(first posted 7/19/2016) I’ve spoken before about the seemingly mythical beast that was the 1977 Mercury Cougar wagon. Available in either base or Villager trim, it was the latter that was produced in greater volumes (8,569 vs. 4,951) and the latter of which seemed to be the only survivor, with some Villagers still making the rounds at classic car shows. Well, like a photographer spotting the Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot, Daniel Lucy has uploaded these shots to the Curbside Classic Cohort of what appears to be a base 1977 Mercury Cougar wagon!
I find these perversely cool in a tacky, bloated 1970s way. Affixing the Cougar name to a wagon smacked of name debasement in a fashion far more offensive than, say, an Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera or Ford Mustang II. After all, a wagon – with optional third-row seating – was a complete 180 from a sporty or plush personal luxury coupe. There was nothing especially luxurious about these nor was there anything remotely sporty. I could understand if a Cougar wagon resembled a proto-Mercedes CLS Shooting Brake, but to simply slap a formal front clip on a Torino wagon? Sacrilege. Perversely cool sacrilege.
Look at that high beltline, too! And people criticize today’s cars for their small glasshouses. At least parking sensors were invented – could you imagine parking this boat? It’s funny that this was considered an intermediate: this was the zenith (or nadir) of that size class, almost 20 inches longer than its predecessor and packing only V8 power (351 and 400 cubic inch V8s). The Big 3 were reeling from emissions standards and skyrocketing gas prices and these not-so-mid-sized mid-sizers would soon be extinct. GM led the downsizing charge with the 1977 B-Body, shrinking a range of zaftig full-sizers to what had become “intermediate” dimensions. Just a year later, GM downsized their intermediates and Ford introduced the Fairmont/Zephyr twins, leaving the Cougar looking like a relic.
Of course, by 1978 the Cougar wagon experiment was over. The Zephyr wagon no doubt cut into Cougar wagon sales, but intermediate Mercury wagon sales had never amounted to much and scarcely broke into the 5-digit range most years. Meanwhile, Oldsmobile was selling almost 4 times as many Cutlass wagons.
Even the Cougar sedan – which actually received new sheetmetal all-round, instead of being a Frankenstein’s Montego – was hardly a strong seller. The XR-7 coupe was the real sales sensation of the range, where its size and proportions played to its favor in a style-conscious segment.
While the Cougar wagon was a misguided application of an alluring name, guzzled gas, handled poorly and wasn’t terribly space-efficient, I am ever so glad Daniel Lucy found one in the wild. Unlike Nessie or Big Foot, it seems they do exist.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1977-79 Mercury Cougar XR-7 – Grandest Torino
Cohort Capsule: Mercury Cougar Sedan – Bob Barker Reminds You To Spay And Neuter
This beast could be parked using the ancestor of parking sensors: curb ticklers, remember those?
My ’60 Electra was easy to park compared with my ’08 Sebring sedan (no parking sensors). Tail fins showed exactly where the rear was when reversing. The front was visible when all I see now is the bottom of the windshield.
Fantastic find. Got mine years ago.
Pretty amazing that such a low volume one year only car was immortalized by Matchbox. But, of course they had a history with low volume Mercury wagons. The ’68 Mercury Commuter wagon was similarly immortalized.
It appears they still had the 1968 green paint in stock and needed to use it up. The Cougar wagon should have been Emerald Green.
Not my picture, but I do have two Commuter wagons in my fleet of miniature cars…..
Matchbox (or, the parent company, Lesney), had always included a wide range of Ford products in its line-up. That was probably because the Ford brand was well-known in the United States, Great Britain and continental Europe.
Thanks to Matchbox models of the British Ford Anglia, Corsair, Cortina, Zephyr and Zodiac, I learned at a young age that there were Fords available in other countries that were not offered here. It was an early introduction to the global auto industry, courtesy of Lesney.
The first station wagon in the Matchbox 1-75 range was a 1956 Ford station wagon, and it was followed by a 1959 Ford Country Sedan.
Too cool. I had to look it up and see. My Matchbox era was roughly ’64-’74. I’ve never seen ’50s era Matchbox cars.
Matchbox build quality certainly improved over the years.
The ’56 and ’59…………………
I had one of those too, Matchbox’s Cougar Villager was the runaway success the real Cougar Villager wasn’t.
Awesome! I had the exact same die-cast myself as a kid, even the same colour. The only proper US car I can think of in my shoebox-garage & it looked wildly out of place alongside the likes of the little Renault 5, Ford Sierra and FIAT X1/9 it shared the Matchbox pvc streets with.
Always kinda liked it though so it’s nice to see a real live version.
When I was a kid I had the 1968 Commuter with the two dogs heads hanging out of the back. Then in the 1980’s I got a Mercury Sable wagon. I’m surprised no one else mentioned these…
Don Andreina: Looks like someone kitbashed a Villager…
Same here, it has been brought out of long term storage in recent years though, and put back into service no doubt to accumulate a bit more “patina”.
