I have previously explored the 1969 Ford Capri on CC, as a European take on the Ford Mustang and concluding on how Ford were unable, unwilling or maybe even afraid to replace it. The Capri lasted until 1987, and was allowed a quiet retirement in 1987, leaving Ford absent from the sporty coupe market entirely in Europe.
Of course, Ford’s competitors were not sitting idly by. From the Nissan 200SX, Toyota Celica, Honda Prelude, Opel/Vauxhall Calibra, B3 Audi Coupe, VW Corrado to the Alfa Romeo GTV and Fiat Coupe (officially the Coupe Fiat) most offered credible alternatives to the Capri concept and showed that there was business to be done in that part of the market, and image gains available. For a number of years Ford sat out this market segment in Europe, apart from the smaller Fiesta based Puma.
Of course, for many people, a fast Ford saloon or hatchback was ideal. After all, the Fast Ford Phenomenon had started in the 1960s with the Lotus Cortina, the fast Escort saloons with the rally heritage and then the Escort XR3 and smaller Fiesta XR2, aimed squarely at the Golf GTi and Peugeot 205GTi. Perhaps best of all were the Sierra Cosworth saloon and hatchbacks, with ever increasing power, speed and rear wing sizes throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. But not a mid size coupe. All these had the image of the regular Ford with added power, speed and profile.
To fill this void, in the market if not in the business, Ford did something none too common: its US-built 1994 Probe was shipped to Europe. Conceptually, this was a car more relevant to Europe than many American cars, as it shared a platform with the Mazda MX-6 rather than, say, a Mustang or a Tempo, so the support infrastructure for the engine and gearbox was already in place.
The Probe was not a great success in Europe, possibly limited by the styling not linking well to the rest of the Ford range in Europe, by the size of the car for the accommodation and in comparison to the more compact European and Japanese competitors. It was also a bit softer than a typical fast Ford might be, and to be frank, the name might have sounded great in a meeting but in the showroom it didn’t. Doctors use probes…..
The Cougar arrived in 1998, and was now based on the Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique. These were the US versions of Fords CDW27 project, the European member of the family being the Ford Mondeo. Although these cars were designed jointly in the US and Europe, the final versions differentiated substantially. Ford billed them “world cars”, in reality the only parts that the American and European Mondeo shared were the windscreen, front windows, front mirrors and door handles. So the US-built Cougar actually shared very little with the its European stablemate Mondeo.
The Cougar came with a choice of the Zetec 2.0 litre twin OHC four cylinder or the Duratec 2.5 litre V6 engines, mounted transversely. The European Mondeo was generally accepted as being one of the best best cars in its class in Europe, which included the Vauxhall Cavalier, Opel Vectra, VW Passat, Renault Laguna, Citroen Xantia, Rover 600, Toyota Avensis, Peugeot 405 and Nissan Primera.
Arguably the Mondeo was too large to make a successful basis for a Capri for the 90s, a Corrado beater or Celica champion. This was a car with a wheelbase of 106.5 inches, and it showed. The Cougar was rather a bit too large to be a European sports coupe, a Capri or a Calibra competitor, and was much better suited as a luxury tourer. This positioned the car significantly further up market, and made it more expensive than the Capri. A true neo-Capri would have been based on the Escort, or held over to 1999 and based on the Focus.
Except there was a big issue there too. The Cougar was large on the outside, but cramped on the inside, with very limited rear headroom, as a consequence of the striking glasshouse profile. A small fuel tank, some reliability issues including oil pump failures leading to replacement V6 engines and five recalls in three years didn’t help.
But the biggest issues were probably the styling, the interior and the brand and its image. There was no single thing actually wrong with the styling – this was not an ugly car per se – but rather the whole was less than the sum of the parts. Whilst there were many neat details in the styling of the car, the glasshouse profile was fine, and even reminiscent of the Alfa GTV, the rear end a bit underwhelming, the front was too big, and the front overhang too long.
