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Posts Tagged “

1978 Mercury Cougar

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project car hell

Project Car Hell, Graverobber Edition: 1970 Cougar or 1972 Torino?

Yesterday, we saw the Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72 Hell Project competition go to the '72 Volvo 1800ES by a Nixon-over-McGovern-style landslide, with 73% of the vote favoring the Volvo over the '72 Cougar. Today we're going to punish reward Graverobber for his run of incredible PCH tirades (such as this one, this one, or- my personal favorite- this one) by making him work harder for a PCH Tipster T-shirt than anyone else ever has. The deal I made with him: he chooses the cars, he writes the tirade for the cars, I include the tirade in the post... and everyone wins! Well, except for those who grumble about seeing Mercury Cougars in two consecutive Choose Your Eternity challenges, that is, but we'll pay that price.
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5:20 PM on Wed Jul 16 2008
By Murilee Martin
2,045 views, 70 comments

Latest by n/a: it's missing "grill, tail lights, int, dash, ect," Man, how can you do a proper PCH without that ECT! more »

project car hell

PCH, Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72 Edition: Mercury Cougar Or Volvo 1800ES?

In possibly the most humiliating defeat for France since the whole Algerian débâcle, a French car lost a Project Car Hell challenge to American machinery, with the '61 Simca Aronde getting crushed beneath the rusted hulks of a pair of Lincoln Continentals... and that's with the Simca getting some help from one of the finest PCH commenter tirades we've ever seen (notice hereby given: Graverobber has raised the Commenter Tirade Bar to hitherto unprecedented levels). We'll need to give France a chance to regain its former PCH glory very soon, but we're going to get all political-journalist on your ass with today's choices.
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5:20 PM on Tue Jul 15 2008
By Murilee Martin
2,567 views, 57 comments

Latest by CptSevere: I'd normally go for the Cougar, but it's just too foul. Generations of dumbasses have beaten on this poor thing, and while you could put in a brake master cylinder and a fluid change and drive it forever, the smell more »

jalopnik auto flag-elation

The Sign Of The Cat...Under The Flag

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down on the street

1975 Mercury Cougar XR-7

The Mercury Cougar has been reinvented many times, but we've only seen a couple of incarnations in this series. We've seen the lean and mean '68 Cougar and the Bloated Final Year Of The Rebadged Mustang Cougar, but what about the Farrah Fawcett-Approved Cougar? I found this appealingly rough '75 parked across the street from the '82 280ZX Turbo and quite close to one of Alameda's non-Buick Skyhawks.
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9:00 AM on Fri Jun 13 2008
By Murilee Martin
1,568 views, 34 comments

Latest by Searcher: @zaddikim: Interesting, I've had several over the years, until they got too old and all you can find is beat-to-hell-and-back junk, and never had any significant electrical issues. Of course some people can make Camry's and Accords look less reliable than more »

engine swap

1967 Mercury Cougar With OM617 Turbodiesel Should Run On Lard!

You want to drive a car powered by the most reliable automobile engine ever produced, you want to burn non-petroleum fuel, yet you don't want to drive a boring ol' Mercedes sedan like every other anti-dinosaur-juice diesel demon in town? Loyal reader Vance has pulled our coat about this '67 Cougar with a freshly rebuilt turbo-equipped Mercedes-Benz OM617 installed; this setup looks like it was done right, though the price seems on the painful side and the performance is likely more tortoise than hare (albeit a tortoise that could win a 500,000-mile race with ease). [Craigslist Los Angeles]

8:00 AM on Wed Jun 11 2008
By Murilee Martin
1,760 views, 28 comments

Latest by silex006: LEAVE THE COUGAR ALONE! more »

classic ad watch

Day Of The Cat: 1973 Lincolns And Mercuries Greet The Dawn Of Malaise!

The cage door creeeeeaks open, (perhaps suggesting the rust that will soon assail most Malaise Lincolns and Mercuries), and the angry mountain lion struts out into a field full of parked cars. The Continental... the Marquis... Montego... Comet... Cougar... they're all here, and they're all packing more bloat and less power than ever before.

11:00 AM on Mon May 5 2008
By Murilee Martin
1,707 views, 29 comments

classic ad watch

Cheryl Tiegs Joins The Cat Set In Her '78 Cougar XR-7

While Farrah Fawcett merely allowed a cougar to sit on the roof of her car in her '75 Cougar ad, Cheryl Tiegs lets a mountain lion ride shotgun in her '78 (equipped with the hyper-Malaise "Midnight Chamois" option package). Not only that, but her hair totally out-feathers Farrah's, and her haunted mansion gives her more of an air of mystery. Did we mention the 134-horse 302 that came standard in this 3,800-pound car?

1:00 PM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By Murilee Martin
2,977 views, 40 comments

Latest by TampaRon: @crankcase: Ha! She was a beautiful lady but...nah, she didn't look like Cheryl. I think she did occasionally cart the family cat to the vet in the "Midnight Cat" Cougar though! more »

novelties

How Not To Modify Your Mercury Cougar

Whereas we like to think Jalopnik is a fairly safe and friendly place to express an opinion, niche forums can be brutal. Take the story of one young man and his last generation Mercury Cougar at the New Cougar forums. We know it can't be easy to be a Cougar owner — who do you have to look down on? Topaz owners? Nevertheless, these fan-boys soldier on and learn to squeeze every bit of love and performance out of their cars, which is something we can respect. But this guy's ride we can't respect. He's basically taken plywood and home theatre controls and shoved them in the backseat of his car (something you can do if you have no friends). The execution is so poor that it makes you start to appreciate the ridiculous import tuner crowd. But as harsh as we could be, our pithy comments are nothing compared to the ire directed at him by his fellow Cougar fan-boys. We've included a selection of said comments below the jump.

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10:40 AM on Thu Apr 17 2008
By Matt Hardigree
8,572 views, 114 comments

Latest by pradster: [www.newcougar.org] is it just me or did he photoshop the Cat logo and the red carpet? more »

down on the street

1968 Mercury Cougar

How is it that I've only had one Mercury Cougar in this series so far, and that a Malaisemobile? Even worse, we forgot about all about the 40th anniversary of the Cougar last, in spite of repeated reminders from the Colorado Cougar Club! Maybe the problem is that the bloat-o-riffic Farrah Fawcett Cougar managed to obscure our mental images of the sleek 60s cats. Anyway, I've photographed several of the sporty Mustang-based Cougars on the island and you'll be sure to see them in this series, starting with this '68.
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9:00 AM on Tue Apr 8 2008
By Murilee Martin
3,616 views, 51 comments

Latest by bmoredlj: Wow, the chrome waterfall survives on Mercurys to this day. more »

retro

Yes, Mercury Really Did Make a Cougar Wagon

A Mercury Cougar station wagon, you say? Yes, Cougar wagons really exist, and we aren't talking about homemade ones welded together by the wild-eyed freaks who build stuff like the Cyclonechero. In 1977, you could buy a Cougar-branded LTD wagon, and a Fox-based Cougar Villager wagon was available in '82. Thanks to Cougar expert Mark for the tip! [LTD Sightings]

2:40 PM on Thu Feb 21 2008
By Murilee Martin
1,479 views, 35 comments