[mdmarauder]

Could have been me also. I'm on the DC Highways alot.

[Moparzz]

Maybe the Marauder will be like the Plymouth Superbird. They had some 1970 Superbirds still on the dealers lots into 1972 (only made it one year). They couldn't give em away because most people thought the winged car with the drooped nose was ugly. Now that car is the holy grail of Mopars. Saw one go for $135,000 on the Barrett-Jackson auction last week (Hemi). We can only hope that a similar fate awaits the Marauder.:P

[TAF]

Aerosmith - "Dream On"...

just kidding Moparzz.....

[jpatricktaylor]

It was back in September or early October when I saw one on the north side of 495, near 95 North. It was travelling in the other direction and looked great! That was just before I bought mine in Landover on October 15.

[tomt41]

I've had my MM since October and have seen only 2 or 3 here on Long Island. I also travel the highways about 75 miles a day and there's got to be 8mm people in that 50 mile radius- That's not a lot of cars- Did LM sell any of these things?
I guess I could deal with having a Superbird- But mine will have a million miles on it by then and I am sure I will ruin it. Hey I wanna get my moneys worth out of that 100k warranty

[martyo]

TomT: where in NY are you? I am waitying to takle delivery and John just got his. It seems there will be more of us around pretty soon.

[Mike M]

I am in central NJ (East Brunswick area) and I have seen one in my town.

[RCSignals]

as I've said many time, the problem is Ford's distribution. too many to Eastern and Southern States, not enough to Western States

[03 Merc]

I was at the dealer today getting my wife's Town Car serviced and noticed all but one of the MM's was gone. I was talking to my salesman and he told me he had sold three in the last two weeks at $29,000... :rolleyes: their local ad campaign worked.. They do not intend to re-order any additional MM's just take their allocation which includes a blue one due in Atlanta in a couple weeks..

The good news he is going to call all three new owners and give them the info on this site and my cell number so we can try and get them in the monthly get together..:)

[04MEMA]

I live in the Detroit area and have only seen a few on the road. Varsity Mercury - my local dealer claims they are selling well, but I think they are full of it (they have 10 sitting on the lot, and they also claim to be the largest volume Merc dealer). Varsity has 3 at their main lot and 7 at the auxillary lot. Although they have 1 sitting in both their new and used showrooms, the rest on the new lot are hidden in with all the others, and it looks as though no effort has been made to get anyone driving by the dealership to notice them. Also the black and white MM poster just looks so out of place in the showroom. I have tried to find sales figures for them, but have failed. I have read that they could build up to 18,000 a year, and I'm very curious to know what's going on. Has Mercury realized that not many people are going for MM's? Do they care? Why no sunroof with this car? The performance of this vehicle is right in with the average with a bunch of everyday Family Sedans (see Feb 2003 Car and Driver Family sedans 10 car comparo). Why aren't they selling? Is it the lack of true muscle (not even as fast as a 96 Impala SS, and worse fuel economy with premium than the SS), the lack of color choices, the similarity to cop cars, or the infatuation with SUVs? I'm still scratching my head. Any other ideas??? The funny thing is, I still want one!!! I test drove two of them and they were FUN to drive, which helped me to forget about the Premium gas and 15 second 1/4 times. I'm hoping the poor sales will keep cranking up the rebate offer. $3,000 and counting. Although I wouldn't buy one without Traction Control here in Michigan.

[jerrym3]

Wayne L/M in North Jersey has about eight MMs, one with 2900 miles on the showroom floor. (Sorry, none with vinyl tops. But every other GM and TCar on their lot has been "dolled" up with all kinds of tops, moldings, interior packages, etc.)

I'm no expert, but IMHO, here's why I think that they didn't sell as projected.

1) Announced years before availability. I know, they wanted to wait for the new chassis, but the excitement from the first announcement seemed to die down.

The first year they showed the sedan at the NY Autoshow, there wasn't that much interest, especially since they locked the car up tight (wonder if it had a motor?) and displayed a car that was painted different shades of black.

The next year, all the interest went to the convertible concept car.

2) In the beginning, dealers around my area, when asked what the price would be, were talking about MSRP plus 3K. 38K for a Mercury? Many potential buyers thought that was too high.