It was one of Ford’s first attempts at the “new Edge” styling, and the execution was a bit mixed, to say the least. It needed more than the neat detailing, and some how lacked presence
The interior was similar – the Mondeo hard points could be seen in much of the base, which is probably OK, but some of the finishes were hard, shiny and frankly cheap looking. Take a close look at this console to see what I mean. Are those the switches off your bedside alarm clock? That gear shifter didn’t look very Euro-premium either, which linked to the third issue – the image or more accurately the lack of it. This car was pitched against anything from the Fiat Coupe to the 2 door BMW 3 series – cars with definite images and personalities – which the Cougar couldn’t match.
Driving wise, it was more of a tourer than a sport coupe, which given the size was pretty inevitable. The 2.0 was more popular in Europe and was no ball of fire, the more powerful 2.5 V6 a smooth engine that enjoyed being revved, which was just as well. The handling was much better, but the ride harsh, and the overall impression a bit confused. Some thing was lost in the translation from Mondeo to Cougar. The Mondeo had a class leading ride/handling balance, but this didn’t read across anything like as convincingly to the Cougar.
The European market cars were built alongside the Mercury Cougar in the US, before being shipped to Cologne in Germany for final finishing of Euro-spec details like lighting, etc., including the left to right hand drive conversions for the UK and Australia.
The feature car is a 2.5 litre, fitted with the smooth 24 valve V6. On paper this car had some power and speed, but in practice the torque was not really present early enough, and although it was great to rev, you don’t always want to go to a 7000rpm redline. Having said that, this is a great example, worn leather on the driver’s seat aside. You won’t many more like this one in Europe now. This one is fully loaded with anti-lock brakes, cruise control, a full set of airbags, climate control, leather and automatic, and truly is a compact 2+2 luxury tourer rather than a sports coupe.
The Cougar lasted in Europe until 2002 – the 1993 Mondeo died in 2000 and the next generation Mondeo was never made as anything other than a saloon, family hatch or estate. Indeed, since 2001, every fast Ford has been a hatch with power, stripes and bulges, and great ability, in some cases setting a new level of class standard setting, for example the current Fiesta ST. An affordable fast Ford.
And that, really, is what a fast Ford should be. An affordable fast Ford, just as the Lotus Cortina, Escort Mexico, XR3i and Sierra Cosworth all were.
The Cougar got a great ad, though.
CC effect strikes again as I’ve just seen a silver one outside the chip shop.Nice find and read once again Roger,thank you.These cars were never a big seller and were only made for a few years and must be scarce now
Thanks to drei Jahre deutsch, I know that Dutch advertisement should be pronounced something along the lines of of “Ford vayt vat oo bevaygt,” but a very juvenile part of me can’t help but see it as a combination of toddler-speak and l33t-speak.
The pronunciation of “Ford” is correct.
It says “Ford knows what moves you”. Well, not a Probe, that’s for sure.
Mondeo class leading? not when compared with a 405 its not and certainly not when compared with a 406 they fall far short in the dynamics department, the later versions from 2010 are a nice drive very Peugeot like with their Pug diesel powertrains but the early cars are not.
At least in the U.K., the Mondeo was essentially the safe/default choice until that segment really started drying up. It wasn’t that it was the best car in every category (as you say, the 405/406 had a better chassis, and beyond that the Primera was more reliable, the Accord had slicker four-cylinder petrol engines, and as the eternally snobby British press keeps reminding us, the Passat had a German badge and classier interior materials). However, the Mondeo struck a decent balance between being cheap to run, acceptable to live with, and decent to drive, which is what sells mass-market cars. .
Roger originally had written “The European Mondeo was generally accepted as the best best car in its class in Europe, which included the Vauxhall Cavalier, Opel Vectra, VW Passat, Renault Laguna, Citroen Xantia, Rover 600, Toyota Avensis, Peugeot 405 and Nissan Primera.
