Death of Mercury Cougar
Well,I gotta say that on one hand it's very sad to see the Cougar get put to rest.After all,Cougar was the signature car of Lincoln-Mercury for many years.Do you remember all of the t.v. commercials featuring the slogan"At The Sign of the Cat",and the cougar pearched on top of the sign?So,in that regard you might say that Cougar was one of the most important,best loved cars that Mercury ever produced.
On the other hand,the new version is pretty much junk and it was a big mistake for Ford to retool it the way that they did.I really liked the late 90s' version of the Cougar-rear wheel drive and a sporty V-8(Or V-6 that wasn't too bad). Not to mention a decent looking body and smooth,comfortable ride.All in all,a pretty nice vechicle.Now the body style introduced in late 1998 as a 1999 model is kind of cute,but they have given it a small V-6,front wheel drive,175h.p.engine that makes the car basically a throw-away vechicle.Or you can get it in a wimpy 4 cylinder version....YUCK!!!Not to mention that the 4 cylinder model costs as much as (if not more than)the 1997 V-6 equipped model(the last year that Cougar was a real car,if you ask me).So it's kind of a good thing that Ford has decided to put Cougar to rest.At least for now....You know,it might be kind of nice if Ford reintroduced Cougar as a retro model with many similarities to the original 1967 body style.Hmmmm.......