They had a cool dropdown tailgate too
I have an extremely “well-loved” and multiply repainted one from my childhood, and then one in much nicer shape that I found on eBay sometime in the early 2000’s. This, along with the Plymouth Gran Fury police car, was actually one of my favorite Matchbox cars, so it’s always fun to see a real-life version. Though it’s curious that the Matchbox version is clearly named “Cougar Villager” but they neglected to include the dinoc sides!
Funny story about where mine came from–if my hazy memory isn’t failing me, it was actually found in the trunk of the ’79 Fairmont 2-door sedan that my parents bought sometime in late ’83 or early ’84. Guess the previous owner had children as well!
The mid 70s was a dim time for mid sized wagons. You got the colonnade from GM with no real tailgate for carrying stuff out the back (either on the lowered gate or out the open back window) or you got one of these, practically a full sized car with the interior dimensions of something much smaller. The badly assembled and rickety-feeling Mopar wagons barely registered on the scale after 1974, though it might have been the most practical of the bunch – if you could get a decent one.
The Matador and Ambassador wagons were pretty decent, the Matador being available through most of the 1970s (last year was 1978). Reviews just about always praised their practicality even if refinement was not up to Big 3 standards.
That practicality may have been due to their being 1960s designs that AMC could not afford to retool beyond a very unfortunate snout added in ’74. (This worked better on the Ambassador than the Matador.) Actually I suppose they could have updated the wagons and other core models but instead chose to expend their limited resources on the Matador Coupe and the Pacer. Oops.
Unfortunately, they were only good to the extant that they ran. AMC products were pretty low on the totem pole by most measures of the time. My father-in-law as an AMC guy, and his last was a new ’77 Matador sedan. He ended up returning it to AMC under the Lemon Law. He replaced that with a ’78 Chrysler LeBaron sedan, and found it to be a reliable and long lasting car. That testimonial is an interesting statement itself – has bar wasn’t exactly very high!
While I generally like AMC products, the Matador was not a fond memory for me. Our university had a few Matadors (they were cheap to purchase evidently as were Volare station wagons) and these Matadors were unpleasant to drive and even worse to ride in. The interior construction was hit and miss. The seats were awful. The fabrics were even bad by the standards of the day – evidently picked by someone who had no eye sight. The assembly of the various parts that made up the car was as if someone had been just drunk enough to not care and sober enough to not be asleep. And considering the awful quality of manufacture in the 1970’s, the Matador was even bad then.
” you got one of these, practically a full sized car with the interior dimensions of something much smaller. ”
This is misinformation is constantly posted on this site about these mid 70’s Fords. Yes, they had horrible space efficiency, but they were not worse for interior room than their competitors. In fact, I will post a specs sheet for a PS road test were these wagons are compared. The Matador wagon is clearly the most space efficient. However, comparing the Torino the Chevelle and the Fury shows that the Torino is larger in every passenger space dimension except for headroom and third seat hip room. And comparing the exterior dimensions of the Ford and Plymouth show that they are equally oversized behemoths. FWIW, PS rated all of the wagons 5 out 5 for roominess
I am not a fan of these [big] intermediate wagons at all, but people make it out as if they are the size of a Lincoln Continental on the outside with the interior space of a Pinto. When in reality, they were actually fairly roomy cars now and then.
None of the wagons in this class was very space efficient. I found a source that compared 1962 wagons. The Torino/Montego/Cougar from the 70s is within an inch of most exterior dimensions of a 1962 Country Squire, but loses a significant amount in most interior dimensions, despite outweighing the 62 by about 1,000 pounds. I blame a lot of the space inefficiency (on all three, not just the Fords) on the designer’s infatuation with curvature of the sides, making the roof and the floors significantly narrower than the wide point at the middle of the car. There are certainly safety tradeoffs with the older car which undoubtedly accounts for some of the weight.
The Plymouth may come off worst of all here, picking up 1000 pounds over its 1962 B body predecessor and adding exterior width and wheelbase, but losing hip and front leg room. Cars really did get flabby during the 70s.
The wide curvature of the body also made for pretty thick doors. My Dad owned a ’75 Torino sedan and the doors were like bank vaults. The car, however, was a total POS. These Mercurys (and the corresponding Ford Ltd II) were just restyled Montegos/Torninos so probably had about the same dismal quality.
I do like the front-end styling of these, however, with the Lincoln style grill and quad square headlights. Probably the only nice thing about them!
I just made this post because you only mentioned the Ford wagons for the lack of space efficient. I agree that all of these wagons are not particularly space efficient, especially if you compare them to a modern car. While some of the bloat was from the styling, a lot of the length came from the massive bumpers (compare the 1971 Mopars to the 1975, or the 1972 Fords to the 1975) and thick doors housed side protection beams.
