Grey Marauder mats, never installed-factory prototypes

[jlangmaid]

Bought these a number of years back from an individual who worked as a supplier in Ford's program. I had bought two sets-one in black and one in grey. These were prototypes from 2002 and are dated January 2002 and noted on the backs as approved. Can't imagine there's many of these in circulation.

New, never installed. I would guess that Ford was working on finalizing interior colors for the production cars, but this would also coincide with the time period for the Marauder convertible concept at the Chicago Auto Show.

$500 plus shipping, or local pick up in Fort Wayne area.

I'll be listing quite a few more things-hanging onto my DTR, but I'll be selling a lot of parts I had for my son's long since totalled DBP. Gotta make room for new projects.

[FW_Linc/Merc]

Did either of the sets match the production carpet color? This set looks lighter in color than the production carpet color.

[jlangmaid]

The other set I had matched the color of what they would up using on the production models, but the mats had two different fonts on them. They were marked "retain" on the back like the grey mats, but weren't marked "approved" like the greys. The black mats also had an earlier date on them (2001). Maybe they were looking for a different interior color for if they went with a 2005? I looked at pics of the convertible concept to see if it was the same color interior as our production models, and it looks like it is. Some of the early press release stuff I have seems to indicate two interior colors-I'll look through and see if I can't scan it. I've attached a couple pics of the front and back of the black set-IIRC I sold it to someone on here several years back.5071750718

[Turbov6Bryan]

I have a set of the gray one also. Mine say prototype on the back and I believe mine are written with a white paint pen on the backside from 2002. They would match a light interior 03 sport.
I'm sitting in it right now and it's interior carpet is much lighter then the Mercury marauder

[offroadkarter]

I'm guessing they were thinking of doing a lighter color carpet and corresponding interior panels with the light flint seats.

The LF seats always did look like they were "swapped in" as an after thought to me.