Thunderbird Week generated some residual Cougar posts, as a number of the generations were of course related. So we’ve saved them and added to them to give you…Cougar Day. There was no original intent to cover all the generations, but then they appeared like magic, save the first one. So we’re going to do them all today, chronologically. But unlike last time, when I was forced to write up one of my least favorite T-Birds, this time the Contributors cut me some slack, and left my favorite cat to me.
I’ve done a ’68 Cougar CC before, but let’s keep it fresh—if a bit brief —since I found this other ’68 Cougar, which has just been patiently waiting for its day in the CC sunshine. Yeah, it’s a bit rough, but it deserves a bit of love. Just like a Corvair does. Pioneers who fail do pull at the heartstrings.
The original 1967 Cougar was a brilliant move on Ford’s part, during a time the “Ford Better Idea” light bulb was still burning brightly. The concept was of course a more upscale Mustang, an idea that had been kicked around for a while in the Ford ans Mercury studios. But rather than just literally dressing up a Ford, as was the case with just about every Mercury ever, Mercury drew on the success they had with the 1960 Comet.
The Comet (originally planned as an Edsel) was a stretched Falcon, but with totally unique styling. And it was quite a hit; not quite in the Falcon’s league, but undoubtedly better than expected, and a savior at a time Mercury was really in the dumps.
So in addition to a three inch wheelbase stretch, the Cougar was also blessed with totally unique and quite distinctive styling. Folks may (or may not) have known it was closely related to a Mustang under the skin, but it conveyed something new and altogether different. That started with the “electric razor” front end, with its standard headlight covers that created a face unlike any other.
Well, with the covers actually closed, that is.
The taillights mirrored the front end, and was given Ford’s sequential turn signals to boot. Those had been a Thunderbird exclusive, but then the Cougar was really all about being a more affordable T-Bird, even if it was a Mercury. The phrase “for the man on his way to a Thunderbird” was even used in its marketing push. The ’67 Cougar started at $2,851, about $400 more than the ’67 Mustang. For that difference, one got a standard 289 V8 , the hidden headlights, and a whole lot more cachet. It really was a bargain (T-Bird).
Although the Cougar wasn’t overtly European on the outside, its mission clearly was to do a bit of import bashing. The interior made that more than obvious: this was Dearborn’s take on a Jaguar, pure and simple, right down to the toggle switches on the “wood” dash, on the XR-7 models. The leather bucket seats further enhanced the look. This one didn’t strike me as being an XR-7, until I looked inside.
Enough of the car itself; the Cougar’s special place in history is in its pioneering a whole new market segment: the affordable personal luxury coupe. It’ Ford T-Bird stablemate pioneered the semi-affordable luxury coupe market, but as the Cougar quickly proved, Americans wouldl always rather get more or less the same thing for less money. And that’s exactly what that Cougar was: a T-Bird on the cheap. And in the process, it effectively destroyed the T-Bird and its ilk. T-Bird sales started their long decline right about the time the Cougar appeared and ruffled its feathers.
But the Cougar’s success was short-lived. It single-handedly paved the way for the 1969 Grand Prix, the 1970 Monte Carlo, and the rest of the GM mid-size-plus coupes that soon took the market by storm. Not surprisingly, Cougar sales were a terrific 150k in 1967, before dropping some to 115k in 1968. But even a complete restyle for 1969 couldn’t get sales to top 100k again. And you’re looking at the reason why. Cougar sales languished, until it belatedly joined the mid-sized-plus coupe crowd in 1974. But it never really reclaimed its initial luster. GM stole the affordable luxury coupe market from right under Ford’s nose. Just like Ford had done to the Corvair Monza with its Mustang.
Yes, I know; there’s so much more about the ’67 – ’68 Cougar to talk about, like the special high performance models and the 1967 Trans Am effort. But they were all highly peripheral to the Cougar’s initial success and long-term impact. The Cougar was for folks who were ready for a step up from the Mustang, which was a rather spartan affair, never mind its populist image. Who wants to drive the same car as everyone else on the block?
The Cougar introduced the semi-luxury coupe to Americans, and they loved it. But Americans are fickle, and as soon as GM’s bigger and even more seductive coupes rolled out on dealer’s lots, the Cougar would forever be chasing their tail.
