2000 Mercury Cougar review from North America

Yes I don't believe there is a Mercury Cougar out there with a properly working trunk hatch. But that's something that is only minor.

Both wheel bearings went bad at 75000, and I finally replaced them at about 86000. It also needed new tie-rod ends and ball joints. I did all four struts, which was a big pain cause they are all rusted tight to the car.

Like many others, I am experiencing surging lights and occasionally the battery light comes on, but I won't worry about that for a while.

Currently my biggest problem is that it won't idle. It goes through fast idle @ 2000 rpm, then goes to normal idle @ 1050rpm, stays there for a moment the tries to go to slow idle @ 750 rpm. When it goes to slow idle, it starts to spit and sputter till the rpm drops to about 200 rpm, when the computer finally recognizes that something is wrong and kicks it all the way back to fast idle. Then it falls and stumbles, and picks itself back up again. I have no idea what is wrong. It doesn't get better even at operating temp. Every time I come to a stoplight I have to put it in neutral and jump on the gas.

It's a very stylish car and does fairly well in the snow, provided you keep it on the road, but has very convenient tow hooks on the back end for recovery.

It has been a good first car for me, and hopefully it will continue to be one for a long time, but if I was buying it again I probably wouldn't, or at least I'd go for the manual transmission.