It almost seems natural that the youthful rebellious mission of Pony Cars and the isolationist nature of Personal Luxury Coupes would eventually meld somewhere in the brougham seepage of the late 1960s. And Mercury, perilously devoid of a unique image for all of its life as Ford’s middle step on the ladder took one of the finest fillies of the Pony Car world, and wood appliqued its way into the muddle.
It can be said the original Cougar was already a step in the direction of the merge between Pony and Personal Coupes. Especially in XR-7 guise with genuine leather seating and a lot of 3M walnut applique, the Cougar melded the best of both self centered worlds: the relative light and carefree personality associated with the Pony Car, with the rich, unique touches and finishes of a personal luxury coupe. It didn’t hurt matters that it had sequential turn signals like the Thunderbird. Borrowing from the gadget trendsetter pioneer of market segment busters surely helped matters.
The blurring of character lines (and possibly the only fully distinctive product Mercury ever had) was in full swing as the Cougar bloated up a little bit in the 2nd generation. Not only could it count the Pontiac Firebird as a challenger, it could also count the all new Grand Prix as a rival.
But in the diversity of rivals, production started to slide, so the full Brougham treatment was called for. From the love child of a Flair Bird and a Mustang, the 1971 Cougar was a love child between a Pontiac Grand Prix (or the Bunkie Beak 1970 Thunderbird) and a Continental Mark III.
Apparently the Cougar was losing the scent of the prey. Sales slid again for the even larger, heavier pony car, as the sophisticated boomers traded their ever bloating pony cars (except for the lean and lithe F-bodies at General Motors) for Cutlass Supremes, quickly becoming the 800 lb gorilla in segment deifying cars. At least it wasn’t as fatal a step as the big new 1970 Barracuda/Challenger were proving to be for Chrysler.
Admittedly the Cougar pulled off the newfound bloat far better than its sister ship, the woefully purposeless 1971-73 Mustang. Actually out of all Brougham Era cars, these Cougars are my favorite, and perhaps the only ones of that school of thought that I like. Granted it helps that they came as convertibles, don’t have any pillow tuft velour seating options and could still shake a tail feather well enough in standard guise. For a Ford Product of the era it cuts a remarkably clean suit compared to the rolling wave of fenders or T-Square bricks that were normal from Dearborn in the early 1970s. It’s handsome, burly. Kind of like Burt Reynolds on that bear skin rug.
Were these attributes that my mother fell for when she got her drivers license in 1977? No. Basically it was the compromise between the 1972 Corvette she wanted, but my grandmother forbade, and the 1973 Plymouth Duster that was presented as a rebuff. So a split pea green XR-7 was the compromise. I wonder if that particular shade of green in epic use by Ford from 1968 through 1974 became a “discount” color as time wore on.
I also had experiences with these Cougars as my best friend in High School had a white 1973 XR-7 Convertible. I think one of the biggest things I still cannot grasp about Pony and Personal Luxury cars were, for their outward size, how cramped they were in the pursuit of style. I dreaded the times I had to ride in the back seat, just only marginally less than dreading climbing in the back of a classmates old Nova or Monte Carlo. The Cougar had to be the ultimate Personal Coupe in terms of “nobody wants to ride in your back seat.”
Well after 3 years of selling at a third of the rate of the inaugural Cougar, the ultimate bloat set in as Cougar moved up to full Brougham Personal Coupe, parting ways with the Mustang (as that car became some kind of personal coupe monstrosity rework of the Pinto) and spawning a comparable Ford product, The Elite. Otherwise Mercury took the one unique, good idea it possibly ever had and continued to morph it into something totally bland in a field of half baked pretentious “mid sized” coupes for the decade of ultimate isolation.
As it stands, the 1971-73 Cougars were possibly the boldest statement the Mercury brand ever made. The Brougham Pony Car, available as a convertible. You were a car whose intentions were good, but oh lord were you ever misunderstood.
Note: A rerun of an older post.
I wonder if the 1971-73 Cougar sales would have been higher if Farrah Fawcett did some Cougar ads more earlier? 😉
Don’t forget the narrator of those commercials. It’s not easy to fake that 4 pack of cigarettes a day voice.
