Interesting comment....

Everton

Everton

Club Member
Oct 10, 2009
5,641
4,040
Liverpool
When I went to have a tyre replaced a few weeks ago I was sat in the waiting room and got a few comments about the cat.

First one was from a girl who worked in the office - after speaking to one of the fitters she walked back into the office and commented to the others there "Never seen one of them before....a Ford Cougar" (pronounced 'Coogah') "nice shape, lovely car" :geek:

The interesting quote came from a guy who was waiting - he said he'd had a Ford Probe in the past but never seen a Cougar before. I pointed out that that's probably the case as they were pretty much a sales flop. Now, the point he made was - perhaps it would have sold more if it carried the 'Capri' badge rather than Cougar. To some extent, I think he had a point - what do you reckon? :beer:
 
No, it was far to expensive let's be honest for £20k plus you could get into a BMW why would you buy an oddly styled ford with a creaky interior.

Don't get me wrong I love my cougar but for that much money I would never have bought one.

JJ
 
I think it was pretty much real bad timing & the car was to expensive & nothing to do with the name really. Lets face it, large coupe's have been pretty much out of fashion for a long time now, so they were never gonna sell in big numbers, which ford should of known had they of done there research, & the car is not particulary practical. However, i love the cougars shape, it just shows that with a small amount of imagination the manufacturers can make something that stirs the soul, which is something the likes of BMW ( although good cars ) have been unable to do in recent years ( in my opinion ). Another thing i find strange is that ive read in several posts on here about the cougars interior being boring, well all i can say is go & sit in a run of the mill car & then you'll see boring, flat bits of grey/black plastic, i recently was passenger in my sons VW Golf & interior was atrocious looking, then Audi A6, & whilst it was a lovely car to drive, interior was still square black plastic, no, i still find the cougar a breath of fresh air out there in the world of square box cars & firmly believe main reason it didn't sell was the timing was wrong.
 
I'm with you on the interior, when you look at bmw's interiors down the years on the various models, they are pretty uninspiring, and they are not a cheap car to buy. The downside is that the cougar is not particularly well put together up front, take a look at the binnacle and how badly it fits or the strip where the hot air comes out near the windscreen that's forever popping out.
Far from agreeing on the Capri badge, I do think, as has been said regularly on here down the years, that they would have sold many many more cars if they had been made in RWD, the badge wouldn't have mattered at all.
 
I think Rich's point about the RwD aspect put a lot of potential Capri owners off. Your right about the price though way too much. Interior still looks fresh, a few top of the line cars look like they have taken inspiration from the design with the round vents and all
 
I fell in love with the cougar the first time i had the misfortune to be following a frosty one in my Capri many years ago. If i had the money then, i would have bought one, as simple as that. I also liked the "cougar" name and logo, but if it had been labelled "Capri" a car i had also fallen for many years earlier, i don't think i would have been so enthusiastic. For me, there was only ever one Capri.
As for BMW's..my opinion (n)
 
BMW - very well put together and their driving dynamics pretty much sets the benchmark for how a good car should handle.

Ford Cougar - very pretty car for it's day, should have been RWD, needed a "halo model", and although whoever drew the interior did a great job, those who designed how all the parts should be fastened together did not. Some of the materials and textures used were a bit - erm - crud too; a failing that was largely addressed with the Cougar 2. For what it was, it was overpriced.

Name was irrelevant wrt to sales. Cougar was a good name. Decent sized coupes sell all over the world, if and only if they can claim to be true drivers' cars and usually if there's a halo model at the top of the pack. The Cougar S might have sorted that. Even the ST200 would have been too mild to drop jaws. People would simply have considered the ST200 to be the right model, and the 170bhp V6 to be the poverty spec one.

Mild mannered fwd coupes based on family cars have been commonly available in recent decades, but their weakness in practicality next to their 4/5door stablemate, and the fact that they don't handle much/any better or go much/any faster means that people mostly buy with their head. There needs to be a physical reason to go for a coupe, and looking good isn't good enough for most potential buyers.
 
jamie_duff said:
BMW - very well put together and their driving dynamics pretty much sets the benchmark for how a good car should handle.