3) Overall cost; look at the early posts on the Edmunds/Marauder chatbox. Posters told me I was nuts when I projected mid 30s. Very few thought that a Marauder was worth that kind of money when a basic GM was going for 24K. As evidenced by the death of Oldsmobile, some car brands no longer have the right image regardless of how good the end product or their history is.

4) Performance didn't measure up, according to the automotive press. Has anybody seen or read a review that agrees to this car being a true muscle car? Even the DVD that Mercury sent out has the tester saying that the car doesn't like standing starts; MotorWeek called it a ****ycat off the line. This is not the kind of performance that Mercury advertised or projected. They stated that this car was a rocket right out the showroom.

5) Timing: when first available the economy was in trouble has not not picked up yet If someone has/had the 35K that was originally asked for when the car came out, after reading the reviews, they spent their money elsewhere. (You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.)

6) SUV craze. I'm sure that, for many drivers, an SUV makes sense; however, there's a heck of a lot of SUV drivers out there that bought them for the image. (Tell your golfing buddies that you bought an Explorer/Durango/Trailblazer and you're considered "in with the times". Tell them you bought a Marauder and they'll wonder what the heck you're talking about. Proof that image is everything: look at the Hummer, an absolute monstrocity, and yet I'm starting to see them on the road.)

7) Lack of color choices and creature features. Only black? I love black cars, but not everybody does. They should have listed the same colors that the CV LX Sport did. No moonroof? Why not, especially when all the Towncar pieces are readily available. CD changer in the trunk? Maybe there is a space problem behind the present radio location, but geez, the trunk?

A Mercury for over 35K and you could only get black? And no moonroof?

8) Who is the target market? I first thought it was guys like me that want to relive some of our younger, boy racer days, and remember when Mercurys were quick cars. After reading the reviews, I lost the "got to have one" urge.

Only using me as an example, are guys my age willing to start swapping rear end gears and adding chips to make the car really run?

(Sorry, Dennis, but until you put a shop up here in frigid New Jersey where I can go if I have problems, I'm going to drive the car as it was built, super fast, fast, or not so fast.)

How to turn things around? Beats me, but I have always liked the Mercury brand (owned a 1968 Cyclone GT fastback/gorgeous car) , and hope that they can do it.

But, IF the 2004 order sheet is correct eliminating some standard features (like the upgraded radio) and IF the $3000 rebate program is ended, the car is going to go back over the magic 30-31K figure (assuming some kind of discount off MSRP) and the cycle will repeat itself.

[Macon Marauder]

jerrym3,

You make some good points. Here are some of my humble opinons:

<b>"1) Announced years before availability. I know, they wanted to wait for the new chassis, but the excitement from the first announcement seemed to die down."</b>

Possibly for some. I waited for this car since '98. My enthusiasm only died down when the final pricing was announced. Which brings me to:

<b>"2) In the beginning, dealers around my area, when asked what the price would be, were talking about MSRP plus 3K. 38K for a Mercury? Many potential buyers thought that was too high."</b>

No additional dealer mark up in this area, but MSRP was still too much. That's why I waited for the first round of rebates. Was still able to buy the car for around invoice back in November. 35 K was too much, 30 K (and less now) is just about right.

<b>"3) Overall cost; look at the early posts on the Edmunds/Marauder chatbox. Posters told me I was nuts when I projected mid 30s. Very few thought that a Marauder was worth that kind of money when a basic GM was going for 24K..."</b>

Kinda goes along with number 2, don't it?

<b>"4) Performance didn't measure up, according to the automotive press. Has anybody seen or read a review that agrees to this car being a true muscle car? Even the DVD that Mercury sent out has the tester saying that the car doesn't like standing starts; MotorWeek called it a ****ycat off the line. This is not the kind of performance that Mercury advertised or projected. They stated that this car was a rocket right out the showroom."</b>

Don't really care what the automotive press thinks. Bought it for me. Mine's the only opinion that matters in this case. Didn't buy the hype -(who does?) bought the car based on test drive and my understanding of its abilities. Is it a muscle car? You'd have to define muscle car, and there are many definitions. IMHO the answer is yes.

