Thursday, September 30, 2010

Mercury's Jumping the Shark. Er, the Cougar.

In 1977, Mercury made Cougar a full line of cars, including this 4 door pillared hardtop and a wagon, as well as the XR-7 personal luxury coupe and a regular 2 door hardtop. From its Pony car roots, based on the Mustang, to a mid-size luxury coupe in '74 to being the entire mid-size line in '77, this was just several Cougars too far beyond the edge, lol. They weren't bad cars at all, they were quite nice cars for the time, with a great ride, great features and not all that bad on the eyes for that period. They just weren't Cougars, in my opinion. I think Mercury had a fine enough name with the Montego and should have left them as such.

Interestingly, the phrase "Jump the Shark" originated in 1977 also, referring to an episode of "Happy Days" that went too far, with The Fonz water skiing on-air. Link here.

The 4 door was available as a luxury Brougham trim level, almost equal with the Marquis in feature content and luxury options. This was during the "downsizing" era, and was an obvious stopgap since Ford wouldn't have any actual downsized cars until 1980, unless you count the Thunderbird of 1977. That Tbird was a thinlypveiled Torino, which itself had been renamed the LTD II to seem as if it was a downsized full sized car, which of course it wasn't. Tbird sales skyrocketed over the '76 version, but Cougar sales went nowhere.

I don't care how many times you use "sporty" in a description, this two-ton 4 door station wagon just wasn't sporty and never would be. Was this a nice station wagon? Of course. It had the woodgrained sides, which was always a classy touch in my opinion. The interior could be optioned fully, including those Twin-Comfort lounge seats with dual fold down armrests, and all the power accessories one could wish for were available. Again, considering the classic Cougar of 1967, this just wasn't, and never could be, a real Cougar.

21 comments:

  1. Oh god, whoever made the decision to DESTROY Cougar brand equity with these cars should have been shot! A Cougar @#%*@ station wagon?
    Arghh! I agree with you, what was wrong with Montego?
    AND that HORRIBLE hood ornament. This chapter of Cougar history should be purged from the files.
    The cars were fine, but any other name please. Edsel would have been better!

    ReplyDelete
  2. And the only Cougar worse than this one were the 1980-83 abortions - include those in the purge file as well!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wonder if there are any Cougar woody wagons left? It would make an interesting oddity at a car show these days. I can't imagine very many were made in the first place.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Casey, if you really want one, for car shows, et al, or just to admire in your driveway, I'll be happy to find one for you! ROFL !

    ReplyDelete
  5. as long as it was in mint condition, I think a Cougar "Villager" would make an awesome "van" to drive my art around in if I ever do shows again. It would definitely be unique, almost Unique In All The World, lol.

    If I have money I'd have Chip Foose restore it with modern mechanicals but keep the wood look on the outside.

    ReplyDelete
  6. No Pauline Trigere version? too bad.

    ReplyDelete
  7. When I read the post I was thinking "well, the Fox-based Cougar (and Thunderbird) were even worse -- and then I saw Phantom's comment and all I could say was "Amen!"

    And then we wonder (well, OK, we don't really wonder) where Mercury lost its way. From the X100 to this in less than a decade.

    Paul, NYC

    ReplyDelete
  8. Agreed about the Fox-bodied Cougars. I probably have brochures for those too. I don't think this series of Cougar is ugly, well except for the chromed I-Beams for bumpers. They're actually pretty attractive for that time. But expanding the Cougar name to sedans and wagons wasn't the right thing to do. Now the Fox Cougars, THOSE are FUGLY, lol. Beyond belief fugly.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Annie, your not a cougar.
    You've already established yourself as a vampire! LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think Johnny Depp might agree with Annie, hahahahah.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous: re Pauline Trigere: This NY Times piece came out the week I started at Women's Wear Daily. I knew I was in for a ride, and it certainly lived up to its reputation every minute.

    http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/08/style/women-s-wear-daily-and-feuds-in-fashion.html?pagewanted=all

    ReplyDelete
  12. Casey, read the article ...I think I would have run screaming away from the job as fast as I could have! Did you get to meet all or at least most of the designers that were in the publication?? Sounds like a scary, interesting, impressive, outstanding dream job that you had! And maybe one that could burn one out QUICKLY!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I wouldn't say that I got to MEET a lot of designers, I certainly SAW them in the offices and at the shows I went to, but being an art director was pretty low on the food chain. I got several promotions very quickly there, and moved from being an art director for WWD into being a director of technical design for the whole company, which included a lot of publications not in fashion. I was responsible for bringing Macintoshes into the art departments and working with software companies to improve their paging programs. Before I got there the art departments were just like they were in the 40s and 50s, all on boards with Xacto knives etc. I can safely say I brought a lot of lasting changes to their art departments. I was at the right place at the right time. It WAS very dramatic, almost every day. That will be an interesting chapter to say the least. I'm going to post some of my newspaper designs from then soon.

    ReplyDelete
  14. OMG, Casey, when I read the above comment from you about being responsible for bringing Macintoshes into the art department, I thought you were talking about raincoats. lol
    I thought maybe WWD had a very leaky roof. You're right you should worry about me. lol

    ReplyDelete
  15. GIRLS, WE'RE HANGING OUT WITH IMPORTANT PEOPLE. I'LL TELL YOU ALL HOW IMPORTANT I AM. I KNOW HOW TO DRIVE A RIDE AROUND LAWN MOWER WHICH I DON'T HAVE ANYMORE. ALL THE KIDS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD KNEW ME.LOL J'K

    LOVED THE STORY CASEY.

    GRANNY

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow, my parents had one of these wagons when I was a kid! They were rare indeed, one time my mom took it in for service and the guy at the Lincoln/Mercury dealer told her there was no such thing as a Cougar wagon until she pointed at it and said they had bought it off that same dealership's showroom floor...

    ReplyDelete
  17. great story, Anonymous! thanks for commenting. Have a great Thanksgiving!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Interesting comments ... the wagon was "transitional" for Mercury until the Zephyr "true mid-size" wagon debut of 1978. Production of this generation of Cougars outpaced any other by a HUGE margin, with 1978 becoming Cougar's best sales year ever!

    Total Production:
    1977: 194,823 (XR-7 124,799)
    1978: 213,270 (XR-7 166,508)
    1979: 172,152 (XR-7 163,716)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Robert, thanks! you know what? since I wrote this, I've pretty much done a 180° on this series of Cougar. I think they're pretty cool. The same with the LTD II from Ford. I was pretty dismissive in this post, but I appreciate them now. Haven't seen one in years, though. thanks again for leaving a comment. -casey

      Delete