It takes a special breed of fun-loving patriot to order up a flashy Cougar convertible with the sporty XR7 package, plenty of power options, and a four-speed stick-shift. Dealers love buyers with a bank account big enough to indulge such excess. Life is short; live a little! Simply riding around with such an extroverted and obviously successful car owner can make you cooler. To quote Bill Murray’s John Winger character in the 1981 comedy Stripes, “I want to party with you, cowboy“. This particular 1970 Mercury Cougar XR7 four-speed convertible in Albuquerque, new Mexico seeks a new owner with that special sort of high-impact personality here on craigslist where $15,000 will make it (AND a parts car) yours. Thanks to reader Levi A. for spotting this once-stunning Cougar.
Nearly everyone in the ’70s knew these about the Cougars’ trick sequential turn-signals in that full-width tail-light panel. New Mexico can be a great place to find rust-free classics, but the hot sun is not so kind to non-metallic parts, some of which can be difficult to replace. Since you’re getting two cars for the price, that crumpled door could be easily replaced. A moment of thanks to whoever flailed around some rattle-can silver paint as a rust-protector some time ago.
Don’t care for blue? Better move along, buster, because this beauty is blue through and through. The seemingly unmodified center hump supports the claim that this big cat left the factory with a wide-ratio four-speed. Other options include power windows, power steering, power disc brakes, dual exhaust, tilt steering wheel, power convertible top “with the rare switch in the dashboard,” factory 8-track player, intermittent wipers, and air conditioning. Air conditioning in a convertible? Yeah, man; this baby’s got it going on.
Even the engine is blue! The 351 Cleveland has been rebuilt and savagely attacked with spray cans of Ford Blue, plus some black for good measure. Not exactly Concours quality, but hey, it’s a motor. The listing makes no mention of whether the engine is original, or whether a four-speed transmission is included, so assume the worst. The seller knows Cougars, though, so there may be room to make a custom deal. Who do you know with enough flash to enjoy this loaded stick-shift drop-top?
Rare and nice it survives….still a little high on price versus collector /desirability.
The unmodified transmission tunnel only tells us that it has not been modified. The hole for the shifter is the same for all transmissions, automatic or manual. It does appear to have the manual transmission brake pedal, the third pedal is not visible in the photos.
Every 1970 XR-7 convertible had the top switch in the dash. The only thing that makes it rare is that Mercury only produced 1997 of these cars. The bigger problem though is that this switch appears to be either missing or damaged. You can see a row of 4 rocker switches just above the dash center A/C vent. The top switch is the one to the far right and from the photos that position appears to be just a hole in the switch panel.
The car may have had intermittent wipers however now the control box is no longer in place. It would be mounted on the face of the cowl slightly inboard of the brake power booster.
Unless the right door is laying inside the parts car you will not be replacing the one on the convertible from the parts car.
The hood center grille has been replaced with one from a standard Cougar.
I see a lot of missing trim and missing mechanical parts. The seller makes no mention if those parts are included or not. Most of the interior is in bad condition and will need replaced. Only some of the interior parts are reproduced so either NOS or good used parts will need to be found. The parts car will probably not have any better interior parts.
This would be a nice and fairly rare car for someone to bring back to life. I do think that 15K is a bit much for it given the current condition. Probably worth more like 8-10K depending upon the seller providing more information.
If anybody buys this they better get Cathouse on it.
My brother has the near twin of this car stashed in his back shed. Been there for more than 2 decades. The only differences I see is that my brothers is not a convertible and may not have the A/C. His is also a ’69.
Is the 4 speed transmission rare even in a non-convertible?
More like an older brother than a twin given the number of differences between the posted car and what your brother has.
A manual transmission in a vintage 1967-1973 Cougar is unusual. The vast majority of these cars left the factory equipped with an automatic transmission. I am not a big fan of the word rare, especially when used to describe a car. There are very few cars out there that a person cannot find another one of if they are in the market. Back to the Cougars, I have not run the numbers but my guess would be that approximately 10% of the production had a manual transmission. That would include both 3 and 4 speed manuals.
The XR7 was a separate model, not an options package.
Best Cougars were 67 68 69
Never liked them after that
This appears to be a Money Pit.
In this shape 5 grand is to much
Cathouse said it. Rare car, but not so rare as to be worth the extra cash and time it is going to take to chase down everything that’s missing. I have a barn full of these, and plenty of spare parts, but this one is too far/too expensive to be worth it. Unfortunately.
If the buyer is from this list, I have that 1970 only, convertible only, XR7 only top switch for sale.
69 and 70 were the same bodies. Different hoods, grill design, and ever so slight difference on tail lights. Otherwise same
Jeremy, you are sort of correct. But there are a lot more differences than you list. The quarter panels are different between the two years due to the wheel opening having a one inch difference. You cannot put the opposite year used quarter panel on a car without modifing the wheel opening. Also side marker lights which makes the hole in the fender a different size. Front fender extensions, front bumpers, front stone panel and rocker panel mouldings are all different. Then we get to the interior. Seats, door panels, consoles, lower metal dash, instrument clusters, seat belts, steering columns, steering wheels are all different between the two years.
Wonder how much he would pay me to haul it off.