1994 Mercury Cougar XR-7 review from North America

39,000 miles: Transmission went crazy.

50,000 miles: Body rot in rear rocker panels showing through.

60,000 miles: Cruise control quit working.

70,000 miles: Clearcoat starting to disappear/seat leather cracking apart.

80,000 miles: Blew head gaskets.

80,373 miles: Mileage odometer stopped.

A year later: Steel brake lines blew open, near accident

Bad placement caused rust. Clearcoat's about 50% gone.

A year after that: 2 wheel nuts sheared off for no reason. Suspension components all wore out at once, all kinds of rattles, squeaks and clanks now.

Duration of ownership: The brakes SUCK!!! Nearly whole system has been replaced, and still the rear brakes barely ever engage and the pedal's always low.

This is our first Ford product, and it'll be our last.

I'll say right now that the only redeeming quality this car has is that it was a freebie from grandpa after he bought a new Impala. I've owned vehicles said to be worse, but none of them ever blew head gaskets at only 80K miles. Sorry, but that's terrible engineering.

Also having to have the tranny fixed really disgusted me at only just under 40K miles. Now I can't even keep track of the mileage, because the odometer quit on me.

Most disturbing though, the brakes on this thing are junk; it never feels like the rears are working, even with about 95% of the brake system replaced, and the pedal has always felt low. The brakes don't even start to engage until the pedal's about level with the gas pedal.

The V6 is pretty slow, but it does get decent mileage... I think, I dunno, my odometer's broke!!

The seats were comfy until the leather started falling apart, and the A/C was nice until the linkage for the damper door broke and now it won't stay shut to recirculate the air for maximum A/C.

All my suspension bushings are gone after an estimated 100K miles, and the car rides like an old shopping cart. I wish I still had my old 1991 Firebird, I never had such wacky problems with it, ever.