1994 Mercury Cougar XR7 Special Edition review from North America

I bought it used, in excellent condition, with 60,000 miles on it, figuring it ought to go 200,000 miles before major work is required. The car needed a brake job after a couple of years, which was not difficult to do myself, however an anchor plate bolt was frozen on one front disk brake and that plate must be removed to change the rotor. I recently had a mechanic spend about an hour trying to break the bolt loose and it cost me nearly fifty bucks just for that one lousy bolt.

The temperature gauge barely moved from cold the entire time I owned the car, that is, until the engine suddenly heated up without warning at 83,000 miles and blew a head gasket. This is allegedly typical of the 3.8 liter motor. I was lucky to have it fixed for just under $900 and was told that the pistons, cylinders, etc, are still in excellent condition. There are a few issues remaining. The "check engine" light now comes on after driving it around for awhile and nobody knows why, precisely. All this high tech crap is for the birds. I've been looking more closely at the engine and finding a few small things I'm not too happy about, like a bypass hose that has become so crimped, how any coolant can get through it at all is a mystery to me. I would have hoped the mechanic would have caught something like that, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

A final complaint or two -- the ride is as hard as an old truck, at least around town. I've put some weight in the trunk and that helps a tad. What really smooths it out is to load up the trunk and take it out on the highway.

For awhile there, the transmission was beginning to downshift too much. I had been switching to overdrive to help decelerate downhill, but was advised that doing so eventually causes the problem. Otherwise, no further complaints about the drive train.

My Special Edition Cougar is a dark, candy apple blue with a silver racing stripe around the bottom, nifty medallions on the side, and a luxurious, gray leather interior. It is a nimble, sporty vehicle, very quick for a V6 and definitely above average in the turns, yet it gets pretty good mileage, perhaps around 23mpg. If you drive it slowly too often, it gets a bit sluggish, but when you goose the throttle at regular intervals, it hauls ass. It has a tape deck with a very decent sound system, but frankly, it sounds much better when you are parked and not having to fight the noise. Had it not been for the head gasket going out at such low miles and the ride being so hard, I would give this car an 8 overall. I like it, but it can't compare to the '69 Cougar my dad owned, which was luxurious, sporty, powerful, maneuverable, yet with a very smooth ride.