I just couldn’t quite live with that, given all the European reviews I read back in the day. So I changed it to “one of the best”, which might still be a stretch.
If he’d said “I thought it to be the best car in its class”, that would have been ok, as it’s strictly his opinion. But the “generally accepted” part was a bit too much, as it doesn’t reflect reality as I remember it. And I doubt I’m the only one. 🙂
Being really fussy, I’d also note that the Toyota rival (such as was) for the Mk1 Mondeo was still the Carina, not the Avensis, which came later. Since both were anonymous enough to approach actual invisibility, it’s an easy mistake to make…
Difference in opinion between the British and German press, I suppose?
Well, I did read Brit magazines too, if not quite as regular as Auto Motor und Sport. If Roger can back up the claim that the Mondeo was “generally accepted as the best car in its class”, I’m willing to change it back. I seem to remember the Brits being pretty keen on the Passat, and Peugeot 405 had some very good talents too.
The Mondeo was of course sold in Germany too, and I remember it getting pretty decent reviews there; mid-pack, generally, depending on engine, year, etc. . It certainly was always considered a capable handler. But it really couldn’t match or beat the Passat in just about any category, except possibly that one.
I rented a Mondeo 1.8 wagon for 6 weeks in Europe in 1999, and found it to be quite capable. But its limited back seat was pretty apparent, even for European standards, and its interior was clearly not up to Passat standards. The 1.8 ran well enough, but it not brilliantly. Decent, but hardly a “generally accepted” class winner.
The 1994 Renault Laguna and especially the 1996 Volkswagen Passat B5 were the D-segment (in the Mondeo’s price range) leading cars back then. By the mid-nineties sales of all Japanese D-segment cars started to go downhill. And that hill only got steeper since.
Sales of the Audi A4, BMW 3-series and Mercedes C-class were going uphill. Although higher priced these are also D-segment cars.
Paul is correct to have identified, and therefore amended, the original text as being an opinion that looked like a fact, but there is no doubt that the Mondeo was up with any class leader, especially in handling and ride, and for a mass market brand quite a revelation.
The Passat was a valid competitor, if a slightly more upmarket, but the 1997 Passat B5 was the one that caught Britain’s attention most.
And since then of course, Ford’s volume European products have all been up with class leaders in a way that they were not in 60s/70s or 80s, or indeed the 1990 Escort was.
Isn`t that the shifter from the Taurus/Sable, just mirrored? No kidding it doesn`t feel Euro-premium. It was downmarket in a ’96 Taurus SE…
These cars were weak then, and weaker now. And, being a ’90s Ford, they eat transmissions.
I remember a big auto rag gripe being that even with a fully loaded V6 and MANUAL trans, you still couldn`t option a tach for the first couple of years…
Your memory is playing tricks; a tach was standard across the board.
“Cougar” is certainly a better name than “Probe,” and there was a potentially nice tie-in there with the Puma, but ultimately it’s sort of too bad Ford didn’t base the Cougar on the Focus rather than Mondeo/Contour/Mystique platform.
I always wanted to like these Cougars (sold here as Mercurys, of course), but as you say, they fell into that unfortunate realm of not having any really commanding flaws while also not having any exceptional virtues. Even at the time, I thought the styling was lackluster — I see what they were doing, but it’s let down by all kinds of details that feel either contrived or unresolved, and a lot of Ford’s interiors of this period are really dreary. (The dashboard pictures make me shudder a bit; so disagreeably shiny for no good reason.) If a coupe isn’t that stylish and isn’t that exciting, it’s hard to not start thinking you’d be better off with a similarly equipped sedan, which would be more practical and possibly cheaper to insure.
I think the downfall of these cars in the States was that Ford also still had the Escort ZX2 coupe (Mazda-based, not related to the European Mk5), which didn’t have the V-6, but shared the same 2-liter Zetec engine as four-cylinder Cougars. The ZX2 wasn’t any more stylish or exciting, but if you just wanted an inoffensive cheap two-door, it was a decent value. There was also the equally bland Civic coupe, which was a bit more expensive than the Escort, but probably easier to resell unless you wrapped it around a tree.
