The Cougar nameplate started at Mercury as a more upmarket and "Euro-flavored" variant of the Ford Mustang, but during the bloated 1970s morphed into a plush-bottomed version of the Thunderbird personal luxury coupe.
With coupe sales slowing in the latter half of the Nineties, FoMoCo axed a number of sporty two-doors. Not only did the Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar, as well as their Lincoln Mark VIII cousin get 86'ed, but Ford lost the Probe and Mercury dealers waved goodbye to the little Capri roadster.
However, Ford had been deep into the development process for a third generation of the Probe. Unlike the first two iterations, this one was developed off the in-house Contour platform. As a consolation prize for Lincoln-Mercury dealerships, it was rebadged as the new Mercury Cougar, reviving the nameplate after a one-year hiatus.
Unlike all previous Cougar versions, the new one was front-wheel drive, and its New Edge styling motif and price definitely marketed it towards a younger, less well-heeled demographic than any prior Cougar.
The base Cougar had Ford's Zetec 2.0L DOHC 16V four, rated at 120 horsepower. The more deluxe variant, like this 2000 model in Citrus Gold Clearcoat Metallic (which is going the way of all Ford Clearcoat jobs of that vintage) had the 170hp Duratec 2.5L DOHC 24V V-6.
Car and Driver's long-term 1999 V-6 test car managed the sprint to sixty in an adequate 7.7 seconds and circled the skidpad at a suitably sporty 0.85g. Price as tested was $20,470 (about $39,500 in today's money) which the magazine noted was pretty reasonable for a well-equipped youth-oriented sporty coupe.
The thing is, nobody goes shopping at Lincoln-Mercury dealerships for reasonably priced sporty coupes. After a half-hearted nose-job for 2001, the Cougar was discontinued after the '02 model year.
This one was photographed in May of 2025 using a Canon EOS 40D and an EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS zoom lens.
For the sake of argument, let's say Mercury was the right place for this car. It shouldn't have been called a Cougar. All of the name equity was just wrong for this car.
ReplyDeletePretty much every Cougar from 1971 on sullied the original.
DeleteHowever, I can see a "cougar" driving this one. ;^)
It might have done better as a Capri, I guess?
DeleteI still think it would have been a classic as a Probe, especially if there was an SVT version with the motor from the Contour SVT.