1991 Mercury Cougar XR7 review from North America

Power window motors only seem to last a couple of years at best.

Headlight switch broke six years ago (was supposedly fixed) and has never worked right since.

Idle air control sensor ($8 from junkyard).

Odometer quit working around 7 years ago with 104k miles on it. I have no way of knowing how many it has now, but would estimate well over 200,000 miles.

Brake master cylinder. This is the big repair. To repair this can cost up to $2000. I refuse to pay that much for a part. Instead I went to the local U-Pull-It junk yard and was lucky to find an intact unit (they're incredibly rare and thus hard to find) in a '92 Thunderbird SC. I have yet to install it, but when I do, I hope it works. If not, there are conversion kits available that allow you to use Ford Taurus components, although they're not as good and still rather expensive ($600).

This car is almost 17 years old. I bought it when I was in high school and have owned it for over 9 years. She still runs like a champ.

Although it has had a few minor mechanical gremlins over the years, it has not been a big deal and everything still works good, including the A/C.

Most parts for the car (with the exception of the brake master cylinder) are cheap and abundant and can be found at any junkyard for next to nothing.

While not as fast as a Camaro Z28 or Mustang GT, the Cougar is still pretty quick and handles better than most expensive new cars and will blow the doors off of most.

She is no longer my daily driver, but has been such a nice car that I believe it is worth keeping as a weekend project car. I hope to rebuild it and turn it into a street/drag car.