Though I liked the original version of the Cougar a bit better, this red convertible would be my preference. It still has the distinctiveness of a Cougar blended with more luxury and the appeal of top down driving. By the time I bought my ’84 Cougar, it was the twin of the T Bird, except for the roof. It’s polarizing now, but the cut off roof was really popular when the car was new. I found my Cougar to be a very satisfying car, that was a definite step up from a Mustang.
Solid overview of this mostly forgotten car. I really like this iteration of Cougar, maybe as much as the original. The styling is clean, distinct, and somehow looks less flabby than it’s sister, the 71-73 Mustang. That ‘stang wasn’t all bad, but in certain color and body-styles it just look bloated and ill-proportioned. My only nit to pick with the Cougar is the front bumper: it’s like a pointy chin on an otherwise pretty face. Of course, like everything at that time, it got uglified overnight with the park bench bumpers. But putting that aside, the big takeaway is that this generation of Cougar hit its target, where the Mustang didn’t. Of course, both would wander their own respective wilderness for the rest of the decade.
At least the Mustang got cut down to size, while the Cougar got the full bloated yacht treatment. Not that it helped the ‘stang much: considering the strangled engines of the day, the performance car party crashed hard anyway. The missed opportunity is in the fact that there’s no need to pack on a thousand pounds to be a truly luxurious car. A couple hundred pounds in sounds deadening and padding and thicker materials, sure, but no more. Unfortunately, nobody stopped to think, and within five years the Cougar had bloated all the way out to a station wagon.
Talk about losing the plot. I don’t think there’s anything about FoMoCo that inspires more head-scratching than Mercury. It could still be alive and well, carving out an upscale niche, but it seems it was born the red-headed step-child, and it’s remarkable that the brand survived the 70s. Maybe most maddening was that they notched some wins, but it seemed as soon as they got a little traction, Ford yanked their chain and they were back to making thinly-disguised Fords again. Poor Mercury: while GM’s BOP subsidiaries all got their season in the sun, Mercury was lucky to have an occasional ray through the gloom.
In some ways, this generation seems to be an improvement of the previous Mustang with a Bunkie snout.
The ’74 went where the market was headed, but it didn’t bring the goods. Same with the Elite.
The fat cat 3G Cougar was a nice car, biggest downside was its propensity to rot out in salt climates.
and ‘rot away”, they did! Most a the “70-75, Ford products”.
I have felt the Cougar from 1983-1997 largely picked up on whatever legacy these 71-73s bestowed, love them or hate them. It’s a tortured path to find the lineage from my 94 Cougar to a 67 or 69(to lesser extent) but there’s a distinct resemblance stylistically and proportionally to the 71-73s that endured for so much of the Cougar’s run I can’t not respect these. Hell the Lincoln Mark VII and Mark VIII as well.
Likewise I think these were much more daring to the ponycar formula than the predecessors, the 67-70s had many PLC trimmings but essentially looked like Mustangs with electric shaver grilles and taillights, the 71-73s on the other hand looked like sportier Lincoln Mark IIIs and at least for 71 with performance to back it up. Who did that appeal to? Not many. But they certainly are more interesting than they get credit for.
All through college I lusted for the day I could buy a new GTO. In 1973 I was finally able to do so, but by then the GTO ship had sailed, along with those of the other muscle cars. So, a Firebird it would be, but there was a big GM strike at the time and there were few new Firebirds and Camaros on the ground. Also, dealers weren’t taking orders and there was talk at the time of canceling these cars. So, this uncertainty, plus the fact that I didn’t care for the new Colonnades, pushed me to buy a new, 1973 Cougar X-R7. Sharp looking car with a beautiful, leather trimmed interior. Full instrumentation, including tach. Girls loved it. Not real fast with the 351 and got maybe 13 mpg. Was reliable for five years and 100,000 miles, then things started failing pretty quickly. Traded it for a new 1978 Pontiac Grand Am.
Always liked these convertible Cougars, especially with the top up. Wish they had hidden the headlights.
Given the ’74 Cougar’s sales increase, it was one of Ford’s best ideas of the 70s. And the ’77 T-Bird might have been THE best.