1) We are one of those lonely 111 Pontiac dealers that are not dualed with ANYTHING else. We used to have Olds. She looked at an '03 Bravada and liked it, but my father and I agreed that the issues Olds was having with the AWD system to that point were not something he was willing to take a chance on. Those have since been remedied, but you never know. Depreciation was not an issue...she'll have this car until '13, likely.

2) The Envoy they road tested at a competing Pontiac/GMC dealer was "too floaty" over bumps, in her words. She has extremely bad motion sickness if she is not driving (people that get this find that when they drive, they are not subject to it because they pay closer attention to the road and anticipate motion better). Since she had an '85 Olds Calais with a floaty ride that made her sick as a passenger, every car she's had rode pretty stiffly ('89 Camaro, '95 Grand Prix, '98 Grand Prix GT, '01 Grand Prix GT) in comparison. They both prefer the Envoy to the Explorer, in reality, in all but ride characteristics. The Explorer rides like a brick compared to his '05 TB.

3) So why not buy a TB, you may ask? They simply didn't want 2 of the same car, as he had his '02 TB at that point.

She loves it, and he likes it...but I think if they had to do it over again, they would have bought an Envoy and put TB springs in it, if they'd work with the Envoy auto leveling.

 

That never crossed my mind. I'm so used to seeing "Pontiac Buick GMC" on the signs.

I doubt the TB springs would have worked. The "air bag" replaces the coil. I know exactly what she means by "floaty". If I don't drive smooth in corners it moves up the scale to "wallowy".

I'm surprised that no aftermarket company has jumped on a kit to lower & tighten up the 4wd air level suspension on the GMT 360s .... at least I haven't been able to find anything yet.

 

Word was that the Marauder was to get the SC 4.6 in '05, but of course that never happened. That at least would have given it the ability to solidly beat a particular competitor that had been out of production for 7 years by the time the Marauder came around.

The same engine in the LS just would have been too cool - it'd be like a budget Caddy STS-V. The DEW platform was just a few refinements away from being terrific, and had some absolutely lovely parts that probably didn't help the whole MSRP issue. Ford sure talked a lot about bringing it down-market, and had they succeeding in such an effort with an appropriately-styled vehicle (such as the 427 concept), I think they would have made the 300C look like an also-ran.

Now they're dumping a great RWD platform that could have led Lincoln down a Cadillac-like resurgence. It's one of the larger blunders made in Detroit in the past 30 years, IMO.

 

I drove the Marauder a couple years ago... it didn't feel fast at all. It sounded much faster than it felt, for sure. And it handled more like a Lincoln Town Car than any sports car or even sports sedan that I've driven to date. Then again I'm sure that could be improved quite a bit with the right tuning. Just don't understand if they were trying to make the Maurader sporty why they didn't make it handle more responsively and with less sway from the get-go?

 

Another car with more potential then Ford realized. My friend was so psyched when the Marauders were first coming out. I remember thinking that their may finally be an interesting Mercury in the line up. That would have been one mean car with a better tuned suspension and a S/C 4.6 in it.

Would make a hell of a project car.

 

I was actually looking at a Marauder before I bought my LS1 F-body, I just could not get over the god ugly Interior.

 

The Maurader was meant to be a throw back to the old muscle sedans, not a sport sedan. You are looking for the wrong things. That said, it did fall short in the power department. Thats why in this very thread it was suggested they bring it back with the blown cobra engine.