Comments: 1-15, 16-30, 31-45, 46-52
I own a 99 Cougar and have had quite a few problems as well. Upon purchasing the car from a local Ford dealership, I drove it for 3 days, and the transmission locked up. I was told that the transmissions are very poorly designed on that year, and it was recommended that I go with a 2000 model trany. Since then, I have had a few minor problems, one of which being my engine coolant light coming on for no apparent reason. I have had the computer reprogrammed and still have the issue. There is also a noise coming from the trunk that sounds like a strut may be bad. But for only being a 4 year old car, it should not be having this problem. To top it off, I have had problems with leaky injectors, after having them fixed, I found out that the mechenic that I had this work done at, has ran into the same problem with a few other Cougars in town.
All that I can say is thank God that I am mechanically inclined. I bought a 99 cougar in 2002 and have since had to replace tires, brakes, rotors, axles, and the alternator. The check engine light is on and the care makes a loud noise when it is first started and the engine is cool. The noise sounds like a foghorn. As if that wasn't enough yesterday my axle fell out of my transmission. I inspected the problem and noticed what seemed to be some type of race bearing that had fallen apart inside the transmission. This car is killing me. I am a die hard Ford person, but I have to say don't ever, ever buy one of these cars.
My boyfriend purchased a 99 Cougar in the Spring of 2002 upon buying this car he has had to replace 3 sixteen inch rims due to them being warped, he has went through 2 brand new sets of tires. His check engine light NEVER goes off, he has an emissions leak, and on top of that all I was driving it today to work and the car just stalled in the middle of the road, the mechanic thinks it's the ALTERNATOR! This car was manufactured very poorly and although the cougar might be nice to look at it is not worth your time OR your money!
I purchased a 99 Cougar in October 2001. Since the purchase I have ran across many problems. The coolant light always comes on for no reason, the brake light and service light above the rear view mirror never go off. The check engine light comes on at least twice a week. This has resulted in repairing the O2 sensor, some valves that I am not sure of, and the alternator. The driver window has stopped working as of yesterday and the check engine light has returned. Also the passenger door lock has stopped working. And I have a warped rim and have bought new tires 2 times since the purchase and new ones are needed at this time. With only 75000 miles I can't even imagine what is next. My advise, don't, but this car.
I have recently been seriously considering purchasing a 99 cougar V6 from a friend. The automatic windows are already defective. It does have the extended warranty and I thought that would be of use, sounds like it's not too great of a help though. I'm very glad that I decided to do my research before purchasing this car. I have just dealt with car that was constantly having issues either performance related or cosmetic and do not want that again. Thank you for all of your great feedback.
I bought a 99 cougar that had 24k in 00. The car was in the shop 5 times in the first 8 weeks that I owned it. I have replaced both front wheel bearings within 2 weeks of each other. The sun roof broke at 37k, no warranty. I had the car in the dealers to have a dash light five times and the cannot find the problem. I was told that they could not fix intermittent electrical problems. The starter has started to grind at about 40k. At times, the transmission slams into gear and does not shift smoothly. The dealer told me that he could find nothing wrong. The rear brake calipers froze closed on the rotors and burned both pads and rotors. The mechanic told me that the Emergency brake cable jammed in the closed position and caused this problem. I was charged $961 to have this repaired. This car is a lemon with a capital L. I hope that people thinking of buying a Cougar find this page before they buy.
I have a 99 Cougar 4 cyl. 5-speed I bought new in 6/99. Overall it's been a very good car. No major problems after 93,000 miles. Engine runs great, No problems with transmission. About the only problem I've had is with the front brakes. I put the 4th set of rotors on it 2 weeks ago. Only the 2nd set of pads though. I don't understand the problem with the rotors, but looking at the problems others have had, I guess this is minor. If Ford were still making this car I would recommend it. I plan on getting at least another 100,000 out of this one.
I bought my 99 v6 cougar new with only 128 miles. It now has about 90,000 miles. I drive a lot of hw miles to work. so far I have replaced the moon roof, front tie rods, 4 sets of tires, front/back rotors twice, brake pads 4 times, brake light won't turn off, engine light stays one, replaced battery, alternator, and regulator. I am wondering when its gonna stop.
I bought a used '99 V6 Cougar with 35,000 miles from a dealer. I now have 61,000 miles on it. I have had to replace the brakes, front and back, and the pads. The sunroof is defective. Should be a recall, but Ford doesn't think it is a bad design. The tracks are plastic in the '99 models. I was told it would cost $1500. I can live without it. The check engine light comes on, goes off. Now it stays on all the time. I feel the car hesitate when it shifts gears. So far nothing major, but I get the feeling things are going to start happening. Overall I like the look of it and the comfort of the interior.