That said, while I do agree that 1970’s cars got more wasteful in space efficiency compared to early 1960’s cars, I don’t believe the interiors differences were as big as that document suggest. Part of the problem is that interior measurements from this era hadn’t been standardized and often are not directly comparable with modern dimensions. If that Ford wagon has 46+ inches of front leg room that it lists, it’s got more legroom than anything built today, which I am certain is not the case. By the late 1960’s it seems these measurements were more standardized and seem to reflect closer to how things are measured today. As someone who is tall, I look for the cars with lots of leg and headroom to fit comfortably and so I pay close attention to these numbers.
I am glad you brought this up. I will admit to being surprised at how well these compared to the competition. I suspect that the relatively small glass area, high beltline/dash and usually dark interior colors made these interiors seem smaller than they were. Also, I have always tended to full sizers, so these always felt small to me for that reason as well.
The lack of standardized measurements is a good point too.
The Mustang’s runaway success led to the “long hood/short deck” look being applied to everything. Layer the Brougham look and the 5 mph bumper requirement and it adds up to upwards of two full feet of wasted space between the bumper and the radiator support.
Looking at these abandoned Service Stations always makes me feel sad/wistful .
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When it was new and in service , there were far fewer cars on the road yet far more local Stations anywhere and everywhere .
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I miss working in such places more than one might think .
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-Nate
An ugly beast anyway I look at it. I don’t miss those things at all. Chevys, while just as big of a beast as those held no appeal to me, either, but I’d take one over the Ford!
Yeah, but the Ford LTD II wagon with the stacked headlights was nowhere near as good-looking as the front of the Mercury wagon. If you find the Merc wagons ugly in the front you’ll probably toss your cookies when you see the front of the LTD II wagon.
The Cougar nameplate has been affixed to pretty much every possible body style and with FWD and RWD chassis. Amazingly, it has never had AWD but has had engines of 4, 6, and 8 cylinders, turbocharged AND supercharged engines and manual transmissions with 3, 4, and 5 forward speeds. Ford Motor Company’s most vesatile car.
As a fan of Mercurys, I think this wagon looks fairly decent, but also think it would have been better looking if the proportions could have been scaled back by about 10%.
Well there needs to be some degree of success to be considered versatile, the Cutlass was versitile.
With the Cougar note that all of those deviations from personal luxury coupe were complete flops, even powertrain wise, except for naturally aspirated V6s and number of gears – but that’s the case for all long lasting nameplates, that’s progress – Cougar buyers rejected the turbo and supercharged powertrains, the 84-86 Turbo XR-7 and 89-90 Supercharged XR7 barely cracked 5%, yet in 87 and 88 when the Turbo 4/manual was dropped and the 5.0 V8/AOD became the de facto XR-7 powertrain and sales for that package jumped to 14%.
In the case of the sedan and wagons using the Cougar name for the entire intermediate lineup, that too did nothing to boost Mercury’s bottom line compared to the Montego predecessor. These cars are bizarre unicorns in Lincoln/Mercury history, even beyond the Merkur. The final FWD Cougars weren’t overwhelming successes either, yes they sold better than the previous Generation it’s first year (which was pretty long in tooth by 97) but then again they were a totally different category of car – a sport compact – which is a segment in modern times that tends to have strong first year and tepid sails for the remainder, which indeed is the case of the 8th gen. It sold 88k models in 99, plummeted to half that figure in 00, nearly half that in 01 and again in 02 – for perspective it sold worse by wide margins in it’s final two years than the 96-97 did, despite being at the end of a fresher 4 year vs. 9 year cycle.
The final front-wheel-drive Cougars were an odd duck. Sporty, front-wheel-drive coupes don’t have a long shelf life in the first place, and a Lincoln-Mercury dealer was the last place most people would go to look for that type of vehicle.
I think one of the reasons why the MN-12’s aren’t fondly remembered today by some is the awful 3.8 V-6 most of them seemed to come with. The Xr-7’s didn’t sell very well until 93 when it was the only model left but then the V-8 was optional.
The V-6 was dog slow, ate gaskets, had no fuel economy advantage in the real world and should have never been in the car in any form. The V-8 should have been standard from the start but wasn’t even available till 91. IIRC the V-8 was around $1100 extra. To me, if your buying that type of car its well worth it.
The only FWD Cougar was the 1999-2002 coupe, not “every possible body style”. There were only RWD sedans and wagons.
NO, there were RWD coupes and convertibles BEFORE the name devolved to 2 and 4 door sedans and 4 door wagons, then a FWD 2 door, or 3 door (?) fastback coupe.
The only body style NOT to use the Cougar name was a 2 passenger roadster. A 2 passenger sport coupe “concept car” used the Cougar name (actually, Cougar II ) before the actual car hit showrooms in late 1966. I know about the Cougar II because I had a scale model of it in the mid 60s.