So the Cougar ended up playing the same role as the Corvair Monza: it pioneered a new segment, only to have it snatched away after its first flush of success. That time, it was Ford, with its Mustang. This time it was GM, with its fearsome foursome G-Bodies. But there was a big difference though. The pony car market quickly shrank away to a pittance; but the near-luxury coupes came to dominate the sales charts for the almost two decades. All too often, there’s a painful price in being the pioneer.
Related reading:
CC 1968 Cougar: Mercury’s Greatest (Only?) Hit
CC 1960.5 Corvair Monza Coupe: The Most Influential Car of the Decade
’67-68 is definitely my favorite version of the Cougar.
Not sure about that color though. Did the Park Service buy a lot of personal coupes?
When was the last time you saw one of those bean-bag ashtrays?
+1 on 67/68 Cougars.The paint looks familiar,I’m sure I’ve seen Fairlanes and Galaxies in a non faded version
“When was the last time you saw one of those bean-bag ashtrays?”
Uh, last week; my sister’s boyfriend (the only person I know who actually smokes in the car) has one between the front seats of his Explorer. Since nearly all cars now do not have ashtrays I suspect these are more common than we know.
My older brother had a blue ’68 Cougar with the 302 V8 and 3 speed on the floor. I learned to drive a stick shift on this car. It had the best pickup and go I’ve have ever known.
Once he got married, he had to trade it in for a ’70 Ford 500 sedan.
You just reminded me why I’ve always been single!
The ’67-’68 Cougar is probably my favorite Mercury of all time. The “razor blade” grille treatment with hidden headlight was kick-ass. So much attention was paid to detail, and it introduced some important elements that would play a far greater role in the next decade. It obviously came from a time when Ford still cared about Mercury. I can’t think of any Mercury that came after that shared less with another Ford, Lincoln, Mazda, or Nissan.
I always liked the first gen Cougar despite a vaguely unsettling feeling that it might be from another planet. It had no human face. Maybe I didn’t understand where it’s place was in the market because the auto press drove home it’s Mustang roots, as did the greenhouse size and placement. And once you got inside, you understood immediately that this was a pony car. The luxury touches of hiding the lights at both ends and smoothing out the Mustang’s muscle bulges were discordant with the stereotype. Yet it was handsomely executed, if too upmarket, like a high school football hero with a buzz cut in a Ralph Lauren suit.
My brother bought a used ’67 while in grad school. It was all business, black with a white top, dog dish hubcaps and oversized black walls. 289, Auto trans. Dual exhausts.
Inside, hard seats, padding that lied about being forgiving. Even the funny donut pad on the horn button looked lethal. It was taught, hard riding, disinclined to follow curves, and didn’t like cruising at a set pace. It wanted, always, to accelerate. Like the ’67 Mustang I owned a few years later, it demanded your attention to keep the tail in line. A feral cat.
My brother’s Cougar in 1972.
If cops drove Cougars, this would be the one. It looks like it kept some interesting company, though…
I always thought that the 1968-70 Cougars were the best looking made.
That’s going to be a pretty sexy car when it’s finished.
Mercury indeed hit a home run on this car. This was the only Cougar that really nailed the styling, there is not a bad line on this car anywhere.
I had long known that the T-Bird started its terminal slide when the Mark III came out and sucked the high income customers out of the room. I had never stopped to consider that the Cougar attacked the Bird from below, but I think you have a point.
As much as I love these, a close friend had one as a 9-10 year old car in high school. My 67 Galaxie was a MUCH better car. The Cougar was rusting everywhere, every piece of body hardware would freeze in the winter, the door hinges drooped, and it could barely move itself in an inch of snow. But it was a lot more fun to drive.
My favourite American car of them all,make mine black cherry with a 302 4 barrel & auto please.Like a lot of car makers Mercury got it right first time and subsequent models were never as attractive.I first liked these as a 9 year old and saw a brand new lime frost green Cougar from the USAF base near my Grandparents.
In 2000 I finally got the chance to drive a 68 Cougar,a black cherry 302 4 barrel auto.I had a matching barnet and nail polish to go with the car.
Even when rough around the edges, it still looks really good… it says a lot about the design standing up to the test of time, very much like the second generation Corvair. Two of my top ten American designs.
There was a 67 in my hometown, bought new by a friends Dad. It was a few years old by the time I remember it around 1971. But I thought it was the coolest thing around town and except for a 67 Buick Electra coupe I admired from afar…it was! I’m a sucker for hideaways.