The last of the double wishbone Civics might as well have been gold-plated as far as resale value goes.
There are a whole lot of Cougar fans who think this car should not be called “Cougar” to begin with: it is front wheel drive!
I am not in that camp and I see that this feline was the continuation of the “Probe”.
I always liked it’s styling even though some things look cheap.
I’m in that camp. It’s a crappy sport compact that is neither sporty or compact, has zero luxury and yes, is FWD. It’s the Cougar II, best to forget it just like the Mustang
Although I can’t remember my own pre-adolescent opinions of the car, I do recall it being widely praised for being the first of Ford’s “New Edge” cars.
I should also not that pre-adolescent me didn’t quite realize how close automotive journalism is automotive PR, but there was a definite feeling when this came out that we were starting to leave the ovoid years behind us and a more hard-edged, angular, X-TREME styling wave was coming.
I rode in the back of one of these once, it was miserable for a 6’1 guy and the woman driving was an awful driver so I kept banging my head against the window and pillar as the mushy suspension dived and rolled into her vigorous uncontrolled cornering and braking. Never ever again.
I did not realise the cars sold here were built in 2 stages – that can’t have been cheap! When looking for a picture of the limited-edition bodykitted Eibach (attached) I saw a reference that the V6 made 90% of peak torque at 2000rpm thanks to a dual-stage intake manifold, which is not bad.
These as well as the Probe didn’t sell too well in Australia as although they had good power from the V6 they were a bit too large and heavy compared to a ‘proper’ coupe like a Celica/Prelude, being based on the full-length sedan wheelbase. That is where they suffer visually too, as seen in the 2nd-last profile shot.
Well, I wouldn’t quite use the word “built”. Certain EU-required items (lights, etc.) had to be swapped in, and the RHD conversion was done too.
Apologies for the economy of words. I was referring specifically to the RHD versions, and the conversion would not have been the work of a moment. Hopefully it was much easier than the Mustang Cobras that Tickford did locally!
On another note, I wonder how many people are unaware why Ford used the Probe name, from the series of 1970/80s concept cars.
That commercial is as uninspired as the car it was trying to sell. Toyota had been using Dennis Hopper to sell Celicas in Japan, beginning in 1996…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GTr4g4t3Ooo
Despite these being offered across the ditch in Aussie, we never got them here, and I must admit to never having seen one in the metal. In pictures though, I think they look fantastic – there really is some delicious detail in some of the lines. The interior always looked such a let-down though – the dashboard plastic looks like it’s hard and cheap – especially the plain expanse of silver plastic around the hvac.
@Cjiguy:
Right you are… I remember Ford being stingy with tachs in the late 90s, and got confused… The gripe with the Cougar (and Contour/Mystique) was about there not being a redline on the tach when it was present.
I don’t know how to reply directly to your comment farther up near my first post.
I can relate to that odd quirk. My 01′ Focus ZX3 did not have a redline on the tach either, and I always thought that seemed off.
My 2001 Euro Focus didn’t have a red line either, but was happy to rev, rev and rev again
Hessing De Bilt (the US Ford importer) may have sold more Thunderbirds in the nineties than Ford sold Probes and Cougars. Still see plenty of those T-Birds cruising around, while the Probe and Cougar have completely disappeared.
Ford Europe did not very well in the nineties. Quality-wise the Sierra was better than the Mondeo. The 1990 Escort was a joke, with numerous facelifts and modifications (to keep up with the VW Golf) right until the introduction of its successor, the Focus. And the mid-nineties Scorpio wasn’t a joke, it was more a bad dream. Nothing to laugh about.
In the seventies and eighties Ford Europe reached its top. Just like GM’s Opel as a matter a fact.
Looks like a Ford Cavalier!