Oops, did a Google images search and there was a 2 passenger roadster with the Cougar II name in the mid 60s. The Cougar II “concept cars” (roadster and fastback coupe) both previewed styling features the production car would feature: concealed headlights and 2 large gauges in front of the driver with the rest of the gauges to their right, a la the XR7 models.
There was never a 5 door hatchback Cougar, for that matter.
Nor a pickup.
Oh wait, yes there was, though somewhat after the fact:
I did not dispute the RWD styles, just that there were no FWD Cougars in “every possible body style”.
I don’t know why Mercury used Capri instead of Cougar when they got the Fox-body into their lineup in the 80s.
The Cougar had “graduated” to midsize personal luxury car for the 1974 model year, and sold well. For 1977, the XR-7 version of the Cougar became Mercury’s entry into the personal luxury market, and it also sold very well. Mercury probably saw no need to mess with success by transferring the name to a smaller, sportier car.
Also, the Fox-body Capri was supposed to replace the Cortina-based European Capri, which had done pretty well for Lincoln-Mercury until the exchange rates had gotten out of hand. I’m guessing Lincoln-Mercury was hoping to recapture some of the buyers who’d liked the Capri II, but balked at the price.
I think a mistake many people make about the first generation Cougar today is that it was Mercury’s Mustang the way the Firebird was Pontiac’s Camaro. But when you look at that way you’re ignoring just how much it was differentiated and marketed compared to the Stang, it was essentially a compact offshoot of the concurrent glamour era Thunderbird. It wasn’t a brand mirror image of the Mustang the way the later Capri wound up – it was longer, it had bespoke sheetmetal, plushy interiors, broughamy accouterments, and only a notchback roofline available(and briefly a convertible). The Fox based Cougar, more obviously the 83+, was much more inline with what it was in 67 than what it could have been if the Capri had been called Cougar.
Geeber, same reason why there was no rebadged Mustang II as “Cougar II”.
’67-’70 Cougar was a Pony Car, not a ‘personal lux’. Verified in many car magazines of the time and car history books. Also, it raced in the Trans Am series, against others in the former class.
I’ll dispute that, true the first generation Cougar wasn’t personal Luxury in the way that defined that segment by the mid to late 70s, but it was distinct from the Barracuda/Mustang/Camaro/Firebird spectrum of ponycars of the time, and the Magazine tests even reflect that as well when it came to isolation and ride compliance and standard V8 power that was far more common to big ol Thunderbird like cruisers, the former two often put it at the end of the pack with performance tests. It was much more of a grown up car in the pack.
For all intents and purposes, what really separates the 1967 Cougar from the 1969 Grand Prix/1970 Monte Carlo except for size? I argue the Cougar, as well as the Dodge Charger are really what paved the way for the downsized GP and Monte and their imitators the following decade. That’s the reason there was no Cougar II – unlike the Mustang it’s successive growth in size in 69 and 71 was more of a natural trajectory.
We are seeing things through eyes who now see cars as they have been re-proportioned.
I can definitely say that there is nothing wrong with the looks of the Cougar based on proportions with which cars were built in the time they were built. This was normal – just as to my eyes the over-sized tires and wheel combinations are ugly while I prefer the conventional 14 and 15 inch wheel combos of the 1960’s and 1970’s.
We have to remember to take cars in the context in which they were built not in the context of how we see them now.
I must be getting old, I just realized the other day how much the Buick Encore looks like a Pokemon.
Hysterical
I wonder why the Fairmont wagon never got a third row. It seems to almost give a reason for these to continue until they can be rationalized into Panthers.
Perhaps it was to upsell buyers who cared about that to their larger wagons, or else they wanted commonality with the sedans to keep costs down. All Fairmonts had fuel tanks under the aft floor, which limited useful cargo space.
Fairmont back area was pretty small, with the live rear axle in the way too. Same reason no Volare’ 3 seat wagon.
This wagon reminds me the movie “The legend of Billie Jean” (1985). They went around in a similar one, but probably an LTD version.
Of course, by 1978 the Cougar wagon experiment was over. The Zephyr wagon no doubt cut into Cougar wagon sales
It was tried again in 1982 as a swansong for the failed attempt at Cutlassizing the Cougar name. Being Fox based that one was essentially the Zephyr wagon.
Just to clarify, the Cougar wagon was sold for 1977 only. The Zephyr and Cougar wagons were never sold concurrently. As I recall, the LTD II and non-XR7 Cougar models only sold marginally better than the 1976 Torino/Montego, and sales dropped markedly in 1978 and 1979. The Fairmont sedan and coupe were almost as roomy as the LTD II, and Ford still had the Falcon based Granada/Monarch around these years as well.
These rare Cougar Wagons were merely nothing more than the Montego so nothing is new about them. Only the coupes and sedans were redesigned for 1977. Same can be said with its twin divisional cousin the Ford LTD II and the Gran Torino which preceded this one as well.
