Mercury Cougar

The Mercury Cougar is a nameplate applied to a diverse series of automobiles sold by Mercury from

1967 to 1997, and again from 1999 to 2002. While most examples were produced as two-door coupes, at various times throughout its production life, the Cougar was also sold as a convertible, four-door sedan, station wagon, and hatchback. During its production life, as was common practice within the Mercury division, the Cougar shared much of its underpinnings with a Ford counterpart. At the time of its introduction, it was based upon the Ford Mustang. As the Mustang was downsized and redesigned in 1974, the Cougar became based upon the intermediate Mercury Montego(itself based upon the Ford Torino), becoming the replacement for the Montego in 1977. As the Cougar XR7 became the equivalent of the Ford Thunderbird in 1977, the Thunderbird would serve as the Ford counterpart of the Cougar for two decades. After its initial discontinuation, the Cougar emerged as a replacement for the Ford Probesports coupe, based on the Ford Contour "world car"; as such, it was sold outside of North America as the Ford Cougar.

For many years, the Cougar was important to the image of the Mercury division; advertising often identified its dealers as being "at the sign of the cat".[1] In the early 1970s as part of advertising for the Cougar and Mercury, female models held big cats on leashes.[2] In production for 34 years, the Cougar nameplate is second only to the Grand Marquis in its longevity in the Mercury model line.

The car was assembled at the Dearborn Assembly Plant—one of six plants within the Ford River Rouge Complex—in Dearborn, Michigan, from 1967 to 1973, at the San Jose Assembly Plant in Milpitas, California from 1968 into early 1969, at the Lorain AssemblyPlant in Lorain, Ohio, from 1974 to 1997, and at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Michigan from 1999 to 2002.