<b>"5) Timing: when first available the economy was in trouble has not not picked up yet If someone has/had the 35K that was originally asked for when the car came out, after reading the reviews, they spent their money elsewhere. (You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.)"</b>

No way of knowing.

<b>"6) SUV craze. I'm sure that, for many drivers, an SUV makes sense; however, there's a heck of a lot of SUV drivers out there that bought them for the image..."</b>

Probably so.

<b>"7) Lack of color choices and creature features. Only black? I love black cars, but not everybody does. They should have listed the same colors that the CV LX Sport did. No moonroof? Why not, especially when all the Towncar pieces are readily available. CD changer in the trunk? Maybe there is a space problem behind the present radio location, but geez, the trunk?

A Mercury for over 35K and you could only get black? And no moonroof?"</b>

Yep.

<b>"8) Who is the target market? I first thought it was guys like me that want to relive some of our younger, boy racer days, and remember when Mercurys were quick cars. After reading the reviews, I lost the "got to have one" urge. "</b>

Mercury would probably say you answered the question perfectly. Based on other posts of yours, I think I'm a bit younger than you (I was a baby during the Bay of Pigs fracas.) But I meet most of Mercury's other profile points. And if you lost the urge, then I'd say you're not the target anymore. Mercury's aim moved just a bit and missed you.

Conclusion: It's a great car - not a perfect car. And it's not for everyone.

[jes1521]

The local dealer has had a number in stock I bought in Jacksonville and they are going pretty good there. I saw one on the road going to purchase mine and one about two months before on 95 headed towards Orlando. Not many on NE Florida roads.

[tomt41]

Stanley- I am in western suffolk and purchased from L&B LM in Babylon.
Seeing as we are on the subject, why it seems the MM is not a decent seller, As far as I can see- there is NO advertising. I dont know how many people I have spoke to and told them I got a new Marauder and they look at me like I have 2 heads. Some car guys have even said" Oh, Yeah, I think I heard of that"- I have yet to see an ad on TV or in print. Even the dealers don't mention them. The dealers here don't even have one in the showroom. They are all out in back lot- Go figure

[jerrym3]

Look at it from Lincoln/Mercury's point of view.

Would you rather put your advertising dollars into cash cows like the Mountaineer, Navigator, aor Aviator, or a limited production car like the Marauder? Even the regular GM is shortchanged when it comes to advertising.

The Marauder is designed to appear to buyers who love cars, and buyers who love cars probably watch MotorTrend TV, MotorWeek, Car and Driver, and/or the Speed channel.

Or, if they're not watching, they probably read at least one of the top 5-6 auto magazines.

Or, they are surfing the net (Edmunds and many other car testing services) in their spare time.

All of the above have had articles, road tests, or video segments on the Marauder. If you love cars, you most likely know about the Marauder. If you don't know about the Marauder, then you probably wouldn't buy one, anyway.

Mercury even sent a Marauder team around the country to put the car on display before it was available for sale. (They restricted their visits to high volume GM dealerships.)

I attended one of these "previews" in Wayne, NJ. Although I was there for only about an hour, I was disappointed to see the number of people that passed right by the car (parked outside the main entrance) to go inside and look at the rest of the Merc lineup.

I believe that the market Mercury targeted knows about the Marauder, and three things have held him/her back from buying.

1) initial high MSRP and dealer "availability" markup.
2) good, but not excellant reviews
3) the US buyers love of SUVs

[mdmarauder]

I think the Marauder has several things going against it.

One, I think the poor reviews of the car killed alot of sales except for all the Die-hard buyers. While I have a bone-stock Marauder that I'm very pleased with the mags have to have big power. I really think had the Marauder came with the Cobra motor it would sell. Personally, I rather stay away from Superchargers because of reliability. It just seems like people who know about the car, right away come up with the whole under-powered thing.

Two, the advertising stinks. I have seen one ad on mainstream TV which was the Mountaineer ad. The local dealer keeps their Marauders in the back lot.

I was dead set on the car because I've always been a fan of V8 Rear-drive cars. With the Thunderbird and the Mark being dead I had no other choice.