Don’t insult Cavaliers like that 😀 !
“the name might have sounded great in a meeting but in the showroom it didn’t. Doctors use probes…”
I don’t think this connotation was very important, because in European languages other than English, doctors’ probes are called differently. However, word “Probe” in German means something like “test” or “trial” (Probefahrt= test drive, for example whe you’re decidnig whether to buy the car or not).
As for the name Cougar, interesting fact #1: in the current Ford Europe lineup, there is a compact SUV/crossover called “Kuga” (sic)
Interesting fact #2: in Slovenian language, the word “kuga” means “plague” or “pestilence”. I don’t know if this affects Kuga’s sales in Slovenia or not…
These never did much for me either way–I thought the styling was pleasant (and a nice shift away from jellybean shapes) but not inspired, the engine choices capable but not fire-breathing, and the interior small for the size of the car. I’ve ridden in one, once, but never got the chance to drive one.
A friend of a friend absolutely LOVED these cars though. He had the manual V6 version, I think a 1998 or 1999 model, and did a lot of little upgrades–bigger wheels/tires, HID headlights, I think a subtle body kit, muffler/exhaust–the usual stuff. Ended up with quite a nice sporty coupe, and I respected the work he put into it, but it still seemed like it didn’t quite measure up to a Mustang GT (though it was more refined) or a Prelude (which I particularly liked the final variant of).
Of course it also was example of a style that is pretty much gone nowadays. Other than modern “pony cars” (Mustang, Camaro, Challenger) and high end GT/semi-exotics (Corvette, Cayman, 911, GT-R, etc.) I can only think of a very few cars sold in the US market that are coupes without a sedan equivalent. The 370Z comes to mind, Scion tC, FR-S/BRZ twins, Audi TT… and I think that’s it. Not counting the BMW 1-series as it has a 5-door version, we just don’t happen to get it in this market. (And I don’t really buy the 1/2 and 3/4 series splits without fully differentiated styling).
Compared to the plethora of coupes available in the 70’s, 80’s and into the early 90’s, the majority of the segment has disappeared.
I guess it falls to me to defend these cars.
I put 250k miles on a stateside Mercury version of these over the course of 12 years. My nephew is still driving it, and I think the odo now exceeds 270k miles.
Mine was an ’01 model, and the ’01 refresh cleaned up some of the odder exterior styling (like the blisters on the headlamp covers) and updated the interior to look less generic.
It was neither a sports car nor a luxury car, and you didn’t want to ever subject adults to the back seat, but with the V6 and a 5-speed, it could be pretty fun to toss around, with a reasonably compliant ride but quite good handling for a heavyish FWD car. And the 2.5L Duratec was a peach.
My only disagreement with the writeup: I didn’t find the 2.5L engine to lack torque. While the engine did noticeably come alive between 3,000 and 6,000 RPMs, it wasn’t sluggish off the line, at least with the 5-speed. I can see how that might not have been true with the automatic. But compared to today’s manual-shifted cars that are all geared way too tall in 1st and 2nd gear to wring out a bit more gas mileage, the Cougar accelerated smartly right off the line. All in all, the engine was a good match for the car.
I loved my Cougar, and it loved me back. I spent almost no money on repairs until I finally needed to put a clutch in at about 190k miles. Then it became impossible to postpone replacements of the many things that had begun to wear out: Struts, sway bars, tie rods, etc. At about 220k the 3rd gear synchro started to give out (a common issue with the MTX-75 transmission). But the engine was rock solid, getting the same gas mileage it got when new, and only using a quart of oil between oil changes (most of which seemed to be leaking, not burning).
If you were expecting a Mustang GT, you’d be disappointed. But Ford/Mercury never billed it as such.
I would LOVE to do a proper COAL on the 1999 Cougar, as I owned one from 1999 until 2011 and it was my first car — and I feel this orphan model deserves a proper write-up. Unfortunately I only have a couple, if any, pictures of the car.