I purchased A 99 Cougar with the Duratec V6 in the spring of 03 with 44,000 miles. Biggest mistake I've ever made. I'm now on my 3rd tranny, my 4TH alternator. I've bent 2 wheels on a small pot hole on Rt80. The 2 I haven't bent are warped and makes a thumping sound when I drive. Had the driverside wheel bearing replaced. 3 days later, the passenger side bearing is now bad. The engine light never goes off. What else? The roof is starting to rust, starter grinds, both fog lights burnt out at the same time. When I role up the driver side window, it looks as though it will fall out of the track. Before this car I drove an Acura Integra with 110k miles when all said and done and never had a problem with it. Buying this car has been the worst decision I have ever made in my life. It's a great looking car, and handles great in rain, snow, and ice. When it runs, it's pretty fast. But keeping it running is killing my bank account and I strongly suggest not ever buying a 99 Cougar.
Just a comment on the engine light staying on. My engine light came on at 105,000 miles. I took it to a dealership and they told me to "NEVER" pay anyone to fix the problem, because it isn't hurting the engine. they told me that it was a problem with emissions.
I purchased my 2001 Mercury Cougar, with the I-4 engine. I've put 83,000 miles on it and so far no problems worth writing about, with the exception of a broken sun roof. The tracks in those things are a horrible design. The sunroof cost $1080.00 from Ford. It's only sold as an entire unit. But, luckily, I found a Cougar in very good shape in the junkyard that had been damaged in an accident. I picked up the sunroof for 250.00. Kind of a pain to put in by yourself, but done. Other than that, it's been a very good car. It seems to me all the problems are coming from the 2.5, V-6 engines.
I purchased at 1999 Mercury Cougar in the fall of 2002 with 44K miles on it. Since then, I have put a little over 20K miles on the car and had several problems. I bought the car from a for sale by owner, little did I know a short time before I bought the car, the owner had the transmission replaced. Roughly 3 or 4 days after I got the car, when starting the car it would make a horrible screeching noise, I was told it was possibly the starter, so I had a new starter put in. After the new starter was in about a week later the same noise was persisting. Took it to the local Ford dealership and turns out it was the flywheel. Not a pretty penny to replace that. I've also had a major ordeal with the engine light, as well as a leak somewhere within the engine, new tires, the CD player not working it would only play static instead of Cd's, the headlight casings have a crack in the left side causing condensation and moisture to get into the fixture, causing it to look foggy all the time, the sunroof would not close, so after getting a price estimate of $1080, the roof is now shut permanently... which I am NOT pleased about. I have also had a few minor problems with this car. What I don't get is if you are going to make a car, why not make a car with quality. My car is gorgeous, very pretty to look at... but I can't say I'll ever buy another. Perhaps that is why they stopped making them?
My wife has a 99 Cougar with the 2.5L V-6 engine and an automatic transmission with around 70,000 miles on it. We bought it new May 1998. We has several minor problem taken care of under warranty. Since then I have been doing all the maintenance and I would not consider it a problem car. My wife loves it and I like to drive it whenever I can. I handles corners extremely well and the brake are phenomenal. The original brakes did wear quickly and had to be replaced at 30,000 miles. I upgraded the pads and rotors and they are wearing very well now. It has respectable acceleration, but I would not consider it a hot rod.
Overall I would buy the vehicle again and would recommend one that had not been abused to any one considering buying a 99 Cougar.
My girlfriend and I purchased a 99 mercury cougar last year from a private owner. The car had 35000 miles and it had some upgrades. It has "XM" radio, custom paint and interior, dual exhaust rear bumper kit etc. We paid $8500 for this car. It seemed like a great deal, well we were badly mistaken. On the way home from Sacramento I noticed that the Variable timing was not engaging. So the car felt like it was towing something all the time. VERY ANNOYING. The next problem that occurred was that all the tires were wearing very strange all the tread on the inside of the tires was gone. Well that is because the manufacturers put a factory set camber/caster to aid in handling and it cannot be adjusted unless you spend $300 on a kit. (Why Ford Why)
To make a long story short we now have 50000 miles on this car the sunroof will not shut the check engine light is always on and right now that is the least of my worries. The other day I was driving back from Bodega Bay and all of the sudden the car spits out a spark plug and stripes all the treads, so I put a helicoil in it and fixed the problem. Well about a week later the car sucked a valve some how and completely destroyed the motor beyond repair. So now my girlfriend and I are in search of a new engine so that we can sell the car to some very unlucky soul. All and all I like the looks of the car, but hate the way it was put together. Thank god that I am mechanically inclined enough to have made this car last as long as it did. Special thanks to Ford/Mercury in making it that much harder for two college students to get by.