I’m not sure that I see the early Cougar in the Thunderbird’s space even if Ford sort of did. The ’60s Bird started a high end coupe segment that GM filled with the Riviera, Toronado, and in ’67 added the modern area Eldorado – the same year the ‘Bird flew smack into the side of Ford headquarters with its new and debatable style. By ’67 the Thunderbird had a lot of competition, and the competition was was better.
For a long time I thought of the early Cougar as a Firebird competitor, but I think the theory that this was the early (but smallish) popular mid-price mid-size coupe may be spot on. And, as you say, GM came in and established the size parameters, and it took Mercury until 1974 to catch up.
The ’67 -’68 Cougar really was a home run that has always had respect. The ’77-’79 was a second home run that is not revered by many today. But, both sales home runs had one thing in common, they both had no future as the market suddenly changed on them and it took both a period of time to adapt and recover.
It could also be that Lincoln-Mercury was aiming at the junior end of the T-Bird market because the area was a fat target that L-M dealers had been completely absent from. The Cougar may not have been a real T-Bird competitor, but it was a reasonable facsimile in Lincoln-Mercury’s world.
First gen Cougars are my favourites, but I never thought of them as personal luxury coupes, competing against the T-bird. At least not until later generations. I always saw the earlier Cougars as an expensive and more upscale Mustang. Now that you’ve pointed it out, I can certainly see your argument that it bridged the markets between pony car and personal luxury.
May favorite generation of Cougar. Its unfortunate such a sad example was used for this blog post. I remember very well as a 12 year old the excitement of seeing the new 1967 Cougar at the downtown Mercury dealer in my city. I had a ride in my friend’s mother’s car and being impressed with the smooth performance of the 289 under the hood. Since my father had a 62 Mercury Comet sedan its easy to understand why.
It is interesting the first ad doesnt seem to show the vinyl roof that so many of the cars had. This series will be interesting, I have not seen a lot of post 70 Cougars.
I like the styling of the original Cougar, enough to buy one in the 1980s. OK, only a little one by Matchbox, but very nicely done for a model less than 3″ long. Like the example above it’s seen better days, but not bad for 20p (about 60p or about 95 cents today).
My brother and his wife had a 1968 sage green Cougar, and I remember him telling me after he traded it for a 1973 or 1974 Cougar that he wished he’d kept the 1968 car.
ok 3 inches longer wheelbase than the ‘stang. where does that 3″ show up? in the front, the rear? was it actually a more comfortable cruiser? what about weight when compared to the ‘stang?
This is not America…..Mercury Cougar, Pontiac GTO and Chrysler Newport.
(Photo: Cudabee, AmerikaanseAutoPagina.com)
Paul, your write-up outlines exactly what happened in my family. My Pop bought a 1962 Comet, which brought him into the Ford family of fine cars–a big coup considering that he came from a Buick-centric family. He fell under the spell of the Mustang in 1964, and then moved up to a Cougar for 1968. Then GM swept him away with a Grand Prix in 1972. Fickle indeed.
It’s nice to know my assumptions sometimes pan out 🙂 I wonder how many others took the same trajectory?
I log in and see Cougars and Cougars. Scroll down to see if my favorite, the best one, is here and yes it is the 1st generation. Could say I am a little biased since the one below has been with me since 1968. Has the J code 302-4V engine with C4 that has been tweaked with better heads, cam , intake, carb and exhaust.
Beautiful Cougar!
Here’s me shaking hands with my Cougar’s new owner:
The Cougar paving the way for the GP is how I look at it too, and when looked at it from that perspective the Cougar’s overall execution through the years actually turns out to be fairly consistent, the unfortunate tangents of course being the 77-79/81-82 non-XR-7s and 99-02 Cougars. It started out as a plus size Pony car, became larger, then became smaller, right about to the size of the first gen footprint in fact, and carried on that way through 1997.
Oddly enough, my last new car purchase — a 1967 XR7 with the 289 4-barrel, three on the floor and not a whole lot else. It was “Cinnamon Frost” in color with a “black Oxford roof,” and cost $3,460. (I still have the Monroney sticker.) Boy do I wish I had it now…..
I’ve made my feelings about these cars known before (look to the previous post about this model) and every time I see one, I still think I should have gotten one back in the early 80’s when they were cheap and hung on to it. Alas, it was not to be.
The first generation Cougar is still the only one I really consider a Cougar, but these days it’s kind of hard to put down anything with 2 doors. The world has literally been taken over by 4 doors. 4 door cars, 4 door pickups, 4 door SUVS. Not good for a TWO door car enthusiast like me.