Ford Cougar - very pretty car for it's day, should have been RWD, needed a "halo model", and although whoever drew the interior did a great job, those who designed how all the parts should be fastened together did not. Some of the materials and textures used were a bit - erm - crud too; a failing that was largely addressed with the Cougar 2. For what it was, it was overpriced.

Name was irrelevant wrt to sales. Cougar was a good name. Decent sized coupes sell all over the world, if and only if they can claim to be true drivers' cars and usually if there's a halo model at the top of the pack. The Cougar S might have sorted that. Even the ST200 would have been too mild to drop jaws. People would simply have considered the ST200 to be the right model, and the 170bhp V6 to be the poverty spec one.

Mild mannered fwd coupes based on family cars have been commonly available in recent decades, but their weakness in practicality next to their 4/5door stablemate, and the fact that they don't handle much/any better or go much/any faster means that people mostly buy with their head. There needs to be a physical reason to go for a coupe, and looking good isn't good enough for most potential buyers.
Click to expand...

Complete agreement Jamie although having driven the same age Mondeo st 200 the cougar in my opinion does feel a better handling car more "solid" is the only way I can describe it.

JJ
 
Yes I believe standards have dropped somewhat - possibly due to the higher volumes that they now have to build. What were once Premium brands that were bought by the privileged few are now mass market bought by pretty much everyone (think back to when you were a kid and how often did you see a BMW, Merc or Audi in those days?). :eek:

My brother in law commented a couple of years back when I was driving a Mk3 Mondeo "Why don't you get a BMW or Mercedes?" (he will buy anything with a German badge on it). My reply was "well, if I want a badly built car I'll buy a French one and save a few quid" :LOL:
 
A lot of these german cars contract work out to the states, like the cougar was constructed there in part then finished here, the X5 and Z3 and M class merc being examples, very shody build quality.
I think with the high price and the recent failure of the outgoing Probe, buyers where just put off, the Calibra had finished production too IIRC and like Jamie said that had a signature model in the Turbo 4x4.
Just a case of the wrong time at the wrong price for the wrong spec. (as an example the Focus Rs is now similar money, but they are selling like hot cakes)
 
As a style statement, the Capri was an icon - from the Mk1 pretty much telling the yanks that they could keep their muscle cars because ours were far prettier, all the way to the last of the line Brooklands 280 - a perfect final hurrah that captured the mood and style of the time. No other car should wear the 'Capri' badge, it's a romantic idea that is doomed to failure from the off. Who will it impress?

Clarkson will no doubt fawn over it and then jump straight on the phone to Ford to find out where his *ahem* 'demonstrator' is, but not before he gives one of his head-cocked-to-one-side looks to the camera and a summary along the lines of, "It's a great car, but is it a 'Capri'?"

The Capri owner's club will carry flour and eggs with them at all time just in case they come across one at Tescos car park.

The motoring press will slate Ford's lack of imagination at revisiting a name consigned to the annals of history and no matter how good the new car is Ford will be accused of dragging the name through the mud.

And why this silly urge to bring back the Capri name anyway? The Sapphire Cosworth and Mk1 RS1600 were epic motor cars, but I don't see too many people clamouring to see 'Sierra' or 'Escort' on the back of a new car.

Why did the Cougar fail? You could lay the blame at the door of a few things - the price for what was essentially a Mondeo in a different frock, there were far better cars in terms of build quality and desirability available at the time for the same sort of money. The fact that there was no RS or ST model or equivalent - something fiddled with by Lotus or Cosworth perhaps, though considering the price of the standard model I'd shudder to think what Ford may have charged for an extra shiny badge on the tailgate to say that a chap in a shed somewhere in Norfolk had tinkered with the anti-roll bar. Did the motoring public want a medium sized 2+2 coupe? Vauxhall and Honda clearly didn't think so as they either already had or were in the process of killing of their Calibra and Prelude respectively with no plans for a replacement. Granted Peugeot persevered with a replacement for their own 406 coupe, launching a coupe version of the 407.......but how many of those have you seen on the roads?

