The cheapest I can find rear lower wishbones for the black Jag is £495 each! It's double wishbone front and rear... gulp. The lower rears are the most expensive but they're all more expensive than the Cougar ones.
The X-Type shares some Mondeo estate rear suspension parts but the fronts are bespoke to the X-type, and they're pricey. The Rover 620ti is also a double wishbone set-up and the front uppers are almost £200 each.
The MX-5 I'm looking after for my dad is also double wishbone front and rear and the prices for that are closer to Jag prices than Cougar prices. Actually most parts for the MX-5 have prices that would make your eyes water, but that's generally the case with Japanese cars.
The bushes on the Cougar would be available if it were viable to fit them, but the geometry would be a total PITA to press in/out in a DIY or garage environment. Definately a case of "best left to the factory tooling". Also, the labour to change them if you need a garage is usually a couple of hundred quid, because the front subframe needs to be lowered a tad. Can you imagine what the labour would be if you still had to do all that, but then fart about for ages trying to swap the bushes over? Far better to just toss the old wishbone in the skip and slot a new one straight in.
These really aren't expensive cars to run given the size and performance. Even the petrol and insurance on the V6 is pretty reasonable, the Zetec very reasonable. Unless you're driving starship milages for work, most folk will manage on a tank a week. The servicing costs are cheap, the parts range from fairly cheap to very cheap, and if it's not cheap enough then there are plenty donor cars using the same bits to provide 2nd hand items.
The best Cougar first aid kit you can get comes from Halfords in a handy carry case. If you can beat a 2 year old at building something from Lego you can learn to zero your labour costs on a Cougar. As far as cars go, the Cougar really is a dawdle to work on. Even the V6 which looks really busy under the bonnet is actually pretty well thought out, and you can get to most of what you need with no temporary removals. The clutch mentioned above is pricey in a garage because of the amount of time it takes, but it's still entirely DIYable. Nothing about it is difficult or requires any particular skill; it's simply because a few chunky bits need to be unbolted to make way that the labour bill adds up.
The X-Type shares some Mondeo estate rear suspension parts but the fronts are bespoke to the X-type, and they're pricey. The Rover 620ti is also a double wishbone set-up and the front uppers are almost £200 each.
The MX-5 I'm looking after for my dad is also double wishbone front and rear and the prices for that are closer to Jag prices than Cougar prices. Actually most parts for the MX-5 have prices that would make your eyes water, but that's generally the case with Japanese cars.
The bushes on the Cougar would be available if it were viable to fit them, but the geometry would be a total PITA to press in/out in a DIY or garage environment. Definately a case of "best left to the factory tooling". Also, the labour to change them if you need a garage is usually a couple of hundred quid, because the front subframe needs to be lowered a tad. Can you imagine what the labour would be if you still had to do all that, but then fart about for ages trying to swap the bushes over? Far better to just toss the old wishbone in the skip and slot a new one straight in.
These really aren't expensive cars to run given the size and performance. Even the petrol and insurance on the V6 is pretty reasonable, the Zetec very reasonable. Unless you're driving starship milages for work, most folk will manage on a tank a week. The servicing costs are cheap, the parts range from fairly cheap to very cheap, and if it's not cheap enough then there are plenty donor cars using the same bits to provide 2nd hand items.
The best Cougar first aid kit you can get comes from Halfords in a handy carry case. If you can beat a 2 year old at building something from Lego you can learn to zero your labour costs on a Cougar. As far as cars go, the Cougar really is a dawdle to work on. Even the V6 which looks really busy under the bonnet is actually pretty well thought out, and you can get to most of what you need with no temporary removals. The clutch mentioned above is pricey in a garage because of the amount of time it takes, but it's still entirely DIYable. Nothing about it is difficult or requires any particular skill; it's simply because a few chunky bits need to be unbolted to make way that the labour bill adds up.
