1980-1983 Mercury Cougar

The fifth of nine lives and things sink even further.

Insert joke here.

The Cougar was brought down in size (and as much as 700 pounds!) and even further in performance when the switch was made to the Fox platform, shared with the Thunderbird, Zephyr, Capri, Granada, Continental and Mustang. Even though that platform had flexibility on its side, the resulting Cougar lost much of the luxury that the name had been associated with, while gaining very little to none of the sporty side of things. That last point is arguable, given the plethora of aftermarket upgrades available on the market.

The sedan and wagon eventually reappeared and for the first time, you could buy a Cougar with a four- or six-cylinder. Power ranged from 94 hp in the Lima all the way up to a mighty (pathetic) 134 from the 4.9 305. Yeegads.

Sports...cat? With the Capri, maybe. Possibly the Zephyr, too. But Cougar? No.

Buyers rejected the whole affair and sales numbers plummeted. As was the trend, you could drive around confronted by the painful lights emitted from a digital dash. I'm not positive, but I think this is also when the external keyless entry pad first appeared.

The go-go 80s produced some great cars (well, at least they were interesting), but Ford chose instead to hang on to a lot of the old-think with the Cougar. You could still have one with opera windows, partial vinyl tops and ridiculous trunk treatments. Sigh.

A three- or four-speed slushbox was available and it was rare that you saw a Cougar sporting an optional Tremec 5-speed manual. By this point, the V8s were on their way out and you could also get an inline six with 87 wheezing hp or a V6 with aluminum heads and just 112 hp, instead. Weight was a very reasonable 2900 to 3200 pounds and MSRP was around $8K. Sales went down and this is probably when the beginning of the end started for Mercury.

Looks a little like the Maxima wagon, doesn't it. Those are 'Stang wheels. Photo: Wikipedia

Which would model would I chose? It's like you don't even know me by now. I'm going for the 1982-only station wagon again, in base GS (Gran Sport?!?...what were they thinking?) trim, for no other reason than rarity and the bizarre reality that a Cougar wagon ever even existed. If I wanted something sportier, I'd buy a Capri and if I wanted an even bigger lounge sofa, I'd buy a Marquis Colony Park. Production of the 1982 Mercury Cougar wagon was 19,294. NADA average retail with a/c and the V6 is $2,150. If you could find one, that's pretty amazing for a car with decent production numbers that nobody knew existed. Hemmings and ebay only had one car from this generation for sale/auction.

This is another car that's quickly disappearing off the map. Some say that's a good thing. But I'd argue that this is a period 80s Mustang with more rarity, less desirability that results in a lower price tag and yet still a lot of fun with some performance upgrades. These are easy to work on and parts are still around, with some exception of trim bits. Will this ever be a car you see at one of the fancy-shmancy auctions or car shows? No. But a shrewd enthusiast could have a lot of fun, especially if a car like the 1984-1985 Ford LTD LX ever appealed to you.

Some folks mistakenly identified the family wagon in the movie National Lampoon's Vacation as a Cougar wagon. It wasn't; it was a Ford LTD Country Squire that was mildly modified.

Here's an even more in-depth and wonderful history of the 1982 Cougar by author and enthusiast, James Kaster. His books are amazing and well worth buying!