Matt, your comment about the Focus RS - that is a practical family hatchback, room for five people to travel in comfort, Grandma can get in and out of the back seats without too much help, and it goes like stink. It is also lauded as a truly brilliant car by the motoring press, not to mention the fact that the RS badge on the back makes it a very special car before it even turns a wheel. The Cougar was never any of those things when it was new.

Anyway, I don't care how many were sold, or what badge it has on the back. It drives me up the wall at times and costs me time and money, but in terms of grin factor, it is the best car I've ever owned.
 
Well i'm not going to try to build an essay on how much i love my cougar, but as a comparison to the bmw's i have driven over the years, and mostly at the time of the cougar, I would put the cougar or indeed most fords of the day, heads above any bmw for handling ability, maybe a couple of exceptions ie: the cortina was a boat on wheels, and compared to the cougar, so was the mondeo. My opinion is the one thing bmw has above everything else is "SNOB" value (time to put the Kings clothes back on).
Driving bmw's round a twisaty road is like trying to drive a shark with a broken tail. Great car indeed, bmw can build a RWD car without putting any traction into the rear wheels :bomb:
 
Obviously I don't know what Beemers you've driven Alan, but I've driven a fair few but only really have meaningful experience of 3 - an E46 325Ci, an E39 523i SE and an E61 520d SE. Of all things I could and would fault them on, the handling isn't any of them. Infact even the 523 which was the soggiest handling of them out handles the Cougar, and the 325Ci would absolutely rape the Cougar anywhere except in the snow maybe! Of course, investing in proper rubber is essential with RWD. A BMW on Khumos would be the kind of move that you'd want a funeral plan in place for before driving in the wet.
 
The problem with all German cars nowadays is the electronics Merc and Beamer dashes fail invariably we have catalogues full of replacement electrical components for all the german brands a lot of french junk and nissan badged french junk. basically anything with Bosch electronics this was a former bluechip brand which now sources components from anywhere cheap.
 
You know they'd call it the Kapri now anyway :LOL:
Watching last weeks top gear with the old *325i's on it was a shame that as usual Clarkson had to stick a jibe in about not buying modded cars especialy lowered ones, when clearly hammond was in front till he lost it (i can just see the dressing room before hand, clarckson, I want to win or i'll scream and i'll scream and i'll scream) ;)

Now they where nice cars, the modern ones look too...well boring
 
I don't think there's much I can add to what's already been said. In a nutshell the car was too expensive (knocking on £22K for an X-Pack V6) and in the late 90s I think the British public went off coupes. In their defence I think the cars were very well equipped for a late 90's car - climate control, heated seats, 6 cd changer, traction control, projector headlamps, side airbags.

It's interesting today how many coupes are available and they certainly are popular. I see so many BMW 1-series and 3-series coupes not to mention Audi A5s.

However, I strongly agree with many of your opinions on modern car interior. I still think the interior of the Cougar is interesting and the majority out there (especially German) are downright dull. To my eyes the only exception to the rule right now are Honda, of all people (speaking of cars for us mere mortals).
 
Apparently a lot of people were asking about my car when it was in the garage, as they liked it but couldn't work out what it was :LOL:

I've only noticed 3 other Cougars since owning one myself, which is strange as you almost always notice more of a car if you own one.
 
Burger28 said:
Apparently a lot of people were asking about my car when it was in the garage, as they liked it but couldn't work out what it was :LOL:

I've only noticed 3 other Cougars since owning one myself, which is strange as you almost always notice more of a car if you own one.
Click to expand...

Same experience here. I've had mine for two weeks now and have seen three in total. And I drove over 380 miles on Saturday alone and didn't see a single one.

But oh my word - people do stare at you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.