Car of the Week: 1967 Mercury Cougar

dodgechargerfan

dodgechargerfan

In a 55 gallon drum, floating down river, and
Staff member
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422557410.135247.jpg

When it comes to long automotive shadows, the Ford Mustang’s was about as big and dark as it gets.

Being born as a Mustang sibling in the 1960s would have been akin to being Marilyn Monroe’s sister (she did have one), or Elvis Presley’s little brother (he didn’t).

So consider the hand that was dealt to the Mercury Cougar when it was unveiled as a 1967 model in late ’66. The new Mercury pony car was supposed to be, in many ways, even better than the Mustang, which already had a raging love affair going with the car buying public. Sure, it was a couple hundred bucks more than the look-alike Mustang, but it was supposed to be a more refined, nicer-riding, nicer-looking machine. A Mustang with nail polish and better table manners. You like the Mustang? Hey, you’ll like the cool new Cougar even more.

Of course, improving on something that was great to begin with is always tough, and catching lightning in a bottle twice in a row is even tougher. Predictably, the Cougar never approached the heights of the iconic Mustang, but FordMoCo. still cranked out more than 150,000 first-year Cougar and Cougar XR-7 models for 1967. It was even named Motor Trend’s car of the year for ’67!

Read more.
 
Always kind of liked those.
Our neighbours up the street when I was growing up had a '67 Cougar, dark green with a black vinyl top. I remember thinking those hide-away headlights were the coolest thing...
They dealt it on a '71 Caprice and never again did they own a FoMoCo product. Guess that says a lot.
 
Houston has population over 4 million and the national cougar club only has 10 members there. There's a reason for that, and it's not because of low production. The mustang was a performance oriented pony car, the cougar was supposed to be a luxury oriented pony car. Where is a market for that? :huh:

I've always felt that they looked a little better than a stang, but under the skin it's still a tin-can falcon.:dgt:
 
Every year during Hot August Nights there tends to be one underrepresented car that makes a big showing. Two years ago there were a ton of 442's. Needless to say, I was in the middle of it. This year was definitely the year of the Cougar. Mostly younger (my age) people had them, and lots of really nice ones. It's a nice well appointed car that's less costly than most other pony cars, so it's easy to get in to (which reminds me of another kind of cougar :shifty:), making it a great entry level muscle car. Plus, being a higher end car, most were taken care of much better than the performance pony's. I've always liked them. A pal of mine in middle school's dad had a silver 67 with slot mags, a Cleveland, and a 4 speed. Definitely a defining car in my coming of age.
 
My brother-in-law has a vintage burgundy '68 289, 4 speed cougar. It's 1 of 249 289 4 speed cars built in '68. Its a nice fun little car that you don't see that often. Yah its a mustang under the skin. My Charger is a coronet under it's skin is it not? :D
 
closer would be valiant, cuda, dart.....and really of the falcons id take that kitty any day..the same way id take a fish
 
69.5CUDA said:
closer would be valiant, cuda, dart.....
Click to expand...

No...the darts, valiants and A-body fish were exactly that....A-bodies. Where as the coronets and therefore chargers are B-bodies.

The a-bodies are more like the falcon based stangs & cougars, all considered compacts. The B-bodies were all mid-sized.
 
Nice.

I always liked the early cougars better than the mustangs -

As far as luxury market pony cars are concerned, wouldn't that be what a "Challenger SE" was all about?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

SiteLock

SiteLock
Back
Top