The LTD II/Cougar wagons are what made it obvious to me that these were merely a facelift of the old Torino/Montego, not the new alternatives to the downsized GM B-bodies that Ford made them out to be. The interiors of the old and new cars were virtually identical, with the flattened gauges the only obvious difference.
Were the doors and front fenders of the sedans really new? Thought those were carryover too, counting on new sheetmetal elsewhere and reshaped roof and rear-quarter windows (and the new front) to make them look new. Also the LTD II wagon now used the Montego/Cougar rear door and rear fenders, where the previous Torino had dinstinct, fatter sheetmetal there.
Ford wanted rid of the Torino rear fender crease across the whole line badly enough to have tooled up new rear fenders for the Ranchero.
The rear doors were most certainly new, as the “coke bottle” hips of the Montego sedan had given way to a straightedge shoulder line the length of the car and flatter fenders. The front doors? Harder to tell. It looks like the ’72-’76 front doors may have a slight downward curve from front to back at the window which then flows into the kick-up in the back doors. But that could also be an optical illusion.
The fenders are the same with the exception of the marker lights being removed as the Cougar had wraparound indicators, contained within the header panel.
This is like if Buick made a Riviera SUV.
“This is like if Buick made a Riviera SUV.”
They do. Encore.
Well maybe that’s why I kind of like that little Buick, and I’m not normally an SUV/crossover guy!
I had totally forgotten about the last FWD Cougar, even though I actually test drove one back in the late 90s. Decent, fun to drive car, but not enough interior space and too-narrow seating arrangement.
I’d bet a dollar that when this was new, it was stuffed down the sales channel to a combined Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealer, where it languished on the lot until a Torino/LTD II buyer came along and bought this for cheaper than the equivalent Ford wagon, just because the dealer was tired of looking at it on the lot.
“The Zephyr wagon no doubt cut into Cougar wagon sales”
Actually, the ’77 Torino based Cougar wagon was dropped for ’78, so there was no competition with Zephyr on the showroom floor.
Mercury should have kept the Montego name for non-XR7 models, but seemed like they wanted to use Farrah to advertise their whole mid size line. Brand did same thing with Marquis and eventually Grand Marquis, dropping Monterey.
My 2016 eyes sure see this differently then I did in the late ’70s and early ’80s.
That back shelf bumper! Wow! We used to consider that normal? On Fords anyway?
Cougars, in XR-7 coupe form, were everywhere back in the day. And the wagon was not a unicorn to me. A high school friend had one, a hand-me-down from his parents. Emerald Green with the Villager woody package. So, the wagon seemed normal. The dark green paint and woody package sorta hid the dated side sheet metal.
Today, the Cougar wagon looks exactly as describe, like a Torino with an XR-7 clip grafted on. Kind of like the occasional wagon that has the Thunderbird clip of the era grafted on. Not natural, but interesting.
My friend called his Cougar woody wagon the best safety car a parent could give to their offspring. He said there was absolutely nothing about the car that inspired aggressive driving. Come to think of it, he and the car survived his partying ways without a scratch.
From the vast archives of CC, I found a Woody T-Bird Wagon. I think the T-Bird clip actually works better than the Cougar clip. It’s a little softer and more rounded, blending better with the 1973 era coke bottle sheet metal………………..
Wow, if you don’t look at that ThunderSquire too hard, it looks like a 76-78 Country Squire. It’s actually sort of amazing that Ford didn’t do this.
I thought the same. It looks way more natural than it should. The luxury Ford mid-size wagon.
I’ve seen a T-Bird front clip grafted onto a Ranchero too!
Wow that looks freakin good!!!
These cars really were mix-n-match because the contour of the front doors was the same across the LTD II, Thunderbird, and Cougar.
If you really wanted to make an odd duck and could deal with some minor panel massaging, you could probably make a Thunderbird Sportsroof. The Torino doors have a crease that isn’t present on the T-bird fenders, but I doubt that would present an obstacle to a decent body man.
Thundersquire…I like it. It really does look nearly identical to its larger brother.
I like that! I like it a hell of a lot. Change the script on the fender and the rear, maybe find the correct interior pieces with T-Bird labeling.
Call it the T-Wagon
I drove (or rode) many miles in these during the summers of 1977 and 1978 working as a transporter for Hertz, especially if we had many cars to pick up…of course the attraction was that you could fit quite a few people in them so you could drive them one way to the locations of the cars they needed to pick up and take to the home location. I think riding in the middle seat contributed to my pilonidal cyst I had removed at the old DeGosbriand hospital in Burlington that summer which took me out of commission for driving for a couple of weeks. The other problem we had was that we had no control over which cities we needed to pick up cars and when we had to leave to pick them up…you could get a call at 4PM saying you needed to pick up a car in Boston (from Burlington) but also there were cars in Lake Placid, NY, Windsor Locks Ct you might have been up since 7AM, and even though distances are comparatively short on the East Coast, you could be up for 18-22 hours by the time you get back from Boston (because you had to stop in all the other towns that really aren’t on a direct path to Boston….not very good if you want to keep alert when driving.
