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So delightfully out of the step with the times, Mercury’s 2003 Marauder sedan deserves applause for just being.

But after a week behind the wheel, including a three-day trip with my two young boys, I think the Marauder also gets an ovation for being a cool, fun car.

The Marauder comes to market with a sizable history volume attached.

From 1963 to 1965, Mercury took part in Detroit’s lovefest with muscle cars. That first Marauder was a high-performance version of Mercury’s Montclair and Monterey sedans. It also was a racing car. Parnelli Jones won the 1963 Pikes Peak Hill Climb in a Marauder.

The Marauder name returned in 1969 and 1970. That’s about the time that Jack Lord played the top cop on TV’s “Hawaii Five-O,” keeping the islands safe in a triple-black Mercury.

The new Marauder also owes something to Chevrolet, which tried to get the last bit of mileage out of its soon-to-die Caprice full-size sedan by creating the all-black Impala SS in the mid-’90s. That car sold well. Enthusiasts liked its stealthy look and strong performance, but its run ended when the Caprice went out of production in 1996.

Taking cues from that success and Mercury’s own Marauder history, Ford Motor has taken a full-size sedan, the Mercury Grand Marquis, and created a modern muscle car. Like the Impala SS, it’s painted all black (the only color choice). And it, too, gets a strong engine and lots of fun bits. The base price with destination starts at $34,495.

“This is a true American, what-a-car-should-be kind of thing,” said Philip Smoker, the Marauder’s brand manager.

What the Marauder isn’t, Smoker said, “is the new face of Mercury.” While the brand that many thought would follow Plymouth and Oldsmobile to the grave now seems safe, Mercury is still a year or two away from beginning its product renaissance.

Until then, the Marauder sedan — and, perhaps, a convertible version next year — fills the niche. Smoker said Mercury expects to sell 18,000 vehicles a year — mostly to men in their 40s and 50s with teenagers at home. (A typical Grand Marquis owner, in contrast, is a married couple in their 70s.)

The Marauder story starts on the outside. Black paint is used liberally. Trim around the headlights, bumpers, windows and tail lights is blacked out. This monochrome treatment moves the Marauder far away from the chrome-laden Grand Marquis. The car gets polished 18-inch wheels, which was enough to get the Marauder noticed by the MTV crowd. Three-inch polished exhaust tips and the Marauder name embossed on the rear bumper complete the look.

On the inside, the Marauder has black Nudo leather seats with Mercury logos on the seat backs and the Marauder name on the floor mats. Leather covers the steering wheel and shifter, too. Breaking up the subtle-cool mood is an aggressive touch — race-like Auto Meter oil pressure and voltmeter gauges atop the center stack.

Under the hoo d, there’s an all-aluminum, 4.6-liter V-8 that produces 302 horsepower. It’s a potent powerplant, and the engineers did a great job of making the exhaust rumble sound muscle-car true. A four-speed automatic is the only transmission offered, which is a shame.

While the ride is more comfortable than tight, it’s much more acceptable than the soft feel found on a Grand Marquis. Credit improvements to the Marauder’s frame, its suspension and its steering.

In an automotive era dominated by sport-utility vehicles and the cars that want to be like them, a retro-contemporary muscle car really stands out from the crowd.

“It’s bold, aggressive, masculine, and that’s what it’s designed to be,” Smoker said.