Mercury

New 2003-2004 Mercury Marauder

The new Mercury Marauder takes its name from the big Mercury muscle cars of the 1960s, but its true spiritual ancestors are two black Mercury sedans that starred with Jack Lord in the long-running television series Hawaii Five-O. Lord portrayed the granite-jawed Steve McGarrett, head of Hawaii's elite Five-O police unit, his demeanor cop-show tough, his hair a perfect North Shore wave, his car no standard police-issue Ford Custom 500 or LTD but a big black Mercury in which he stormed around Oahu.

"Steve McGarrett's car is as much a character in the series as any of the people." So claims Karen Rhodes in Booking Hawaii Five-O, the best and as far as we know, the only scholarly tome on the cop show. "The big, black Mercury sets a tone of power and intimidation," she continues. "Steve is . . . tough and threatening on his own, but the black Mercury adds a further dimension of strength, even a sinister darkness, to McGarrett." That's some pretty impressive work for a '68 Park Lane and, later, a '74 Marquis, either of which, off-screen, might have been driven by your grandfather.

Twenty-two years after McGarrett screeched his big black sedan to a stop for the last time, Mercury has served up a machine perfectly suited to the marque's most telegenic enthusiast. The Marauder is a badass cop car with some major attitude.

The reborn Marauder first appeared not in Honolulu but in Las Vegas, as a concept car at the 1998 SEMA show. Considering what populates the miles of aisles at SEMA--wildly winged Honda Civics with hyperkinetic paint jobs, slammed SUVs on huge chrome wheels, bikini-clad babes stroking shock absorbers--Mercury's Grand Marquis in Darth Vader livery garnered a surprising amount of attention.

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