I thought the Cougar name was kind of lame on these, as to me they should have stuck with Montego name on the wagons at least. We also had a bunch of LTD IIs (Hertz was big on Ford back then, at least in Burlington). Still, I got to drive way more different cars than I’ve ever driven since…maybe that’s why I’m only on my 4th car since I started driving…I scratched the “itch” to drive a variety of cars in my younger days, so it isn’t that big a deal to me now (as long as I like the car I have).
Seems like Mercury was trying to use Cougar name as it’s “Cutlass”, but didn’t work so well.
We had a 77 or 78 Torino wagon for a time when our family was recovering from the mid-eighties recession. We had two small children at the time but the big beast swallowed up other kids in the townnhouse complex during trips to the nearest swimming pool. Our wagon had the 351 and recall very well changing the waterpump in front our residence during a mild winter evening. The only issue mechanical issue we had with the car. It was replaced the next spring with a 74 Dart Sport (what a contrast in size!).
I had forgotten the Cougar version of the wagon existed. It should have never happened considering how the Cougar began in 1967 and the wonderful reputation it carried until the debut of the 1974 model.
And it’s brown. So. Very. Brown. A ’77 base Cougar wagon, in brown. I wonder how many months it sat on the dealership lot before a pile of cash was left on the hood.
Hell froze over . . . and then the brown Merc wagon sold!
There was a younger mom [30-ish] who had a brand new base Cougar wagon in my area growing up, dark green interior and paint, very 70’s. She got gas often at place I worked summer ’77.
Actually brown was a popular color from what I remember. Especially on Fords and some Mopars. Brown, gold, light and dark green, all referred to as earth tones. I remember brown Fords with light brown/tan interiors and light brown/tan vinyl tops too.
This car represents such a sad debasement of one of FoMoCo’s best names. Almost shocking to think that just 10 years prior to this brown pile being produced, the Cougar was one of the sexiest cars on the American market. I’m sure they were trying to get a little of the Cougar XR-7 “magic” to rub off on the more ordinary sedans, coupes and wagons… but seriously, the Montego name wasn’t bad, they should have just kept that. Or gone with Marquis II to match the LTD II.
Both the Mercury and Ford wagons really bugged me, even at the time, by marrying the more square ’77 front ends with the obviously carried-over early ’70s rear. It looked so jarring. Would it really have cost that much more to use the modified ’77 sedan doors and retool the rear fenders/windows/tailgate to match? The whole car would have felt more contemporary, and might have helped them compete better against the downsized GM wagons that year.
The Cougar name must have made a difference in selling tarted up Fords for a higher MSRP, because in the “Sign of the Cat” days, all of the marketing focused on the predatory cat, not the messenger god.
I really miss the TV and print ads for the “Sign of the Cat” – that was the coolest thing about Mercury back then!
When I was a kid, I loved those ads. But always wondered why the announcer said “Lincoln Mercury” while the sign read “Mercury Lincoln”.
“by marrying the more square ’77 front ends with the obviously carried-over early ’70s rear.”
Plymouth & Dodge did the same thing in 1975, putting new front ends on the sedans and wagons that still had “1971” written all over them.
Yes! I thought those were awful too!
I’ve often wondered if Chrysler Corp. had plans to revamp the 4-door and wagons along the lines of the 2-doors, but took the cheap way out with just the front clip due to their disastrous financial situation. Had Mopar crisped-up the styling on the 4-door models as well, they might have gotten a jump on the whole “downsizing” craze–imagine a ’75 4-door Fury with the good looks of the refreshed 2-door…
Ford did this again with the late-’90s Escort and Tracer – sedans got a facelift with a new rounded roof, sleeker door handles, and reshaped rear. The wagons just got the new front; everything from the A-pillar back was shared with the ’91 model.
VW does it alot with the Golf. Rather than a real Mk6 wagon (called a Jetta in the States but a Golf elsewhere), they gave us a Mk5 wagon with updates only forward of the A-pillar. Inside, there was a Mk6 dash and console but Mk5 door panels. And the Cabriolet gets updated only every second generation, with the front of the in-between models redesigned to look like the next-gen hatchbacks.
Ford did this with their wagons many times. Besides the Torino/LTD II/Montego/Cougar and the Escort/Tracer:
-they recycled the Taurus wagon sheetmetal twice (1st and 2nd gen were the same from the A-pillar back, as were the 3rd and 4th gen).
-the Fairmont/Zephyr wagon’s sheetmetal persisted through two succeeding vehicles, the Granada/Cougar and the LTD/Marquis.
-the 1966-67 Fairlane wagon rear half was used unchanged on the ’68-’69 Fairlane/Torino, and was only mildly tweaked for the ’70-’71 Torino. Plus the ’66 to ’69 Falcon wagon *also* used the same rear body!
