Saving Cougars

Al, so according to that Reg no R883 HAR was first registered in Chelsmford in 1997, I guess this would be Ford registering the plate BEFORE it went on the car?
 
If the day comes and you end up selling all your cars this is the one you should keep for a classic car. This one car will always be worth much more than any of the others as it has actual history attached to it. It is the first in the UK. It is that simple. Our cars are never going to be worth much right now but in 20 years from now, this one car will be a classic due to the top gear coverage. Good luck with it anyhow and I hope you manage to get it back to anything like what it deserves to be.

Out of all the Cougars that have ever been produced this one car will be worth something in the future as it has history behind it. Keep it and look after it. I am sure it will reward you one-day.
 
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Yes, that makes sense Al, I will have to investigate further...

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Thanks for your supportive comments. Yes, it is a 'special' Cougar, and it will be saved.

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Many thanks, yes I may well need help!
I guess the first step is to get her back here and do a full assessment on its condition and go from there....
 
Wil Leaper said:
Al, so according to that Reg no R883 HAR was first registered in Chelsmford in 1997, I guess this would be Ford registering the plate BEFORE it went on the car?
Click to expand...

yes, the DVLA allocate some plates to main areas (Chelmsford being the local one for FoMoCo) in advance of their actual registration date.

Car was built April 98 - the Ford site is wrong!
Replied to your PM Wil
 
R883har

Just to revive this thread...

I plan to start on the restoration of this historic Cougar, and would welcome any more info.

I think it's the first UK registered Cougar, but when was the first Cougar off the line and registered?

cheers,

Wil
 
VINs

On the back of the discussion in this thread, I decided to see how FordEtis vehicle inquiry reacted to multiple submissions of VIN and VRM, it seems to work well enough.
So I submitted several VINs sequentially following Jet's, and had a few hits.
I saved the results in a spreadsheet, continuing with VRMs from cars currently listed on Ebay.

I include here for members' inspection, and to see if those who know VIN coding to suggest/submit any that are likely to be of interest.

VIN Description VRM Build Date First Reg Date
WF0HT60T0X5218053 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.0L Zetec-E EFI (HC), Ebony Black T580STL 04.12.1998 30.04.1999

WF0HT60T0X5218067 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.0L Zetec-E EFI (HC), Ebony Black V78EHE 01.12.1998 24.09.1999

WF0HT60T0X5218070 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.0L Zetec-E EFI (HC), Ebony Black V341DGF 01.12.1998 01.09.1999

WF0HT60T0X5218084 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.0L Zetec-E EFI (HC), Ebony Black T351TVX 04.12.1998 20.07.1999

WF0HT60T0X5218036 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.0L Zetec-E EFI (HC), Ebony Black T241MOB 30.11.1998 31.05.1999

WF0HT61L5X5200002 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Silver Frost R883HAR 15.08.1998 07.08.1998

WF0HT61L5X5228186 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Ebony Black T812OOC 05.05.1999 30.06.1999

WF0HT61L2X5210339 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Medium Melina Blue S246DTO 27.10.1998

WF0HT61L9X5252815 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Silver Frost X352EBU 04.08.1999 08.09.2000

WF0HT61L715100782 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Amazon Green AY51YVM 05.12.2000 01.09.2001

WF0HT61L5Y5304233 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Silver Frost W869UCE 09.03.2000 25.04.2000

WF0HT61L3X5253443 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Medium Melina Blue Y64VKN 04.08.1999 30.03.2001

WF0HT61L1X5211983 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Silver Frost S816UUG 16.11.1998

WF0HT61LXX5251379 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Ebony Black T479TVX 07.06.1999 01.08.1999

WF0HT61L9X5227784 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Silver Frost V793JKG 21.05.1999 26.10.1999

WF0HT61LX15100842 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Amazon Green PK51NBG 19.12.2000 26.10.2001

WF0HT60T0X5253143 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.0L Zetec-E EFI (HC), Medium Melina Blue W253OCN 20.07.1999 03.05.2000

NotOnEtis Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Amazon Green Y429BCV

WF0HT61L6Y5302412 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Ebony Black W824MVV 19.01.2000 25.05.2000

WF0HT61L5X5211808 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Silver Frost S434WNM 13.11.1998 30.11.1998

WF0HT60TXX5200630 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.0L Zetec-E EFI (HC), Silver Frost S979CCE 31.08.1998 12.10.1998

WF0HT61L0X5228743 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Ebony Black T905TDA 19.05.1999 02.07.1999

WF0HT61L7X5253476 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.5L Duratec EFI (170PS), Silver Frost X479XAR 06.08.1999 13.09.2000

WF0HT60T6X5209499 Cougar 1998-2000, 2.0L Zetec-E EFI (HC), Silver Frost V838GEV 27.10.1998 10.09.1999
 
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nvingo said:
On the back of the discussion in this thread, I decided to see how FordEtis vehicle inquiry reacted to multiple submissions of VIN and VRM, it seems to work well enough.
So I submitted several VINs sequentially following Jet's, and had a few hits....
Click to expand...
What I really wanted to do, though I've not done programming since the advent of the Internet, was to automate submitting sequence of VINs and harvest the results, yielding a comprehensive list of Cougars built/surviving (and possibly revealing those rare specials).

Even cross-reference the discovered VRMs with the gov.uk vehicle enquiry and MOT history to determine (for those cars not fitted with personal registrations as that breaks the connection to FordEtis) their current status.
 
nvingo said:
What I really wanted to do, though I've not done programming since the advent of the Internet, was to automate submitting sequence of VINs and harvest the results, yielding a comprehensive list of Cougars built/surviving (and possibly revealing those rare specials).

Even cross-reference the discovered VRMs with the gov.uk vehicle enquiry and MOT history to determine (for those cars not fitted with personal registrations as that breaks the connection to FordEtis) their current status.
Click to expand...


Hmm. Against what dataset would you do this?
 
Mako said:
Hmm. Against what dataset would you do this?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if you misunderstand.
I mean, run a program that tries each valid Cougar VIN on the FordEtis vehicle page.
This will either return a VIN not found message, or a description of the vehicle.
If that description includes a valid UK VRM, paste that into the DVLA pages for vehicle enquiry (is it taxed/SORN, MOT, confirmation of colour/engine size) and MOT history.
I'm sure it wouldn't be that difficult to code something to automatically build a database from the results.
 
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