1997 Mercury Cougar XR7 review from North America

Engine light came on 2 days after I bought it throwing codes that it was running rich. Took 3 separate garages to finally guess at what it was. Reprogramming the computer finally fixed it.

Low coolant light on (60k miles). Can't just replace the sensor, would have to replace the entire $120 coolant recovery tank. No thanks. I'll deal with it. Black electrical tape costs $3 a roll.

Inner door panel, driver's side came detached.

Driver's side power window has never opened.

Eats turn signal bulbs at the rate of one a month. Replaced multi-function switch in the steering column twice.

Now I know why this car only had 55000 miles on it when I bought it. I'd be willing to bet its previous owner got sick of sticking money into it and dumped it. Lucky me.

I didn't want to stick the money into my previous car (a Dodge Neon) to fix it so I traded it in for this. What a mistake. There is NO REASON for a car with only 60k on it to have this many and these kinds of problems. Just about everything electrical in that car is completely goofy.

I mean, it looks great and drives great and probably will continue to because I can't afford to keep up with the maintainance costs. I know I didn't buy a new vehicle and there was going to be some problems, but this is nuts. It's like you can't touch the car without it getting "upset" about something.