I've always felt the Marauder ride was well balanced, But I guess it depends greatly on what your looking for from your ride.
If you desire a comfortable ride, try out some Town Car seats. The Marauder seats do have a nice soft layer, but they truly are firm. Sit down in the seat of a Town Car or Navigator and you sink into its plush layers as if you were reclined in your lazy boy at home. Shocks are always important, certainly not the only factor, but an important one when it comes to comfort. The factory shocks, I believe, are good units. Maybe not the best shocks but effective. Ford/Motorcraft has since changed the shocks that are available, at least the rears, as they are no longer inverted. KYB's have long been known to be some of the best replacement shocks for 03+ panthers over on CVN. If comfort is your thing, try a set of the Civilian KYB's. A good set of shocks will handle and dampen bumps without bouncing around like your on a water bed. The air springs used on all panthers are considered very soft spring rates, comfort wise, it does not get much better than OE air springs. The last thing to look at if your goal is comfort is the stabilizer bars (anti-sway bars). From a comfort standpoint, a sway bar is a direct link from the wheel to the body, and has the ability to transfer allot of bumps, particularly one sided bumps to the body and thus driver. Swapping to smaller sway bars, or more drastically, removing the rear sway bar can do allot to improve comfort. Marauder front sway bars range from 28-29.5mm and the rear is a 21mm. Smaller sway bars can be sourced from CV/GM's, and the rear sway bar can simple be removed.(The front could too, just not a great idea) Softer front springs could also make you feel more comfortable over rough roads.
If you desire a sportier ride with more control, generally the direction will be oposite. If your building more power or throwing more torque at the wheels upgrading the rear control arms is almost a neccesity. I once drove a Marauder with 4.56's and no other mods, when I got on it I could feel the rear end and suspension just twisting with torque. Henious, Metco and Sparta all offer outstanding rear control arms that will keep the rear suspension stabilized through daily driving and crazy launches. Both Metco and Sparta also off matching watts-link arms to compliment the control arms and stabilize cornering. Stiffer sway bars are a must do for those that must feel in control or love carving corners, Addco makes larger diameter front and rear sway bars which give you the control to hit corners until all four tires scream. If the front suspension is feeling sloppy, or if the rear suspension is after control arms, shocks are a great way to improve the overall feel of the ride. Once agian KYB is the brand of choice, but if your shooting for handling get the Marauder/Police spec KYB's. The front spring rate is pretty ideal to start with, and the rear air springs will not put much damper on your fun if you have got the arms, bars and shocks but good coil sping can result is a slightly more predictable ride.
The front suspension of the 03+ panther is incredibly well designed. Starting right down at the subframe, the Marauder was well engineered, I believe they got the Idea from the LS/T-bird/S-type(DEW98) design that started a few years earlier, an aluminum front subframe. The DEW98 and Panther platforms are the only large production US ford products to have aluminum front subframes. Double wishbone SA/LA suspension with coil-over-shocks. Aluminum front LCA's, cast steel UCA's, aluminum steering knuckles made by Alcoa and rack and pinon steering. Sure its no 3/4 link suspension, but I get a sense of taking a traditional design and making it the best it possibly could be. When I think about it like this it truly leaves me in awe. The rear suspension is even more traditional, a solid rear axle, but that does not mean Ford did not make it the best it could be, because considering the live axle they did. Quad trailing arms and a watts-link, outboard inverted shocks, I don't see many solid axles with suspensions as advanced as that. Simply compare the suspension of a panther to a mustang. Stamped steel subframe, stamped steel LCA's, cast steel knuckles, McPhearson struts, triple trailing arms, panhard bar and upright inboard shocks. The only thing I think a mustang suspension has over a Panther is aluminum front calipers. My point is that for what these cars are, they are designed, engineered and built to handle well, much more care went into how these cars handled than Ford did most other cars, and it shows.
