From the '50s to the early '80s, the Big American Car was fairly well defined: it had a separate frame to which a body was attached, it had a big engine (usually a V-8) at the front and a big differential at the back to send power to the rear wheels. Then came two energy crises, and suddenly imports that were smaller, unitized, and increasingly front-wheel-drive became all the rage. The edict was out: V-8s waste gas! Unitized chassis save weight! Ban the driveshaft! And so, in twos and threes, the Big American Car has all but died out. There is only one company still making Big American Cars: the Ford Motor Company. They make three models, but they are all based on basically the same components; the "short" wheelbase chassis supports the Ford Crown Victoria and teh Mercury Grand Marquis, while the long wheelbase chassis supports the Lincoln Town Car. The Grand Marquis, in my opinion, is more appealing than the plainer Ford and the more expensive (and uglier) Lincoln. It is also the car that defines Mercury now that the Contour/Mystique-based Cougar is destined for the chopping block. The Ford Motor Company plans to offer a high-performance Grand Marquis with blacked-out trim called the Marauder. While I would actually want a Marauder, this move scares me, because the offering of special editions of models normally indicates that the model is about to die. Precedents: Chevrolet Impala SS, brought out a year or two before the Caprice & Roadmaster were dicontinued. 35th Anniversary Camaro this year, the year the Camaro dies. If I had a choice between seeing the Marauder come out now and having the Grand Marquis still around when I have enough money to buy one, I'd prefer the latter... 2 new of