Gadgetory

trans Car of the Year 467 let's see how lincoln-mercury pronounces Mustang we drive the all-new Mercury Cougar I checked the tech well Mercury's finally got their pony car and yes based very much on the mechanicals of the Mustang but you're never gonna mistake the two on the road in fact the Cougar and the Mustangs share no sheetmetal they have a different wheelbase as well this guy's 111 inch axle two axle the Mustang is three inches shorter Cougar devotes its extra length to longer more compliant leaf springs and a little more room for the legs in the back other unique identifiers are of course that cougar face with what people are already calling the electric shaver front end with standard hidden headlights sequential taillights in the back are standard as well and Ford's offering an electric sunroof on Cougars the first I've ever installed from the factory inside all Cougars is a sporting european-style cockpit you've got a three spoke sport wheel this by the way has collapsible impact technology as well as a padded center hub for safety on the left is your speedometer in the main pod on the right the other main pod has not only a fuel gauge but also a temperature gauge and an oil pressure and amp light the center clock is optional climate control includes heaters standard you can delete that if you like air conditioning is optional the turn signal if you order a speed control is going to have a knob on the end of it to actuate and disable it now the entertainment options your entry level rig is going to be an AM radio with full transistorized chassis and five preset buttons step up from there with an AM stereo tape all integral or go-to AM and FM radio but then you lose the table clever little storage bin down here with a rollup kind of chrome piano top now most Cougars are going to ship with a c3 automatic it's a three-speed automatic plus reverse with a chrome t-handle shifter right here there's also a three on the tree manual it's gonna be pretty rare in the middle is going to be the four-speed four on the floor manual gearbox now the xr7 which we don't have here would add gauges across the center of the dash here you'll also get some toggle switches a roof console leather and vinyl upholstery we have all vinyl in this vehicle now speaking of safety the 67 cougar also has a full padded - padded pillar over here and a breakaway rear view mirror headrests remain optional however in that same place you might instead choose to hang a television from the dealer you can get a 9 inch black and white fill code TV with custom-made hooks that hang right over the back of the seat for your rear seat passengers seat belt includes a tongue side retractor standard on all four positions around the car another big differentiator between Cougar and Mustang lies under the hood these guys do not come with any kind of a6 they're all v8 the most popular is gonna be this one here the 289 two barrel good for 200 horsepower 282 foot-pounds of torque zero to 60 a coin to Motor Trend is about 11 seconds for a car that weighs a tick over 3,000 pounds observed mpg just under 16 you can also get this engine with dual exhaust a four-barrel carb and a nine point eight to one compression ratio and that gives you 225 horsepower or just go all the way with a 390 cubic inch engine in the cougar GT that's good for 320 horse lincoln-mercury is not kidding when they say this car has some of that Lincoln fine car touch maybe good marketing copy but it's actually relatively true and then quite a bit quieter car in general it comes out to be a more sedate sounding and a little less hotly sprung Mustang that also means high marks for the base engine this 289 2 barrel is a willing runner you really feel that hefty biased toward torque at 282 pounds and because we have the optionally added dealer-installed Shelby style exhaust we get a good note the only sour note in our car is the fact that we do not have the optional power disc brakes we have unassisted four-wheel drums there adequate but coming down a road of uneven pavement and having to make a relatively hard stop you need to hang on and try and guess which way it's gonna pull okay let's price our cougar the base car as I mentioned has a v8 the 289 two barrel and configured thusly or just under three thousand dollars now come a number of options emission controls are 50 dollars and 64 cents our automatic transmission just under two hundred and seven dollars power steering 95 that sports consoles fifty seven dollars we have the AM radio at sixty bucks but I'm intrigued by the AM stereo sonic tape at one eighty eight fifty more of that European sports car look for just eighty four dollars that gets you the vinyl Oxford roof all in our test car was some of those features but not all of them is 36 fifty and change the Cougar lies somewhere between Mustang and Thunderbird it brings a more compliant ride and also a quieter ride thanks to over a hundred pounds more sound deadening than a Mustang it fits somewhere in the range of the person who wants more of a GT than a sports car with that European touch or cars driven CNET style standing by now at CNET on cars.com click on the road