My hunch on why they didn’t bother updating the wagons any further:
1) Ford’s mid-size lines, except for coupes, were generally weak sellers during the ’74-’76 models years. The wagons were the lowest volume style. They probably weren’t optimistic that the wagons would suddenly do better with a proper mid-cycle refresh.
2) Ford had internal and external competition pounding on these wagons:
*The ’76 Chrysler Volare and Aspen “compact” wagon twins were initially popular packages that were generally more efficient. Mopar had luxury versions of these wagons waiting in the wings for ’78.
*Ford knew GM full-size wagons would suddenly be competing in the mid-size segment in ’77. The GM wagons were popular, and any backlash GM suffered with the downsizing would logically go to Ford’s Country Squire / Colony Park wagons.
*Ford probably was aware of the impending GM A body mid-size down sized wagons for ’78.
*Ford’s own ’78 Fairmont and Zephyr wagons would be a drain on the lower priced mid-size wagons. These wagons did prove popular.
*Ford’s coming ’79 down-sized full-size wagon would be overlapping the same market space within two model years.
While there was nothing heroic about the ’77 Ford mid-size wagons, they probably made the right decision. It would not surprise me if a full wagon refresh was once on the schedule, but got ditched after the ’74 oil price spike likely revised lots of plans.
I’d bet you are right on all counts. I’d be curious to see the design proposals shelved by the U.S. makers after the oil shock–would be fun to at least see what they might have been thinking about for several of the midsize lines, like the AMC Matador sedan, GM Colonnades (some 2-doors refreshed but 4-doors carried over), Mopar B-Body 4-doors and of course the FoMoCo midsize wagons.
” Would it really have cost that much more to use the modified ’77 sedan doors and retool the rear fenders/windows/tailgate to match?”
For a one-year-only offering, emphatically yes.
Wagons were maybe very expensive to re-tool? Hence watered down rear end styles in the 70’s and carry over metal.
The LTD II wagon was offered for three years, mind you. But considering how drastically different the doors and rear fenders of the sedans were, it still would have been a massive undertaking. Worth it? Still doubtful. These cars were rendered obsolete at a stroke when the downsized ’78 GM A-bodies debuted, so I don’t think an airier greenhouse would have made the equation that fundamentally different.
LTD II wagon was a one-year only model like the Cougar.
What an interesting and rare find. I noted the hood was popped open, but that ‘area’ no longer appears to be a service station. Wonder what the deal is with that? I kinda miss seeing those on the road. Not that they’re great cars or anything, but I do like to wax nostalgic. I dig the hood ornament . . . yet I can’t believe Mercury actually put one on the basic wagon.
As for the Matchbox wagon car in lime green I still have one of those upstairs. I even remember when I put it: Right next to a Matchbox Lincoln Mark (forgot which #; could be a ‘Mark IV’) with a white roof and red paint.
I could see myself driving around in a brown-on-brown ’77 Merc wagon and wallowing in ’70s nostalgia. Cheers.
Yeah, it’s funny to me when people (who lived through the 70s) act like a the high-beltline thing is a recent phenomenon. Looking at cars like this, and especially those big personal luxury coupes with massive blocky C-pillars and extremely high cowls (Lincoln Mark IV, etc.) suddenly a new Camry looks like the popemobile. Not to mention it’s only 190in. long instead of 225in. and half a foot narrower to boot. Reverse parking a ’70s Ford has got to be a nightmare. While I’ve never sat in one, cars of the late-30s through early-50s look even harder to see out of than today’s vehicles. Literal tanks.
It seems like visibility is a cyclical thing with the early-mid 1960s and mid-late 1980s being the only true bright spots. Looking at it that way, we should be nearing the end of the “bad visibility” cycle right about now. The current generation of Accord did enlarge the greenhouse vs. the previous model, so hopefully that’s a taste of what’s to come and not just an anomaly.
Re: Reverse parking. My father hated the big ’70s station wagons and refused to buy one for our family of five. Not being able to see while backing up was one of his biggest gripes about them.
The bad visibility cycle has been broken by the CUV / small SUV. Taller, more upright greenhouses dominate the market. Sedans will have to change or die, the large sedan is basically dead.
Ford took a shot at the taller sedan greenhouse with the 2005 Ford 500 / Mercury Montego and got shot down. They tried again with a big sedan with the hunkered down Ford Taurus on the same platform, and got shot down again. The big sedan market that wants visibility buys CUVs.
I disagree, forward visibility may be better – and not in all cases; I have seen very short drivers who can’t see over the side mirrors, making for a huge blind spot! But rearward visibility is pretty atrocious when rear windows start at 5’6″ from the ground.
Couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that the Five Hundred had a stupid name, had gutless powertrains and looked like nothing more than another rehash of Ford’s design language from a full decade prior.
