Between my husband and I as well as during our marriage, we have owned quite a few cars over the years. We’ve had good cars like the Blue Audi Fox and the Acura and really bad cars like the Renault which spent most of its time up on blocks and the 1970’s Mustang that didn’t run very well. We also had small cars like our two Pintos, Dodge Omni which was smashed by an Econo line van and still kept running for an additional two years and Plymouth Horizon which was on life support when it was given to us and still ran for another year.
We have also had really huge cars like my Ford Galaxy 500 station wagon which was totally electrified and was great as long as it stayed that way. But it was a huge liability on the road when it wasn’t because the brakes and the steering weren’t strong enough on their own. Let’s just say that screaming through red lights isn’t my preferred choice of travel. We also had an LTD which just loved sucking up the gas and took up a lot of room. I also had a two tone green 1955 Ford Fairlane with a flat head V8 engine which could go 120 mph after my brother tinkered with it. We also owned a brand new Honda Civic station wagon and a Plymouth Voyager minivan with a lot of miles on it.
We got our 1994 Mercury Cougar XR7 second hand because we no longer buy new cars because the price isn’t worth it. Our new car had problems which we had to keep taking back to the dealer to fix. We prefer to get decent used cars which already have the bugs worked out.
When we bought the Cougar it had just had its transmission replaced and had paperwork in the glove compartment indicating that it had the engine replaced recently. The miles on the odometer were also relatively low for a car of this age. With the two major items replaced on the car it was a very good deal.
We have also found that this year model had the Jaguar four wheel independent suspension included in its construction because Ford had just bought Jaguar. This particular car also has headers on the exhaust which gives the car more horse power.
The Cougar is a smooth running vehicle with fairly decent gas mileage for a car of its size, especially on the freeway. It’s a very good road car, very tough, very maneuverable. It’s also a very safe car. We have been in a serious accident with this car and we only came away with a dented fender, missing lights and partially detached bumper and a ten foot red streak left on the concrete embankment that we rammed into twice at 60 mph. It also saved us from a lot of possible accidents because of its four wheel disc brakes and very responsive steering.
There was also the time that my husband was able to only change half of the spark plugs in 2007 because he didn’t have the right tool to reach the rest. It took a year before he could find someone who would change the other half. The car never missed a beat. Then in late 2010 we were able to get the car checked out for the first time since early 2008 and all it needed were some belts replaced and the brakes redone. We were able to get all of the spark plugs replaced this year because it took that long to get someone who could do it. Of course I wouldn’t recommend waiting that long to change out the spark plugs.
Yes, I would say that this is one of our favorite cars. It’s also one of our mechanic’s favorite cars.
Sources:
http://www.cartype.com/pages/1889/audi_fox
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Cougar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acura_Legend
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Mustang_GT_Convertible
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Omni
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_E-Series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Galaxie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_LTD_%28Americas%29
http://www.hubcapcafe.com/ocs/pages01/ford5501.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_Civic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Voyager