[RF Overlord]

Originally posted by mdmarauder
I was dead set on the car because I've always been a fan of V8 Rear-drive cars. With the Thunderbird and the Mark being dead I had no other choice.

I'm with you, md...choices for a rear-wheel drive are very limited, V8 or otherwise...

The first thing I noticed during the test drive was that this car lacked the low-end "kick" of my T-bird SC, but comparing a blown anything to a N/A, bigger, heavier car is not fair. Other than that one thing, I like everything about the car.

[RCSignals]

Originally posted by jerrym3
Look at it from Lincoln/Mercury's point of view.

Would you rather put your advertising dollars into cash cows like the Mountaineer, Navigator, aor Aviator, or a limited production car like the Marauder? Even the regular GM is shortchanged when it comes to advertising.

The Marauder is designed to appear to buyers who love cars, and buyers who love cars probably watch MotorTrend TV, MotorWeek, Car and Driver, and/or the Speed channel.

Or, if they're not watching, they probably read at least one of the top 5-6 auto magazines.

Or, they are surfing the net (Edmunds and many other car testing services) in their spare time.

All of the above have had articles, road tests, or video segments on the Marauder. If you love cars, you most likely know about the Marauder. If you don't know about the Marauder, then you probably wouldn't buy one, anyway.

Mercury even sent a Marauder team around the country to put the car on display before it was available for sale. (They restricted their visits to high volume GM dealerships.)

I attended one of these "previews" in Wayne, NJ. Although I was there for only about an hour, I was disappointed to see the number of people that passed right by the car (parked outside the main entrance) to go inside and look at the rest of the Merc lineup.

I believe that the market Mercury targeted knows about the Marauder, and three things have held him/her back from buying.

1) initial high MSRP and dealer "availability" markup.
2) good, but not excellant reviews
3) the US buyers love of SUVs

Considering the MSRP of other vehicles in the Panther line, the Marauder MSRP is not too high necessarily. The big mistake that was made was when someone from Ford said the MSRP would be $29,900. Perhaps that was supposed to be the target sell price.

Still, advertising in those palces alone isn't working. they may not need to push the Marauder as if it were a cash cow, but a little main stream TV advertising wouldn't hurt. It might even help Mercurys image for other sales.

It will be interesting to see how General Motors advertises the upcoming GTO

[RancorKeeper]

Originally posted by RCSignals
It will be interesting to see how General Motors advertises the upcoming GTO
Considering how poorly they marketed the F-bodies, I don't hold much hope of seeing a commercial for the GTO. Then again, GM has much deeper pockets when it comes to advertising.

[TripleTransAm]

Originally posted by RancorKeeper
Considering how poorly they marketed the F-bodies, I don't hold much hope of seeing a commercial for the GTO. Then again, GM has much deeper pockets when it comes to advertising.


Consider that the brand manager for the GTO is the same dude that handled the Firebird. In other words, don't expect to see a single bit of effort on his part when it comes to advertisement. The only reason the GTO is getting *ANY* sort of publicity outside the old-school die-hard GTO-lovers is the pure dumb luck that the old GTO was heavily used in that action flick 'xXx', and Pontiac jumped on the bandwagon by including a short new-GTO ad on the DVD. A puny 5-10 second spot with no action shots and nothing but a James Brown soundtrack in the background. I'm sure the initial 18000 car run of the GTO will sell well because of all the collectors that will jump on owning the 1st of the new GTO, but these guys won't have unlimited budgets to keep buying up new ones every year. So unless this brand manager dude gets the heave-ho, the new Goat is a dead Duck.

I heard of the Marauder a few years ago, and thought the idea was cool (I never understood why Chevy dropped the Impala SS just when they started getting it right... perhaps a packaging issue with the newer LS1 motors, the LS1s can be found in many trucks but perhaps that iron version is a gas hog). After spotting one at the Montreal International Auto Show, I really flipped out on the car and now having disqualified the Lincoln Town Car as a potential purchase, that leaves the Marauder. I'll be test-driving one tomorrow night.

So, a happy coincidence that I spotted one at the auto-show, otherwise I might not have thought of actively pursuing one (I was already in love with the Lincoln LS). I still think a little bit of advertising would help bring some focus to the entire GM lineup...