The decline of big sedans in my opinion has a lot to do with how they’ve basically become bigger midsize cars built and marketed to old people. The chopped top Taurus did get a bump in sales initially, because it was more exciting, but word of the completely screwed ergonomics from it limited it’s success.
I recall seeing one of these years ago. I also have a green matchbox version.
Odly enough there’s one for sale in Japan
http://www.goo-net-exchange.com/usedcars/MERCURY/MERCURY_COUGAR/700020240230160615001/index.html
For some reason I’ve thought Mercury pulled off the headlight changes for the Cougar wagon than Ford did on the LTD II wagon.
You mean to tell me this beast is nothing more than a glorified Torino wagon?
I just noticed there’s no license plate on the ’77 Merc wagon. Did i miss it? I hope it wasn’t recently left outside to rot owner-less and with the hood popped open to boot? I would like a better fate for the ‘base’ wagon than abandonment!
At first glance I thought this was a Torino wagon, upon closer inspection I saw the “Cougar” badge which threw me for a loop. Until seeing this, I wasn’t even aware of the Cougar wagons. Needless to say I instantly searched “Cougar wagon” here and read about them.
Well, it is a “Torino wagon” rebadged, essentially. So not off the mark by much.
That is MY car. I bought it from the last owner out of St. Louis Missouri. He told me that it was originally a Toronto Ontario Canada car. He had this car for 10 years, and it sat without being driven. This picture was taken while it sat outside the first mechanic shop to get it road worthy again. After 3 different mechanics, searching the entire US for a fuel tank, and VERY much needed TLC, she is driveable. She has brand new brakes (including lines), new tires, a new steering coupling, new fuel lines, and many other rebuilt systems. She is far from finished, but she is saved from certain death. With the 351 modified engine in her (a definite torque monster), I plan on hauling another classic with her. There were a little over 3200 Cougar Villager Wagons made in 1977, with very few of those being base models. I plan to keep her as original as possible, but you have to do what you can with a 40 year old car. Thank you for your story. I was thrilled to see me project get some attention. They don’t make them like they used too.
Kudos for getting a rare car back on the road! Glad to hear of your plans to keep her as original as possible–it’s a true time capsule car.
That rare beast was our summer vacation hauler from 1980-2006 when we sold it to the guy from St. Louis. We were the second owners. The aftermarket rear speakers and two small dents on the back door are indicators that this was ours. Nice to hear you are taking care of our baby, lots of memories driving around North America with the family. Posting a picture when it was in a bit better shape.
If you take this beast to the gas station or the grocery store I expect everyone nearby will turn their head to see your Mercury wagon. I know I would!
Always nice to hear another one is still out there some where earning it’s keep .
.
-Nate
when I was a child, my grandmother had offered me the miniature cougar mercury, today I drive it almost every day.
here is my cougar sw 77
my 77 cougar sw commuter
Nice! I wouldn’t mind seeing a few interior pics if you feel like adding any. Cheers.
I’d suggest that rather than calling this a Cougar, it should have been a Montego, unless that name was already preassigned to another boat.
Merc dealers next to GM dealers in 1977 probably saw all their customers take one look at these and run next door, where full size cars were now much more trim than these.
If you look at an early year Cougar from the mid to late sixties, you can see how bloated these had become.
Perhaps FoMoCo had a bunch of chassis and drive trains pre-ordered on LTAs and had to let those contracts run out. These cars suffered from poor planning and execution.
Zephyr wagon no doubt cut into Cougar wagon sales”
There was no 1978 Cougar wagon, period.
Also, the Montego line was renamed Cougar for 1977-79, [XR-7 being the PLC] so the name was dropped completely. L-M was looking to expand the Cougar name, and compete with Cutlass. But at least retreated for 1983 being a specialty coupe only.
The ’74 “bloated” Cougar PLC may have turned off enthusiasts, but Ma and Pa loved them and also swinging singles of the mid 70’s. Sold well even during Oil Crisis I.
1977 Wagons? Was pushing it a bit, even trying again in 1982.
Then again…..
Talk about milking a product to death. Bloated Cougar’s started in 1971 and just went plain stupid with these ultimate bloat machines. Then the final insult was a slapping the Cougar name on a compact FWD coupe. Sign of the Cat? No, sign of “We Have No Idea What We Are Doing”
Clearly Ford’s product planning was a mess in the 70’s, bringing out the already outdated LTD II and Cougar in 1977, then replacing the Maverick the following year with Fairmont and Zephyr, which were almost as roomy as LTD II and Cougar, while still selling the Falcon based Granada and Monarch. By the early 80’s, it was straightened out, but Ford was in terrible financial condition by then.
This brings tears to my eyes. I had the exact same one back in 1998-2002 in the pictures above. I loved that car!!! I came home from work one day and my then husband, said he sold it for $500. I was young, dumb and naive. I was so mad at him for it, but at the same time scared of him. He was very abusive to me.. All it needed was a new radiator put in it ! It’s quite possible that it might have been mine. Where did you find that?