Excellent Bad Idea: Mercury Grand Marquis Pickup

Beloved by many, quite a few enthusiasts to this day will argue the Mercury Grand Marquis was the best of Ford Motor Company’s Panther platform. There’s just one big flaw with the beloved full-size sedan: it’s not a pickup truck. Well, someone decided to correct that and you can buy the unusual result since it’s listed for sale online right now.

You could go for this Swagger Wagon Honda Odyssey instead.

Complete with a “RNCHRO” vanity plate, there’s no mistaking what inspired this interesting build. The guy who did this reattached the back window area to the B-pillar, cutting out the rest of the roof and windows, creating a small cab and leaving a rather large bed.

Image via Sam Sanders/Facebook Marketplace

For good measure, he plopped the backseat bench in that bed, we guess just in case you want to take the kids for a ride. Considering this car is listed for sale in Minneapolis, we’d be willing to bet the guy’s friends don’t ask for a ride in the wintertime.

The Grand Marquis is also lifted three inches using spacers, riding on F-150 shocks with the front sway bar gone, allowing you to roll over obstacles a normal sedan couldn’t handle. Just keep in mind this is still a rear-wheel drive vehicle with an open differential, not some four-wheel-drive beast.

But the guy who’s selling it makes a good point: this is more of a truck than a lot of the vehicles people call trucks these days (yes, we’re talking about the Ford Maverick, among others). After all, its tow rating is higher and this thing has a solid rear axle.

While the owner has Falken Wildpeaks on Jeep wheels mounted to this car, he surprisingly didn’t remove the fender liners, although he admits to a little rubbing.

You can get all this for a list price of $3,500. What a steal!

Now here’s the kicker: while the owner says the engine and transmission both work “great” he admits the ABS light is illuminated. But the guy claims a $10 passenger-side front wheel speed sensor is the cause. Is this unusual project car worth getting? Would you build your own? Le us know what you think.

See this car’s listing for yourself here.

Images via Sam Sanders/Facebook Marketplace