The Cougar XR7, like the Thunderbird, was the higher positioned personal luxury car version of the Cougar/LTD II. They were Mercury’s version of the Ford LTD II, which similarly took a formerly upmarket name and applied it to a full lineup of ordinary intermediates on the old Torino chassis. Thus in 1977-79 the sedans, coupes, and station wagons formerly badged as Montegos became the Cougar sedan, Cougar coupe, and Cougar Villager. ![]() In 1977 Mercury changed the Cougar’s purpose in its model lineup, applying the name to its entire lineup of intermediates and creating a Cougar XR7 with some distinguishing styling features to fill the personal luxury car role of the Thunderbird and the previous generation Cougar. This sighting of a well preserved example, which I believe is the same car that I saw regularly in the same parking lot over 30 years ago, prompted this look back at a largely forgotten Mercury. ![]() The 1977-79 Cougar XR7 shared the chassis, body and most of the styling of the contemporary Thunderbird, differing mostly in lacking the Thunderbird’s most distinctive details, its hidden headlights and basket handle B-pillar with inset opera window.įar removed from the Cougar’s luxury pony car origins in 1967, this mid-size offering of Ford’s middle division suffered from classic middle-child syndrome, which continues to afflict it today, starved for attention among Ford personal luxury cars between the Thunderbird and the top-of-the-line Lincoln Mark V. (first posted ) After a recent week of Ford Thunderbirds with a healthy dose of the intermediate-sized 1977-79 generation, a profile of the Mercury Cougar XR7 of the same years will create feelings of déjà vu.
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