Mercury Cougar

1967 Mercury Cougar

The Mercury Cougar was an automobile sold under the Mercury brand of the Ford Motor Company's Lincoln-Mercury Division. The name was first used in 1967 and was carried by a diverse series of cars over the next three decades. As is common with Mercury vehicles, the Cougar shared basic platforms with Ford models. Originally this was the Mustang, but later versions of the Cougar were based on the Thunderbird, and the last was a version of the Contour. The Cougar was important to Mercury's image for many years, and advertising often identified its dealers as being "at the sign of the cat." Glamorous models leading big cats on leashes were a feature of Cougar and Mercury ads.

See Wikicars' comprehensive Mercury_Cougar Review.

Sixth Generation (1999–2002)

Sixth Generation
Mercury
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Production	1971-1973
Class	Full-size Sedan
Body Style	4-Door Sedan
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The decline of personal luxury cars downsized the Cougar to return as a sports car after 25 years as a personal luxury car. Of the three names that had constituted Ford's personal luxury lineup, Mark, Thunderbird, and Cougar, the Cougar returned first. This time, it is based on the Ford CDW-27 platform, the same platform that serves as the basis for the Ford Mondeo (Ford Contour & Mercury Mystique in the United States and Canada).

This generation of Cougar had a far more contemporary package, with modern DOHC 4-valve engines, a fully independent multilink suspension, and front-wheel drive. This was also the first hatchback Cougar, and the first to have its own body, unshared by any Ford. The body design used a philosophy Ford dubbed "New Edge" design: a combination of organic upper body lines with sharp, concave creases in the lower areas. The Cougar's body, and the New Edge idea in general, was introduced as a concept called the Mercury MC2 in 1997.

The 1999–2002 Cougars were available with two engine options, the 2.0 L Zetec 4-cylinder engine with 130 horsepower, and the 2.5 L Duratec V6 with 170 horsepower. Also, two transaxle options were available: the manual Ford MTX-75 transmission or the automatic Ford CD4E transmission (available in the U.S. with either engine, although the I4/Automatic combo was extremely rare; supposedly only 500 Cougars were built with the I4/Auto combination).

"Sport Package" models with the V6 featured 4-wheel vented disc brakes (from the Contour SVT), 16" alloy wheels, and a higher speed governor installed. Contrary to popular belief, the speed governor was not removed, but simply raised as a result of high speed rated tires with the 16" wheels. The top speed of the manual transmission car was 153mph in top gear at redline. While this was considered attainable given enough road, the automatic transmission version could not reach this speed without significant engine modification. With the sport package, the speed governor was raised to just higher than 153mph so, essentially, it was never seen. Without the sport package, the speed governor was set at 115 mph.

Ford also prepared two high performance concept-only versions dubbed the "Eliminator", which was a supercharged version built with aftermarket available parts, and the "Cougar S", which featured new body work, all-wheel drive and a 3.0 L Duratec engine.

Interestingly, Ford also sold this generation of Cougar in Europe and Australia as the Ford Cougar, but was not a sales success—surprising given that the Mondeo sold well in many countries outside North America.

This generation never sold well. In North America, the Cougar was sold at Mercury dealerships along side of several cars marketed to a generally older buyer. Salesmen unfamiliar in selling a car aimed at a younger and or female buyer had trouble selling this new cougar. Many feel that had this car been called a Ford Probe and marketed as such at a Ford dealer, it would have sold better.

Admittedly, demand for all coupes continued to dwindle, but the sedan versions also languished in North America, suggesting that the Mondeo platform was simply not well suited there—though there is a theory that Ford did not market the Contour and its Mercury Mystique twin properly while the market for the similarly sized BMW 3 Series grew. A high-performance Cougar S (not to be confused with the concept) was discussed in the press, which was essentially a Cougar with a Contour SVT engine; however, this version never made it into production.

In order to help create excitement for the Cougar, Mercury created several paint and trim packages called:

Special Edition (2000 model year) available in Zinc Yellow, leather interior with yellow stitiching on the seats

C2 (2001-2002 model years) available in either French Blue, Silver Frost, or Vibrant White, along with special blue interior accents

Zn (2001 model year) available with special Zinc Yellow, special Visteon hood scoop and spoiler

XR (2002 model year) available in either Black or XR Racing Red, with special black and red seats and interior trim. Also came with 17" silver wheels with black accents on the inner spokes.

35th Anniversary (2002 model year) Available in Laser Red, Satin Silver, and Black. Most came with leather interiors with silver center sections on the seats. They also came with 17" machined wheels, the same as the XR's without the black paint on the center spokes

For the 2001 model year, the Cougar was "updated" with new headlights, front and rear facsias, and updated interior trim. Ford's restructuring plan in 2002 decided to cancel the Cougar (along with the Ford Escort, Lincoln Continental and Mercury Villager).

Photos

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  1999 Interior

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  2001 Front

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  2001 Zn Rear

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  2002 Front

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  European Ford Cougar

Fifth Generation (1989–1997)

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Fifth Generation
Mercury
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Production	1971-1973
Class	Full-size Sedan
Body Style	4-Door Sedan
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Fourth Generation (1980–1988)

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Fourth Generation
Mercury
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Production	1971-1973
Class	Full-size Sedan
Body Style	4-Door Sedan
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Third Generation (1974–1979)

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Third Generation
Mercury
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Production	1971-1973
Class	Full-size Sedan
Body Style	4-Door Sedan
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Second Generation (1971-1973)

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Second Generation
Mercury
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Production	1971-1973
Class	Full-size Sedan
Body Style	4-Door Sedan
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First Generation (1967-1970)

First Generation
Mercury
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Production	1995-1999
Class	Full-size Sedan
Body Style	4-Door Sedan
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Pricing

Today's actual prices for the MAKE MODEL can be found at CarsDirect.

MODEL Trims
Trim1	Trim2	Trim3	Trim4
MSRP
$Price1	$Price2	$Price3	$Price4
Invoice
$Price1	$Price2	$Price3	$Price4

Gas Mileage

As seen on the FuelEconomy.gov website, the City/Highway MPG averages are as follows:

Trim
Trim1	Trim2	Trim3	Trim4
MPG
c/h	c/h	c/h	c/h

Resale Values

Trim
Trim1	Trim2	Trim3	Trim4
MPG
$	$	$	$

See also

This page features content from the Wikipedia Mercury Cougar page with these contributors.

External Links

• Classic Mercury Cougar forums
• Mercury Cougar readers' cars and images
• Pictures and some specs of the first Cougars
• Cougar Club of America

• Consumer Guide on the last Cougars
• Cougars Unlimited
• Delmarva Cougar Club
• TeamNECO
• New Edge Cougar Owners (NECO)
• CoolCats 1983–1997 Cougar resource
• Thunderbird/Cougar Club of America
• Super Coupe Club of America, the site for the supercharged 1989–95 Thunderbird SC and 1989–1990 Cougar XR-7
• 1967 Mercury Cougar XR-7
• "Cougars and Kittens" 1967-1973 Mercury Cougar bikini calendar