2009 Mercury Grand Marquis

The Grand Marquis is a full-size rear-wheel drive luxury sedan that was introduced in 1983 and has been in a category all by itself (apart from its mechanical twins, the Ford Crown Victoria and Lincoln Town Car) after the demise of the Chevrolet Caprice in 1996 until the recent introduction of the Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300. While the Grand Marquis, now in its third generation, lacks the sophistication of its newer rivals due to its ancient Panther platform (dating back to 1979), it nonetheless offers a spacious interior, comfortable ride, and decent performance at an affordable price.

Perhaps the Grand Marquis's greatest asset is its enormous interior, which offers class reading space and can accommodate up to six passengers; the trunk measures a capacious 20.6 cubic feet, easily enough to swallow four bags of golf clubs. While Mercury truthfully advertises the Grand Marquis as the only vehicle in its class to offer a V8, the 224 horsepower produced by the antediluvian 4.6 Liter unit has long been surpassed by other companies' sixes. The Grand Marquis's automatic transmission, while smooth shifting, is down a cog or two from most competitor's units, offering a spread of only four gears to make the most of the engine's 275 lb.-feet of torque.

While performance is not the Grand Marquis's strong suits, numerous updates to the chassis over the years have both sharpened the handling (though the Grand Marquis is far from a sports car) and softened the ride. A Watt's linkage in lateral control of the live rear axle hastens ambient responses, as does the Marquis's speed sensitive rack-and-pinion steering.

The Grand Marquis is offered in two trim levels, GS and LS; the base GS model offers comfortable cloth trimmed seats, while the LS trim level ups the ante with leather. Optional features include heated seats, a power moonroof, and an Audiophile premium sound system with a six-disc in-dash CD changer.

Mercury has stated the Grand Marquis will remain in production in its current from until 2010; after that, it is rumored that Ford may either develop a new platform or utilize the current DC2 platform, which underpins the Ford Mustang, for a new Grand Marquis