UPDATE: This one has found a new home. Thanks for listing it with us Gary!
It’s truly amazing how much the Mercury Cougar changed from ’67 to ’77! By the time this 4th generation XR7 was built, the Cougar was more luxury and less performance, as a matter of fact there really wasn’t anything sporting left. But boy were they comfortable to drive! Gary needs to find a new home for this one and while it has some issues, looks to be a pretty nice find. He’s asking $1,000 or best offer in hopes of finding a good home for it quick. It’s located in Pottstown, Pennsylvania and you can contact Gary via email here.
From Gary – I guess this is the final generation of the Cougar/Thunderbird before some major downsizing beginning in 1980. Personally, these are my favorite years (1977-79) for the Cougar. Reason for selling? Lost storage! Effective immediately! Please, somebody, step up & save this one. I have n.o.s. lower trunk stainless trim, just need the trunk lid to install it on. I’ve already located the quarter glass and will provide that info also, if needed. The overall condition really is nice. If these cars carried a higher resale/collector value, this XR7 would definitely be worth it’s weight (no pun intended).
Body Condition – Excellent, except the trunk lid & rh rear quarter glass, which I’m assuming is the result of vandalism. It’s even possible that it was put away in the garage after it was vandalized. Exterior color is a nicely preserved, older repaint that appears to be the original deep blue, accented by an equally very nice white, softly padded vinyl roof. The color combo, in my opinion, makes this car’s appearance very sharp.
Mechanical Condition – Unknown, but based on the other cars that were part of the collection, it should only need a good fuel system flush to get it running again. The car has been stored in a dry cement floor garage for the last 20 years. The milage on the odometer, if i remember correctly, is somewhere in the mid 90k. The Cougar retains its original 351 engine which does not appear to have been neglected in any way. I have turned the engine by hand after adding a little Marvel Mystery Oil to each of the spark plug holes. By the way, the plugs also showed signs of having been installed not long before being parked. Engine oil look’s fresh, as if it had just been changed before going into hibernation. Coolant and tranny fluid also appear to be ‘fresh’. Tires also (I know, they’re 20 years old) have great tread left.
Interior Condition – Very nice, rip & stain free, bucket seats with console shifted automatic, interior. No power anything, but does have full instrumentation – I guess it’s the ralley(?) setup – This means equally sized speedo & tach, surrounded by gauges, with moving needle indicators; no idiot lights. Door panels, head liner, rear deck, dash pad, and carpet, are all in very nice condition.
As Gary states, these cars aren’t terribly collectible, but for the right price it would make for a fun cruiser. I’m not sure what this one is worth in it’s current condition, but I think it would be worth taking a look and making him an offer. It would be better than seeing it go to the crusher and you’d end up with one smooth machine to cruise around town in! So would you enjoy hitting the road in this Cougar?
i would rather have the corvair.
If this was an older Cougar in this condition I would be a buyer this is large and not a popular automobile to restore. What other cars will you be selling
I’d rather have $1000 in my bank account!
Yes I to would rather have the vair. Looks to maybe be a 65
Favourite years of the Cougar? ’77-’79? You may be alone on that. This car looks to be easily saved, and should be, but early Cougars have much more appeal.
Come on guys, this really is a good looking car. When was the last time you saw one? It would be the talk of any show you take it to. The 351 can have a little more oomph wrenched out of it, but really, this car was meant for comfortable cruising, and still can be. Us late Baby Boomers lusted after things like this, sure, we could have the older stuff a lot cheaper at the time, but we also dreamed of something new like this too. This is a cheap entry into the hobby for anyone even just a little handy with the paint and body work. It would be sad if all these generation cars went to the crusher out of smug opinion.
The first car I really did a lot of traveling in was a 78 mercury cougar brougham sedan in battle ship gray. Bought it for $150 or so, kinda fuzzy on the price now, but about that much. Picked it up from a friends wrecking yard, gave it a bath, and did a lot of repairs to get it road worthy. It gave me a lot of summers of lazy highway cruising. They’re plush cars. They’re not a cougar in the sense of being related to the mustangs, but they are a good midsize for the era mercury coupe highway yacht. I don’t know why people now don’t seem to care about this. You want horsepower numbers and torque figures, but pay no mind to gear ratios and how the steering and suspension is engineered or what kind of ride it gives.
I rode in a brand new cadillac sedan a few days back and it sucked. It honestly sucked. The seats were ergonomic but stiff, everything felt cheap and plastic, and while it looked pretty inside, the visibility out of it was terrible, and it was road noisy. Some of the big cruisers from this era were much much more comfortable to ride in. I’d take a drive in my old mercury over one in that cadillac. It was like cruising on the sofa. Yeah I know the modern stuff is safer in pretty much every way, but that does not make it inherently better. I’m pretty okay enjoying something while understanding that there are less risky ways to do so. Sometimes it isn’t about the numbers.
Was wondering if you have had this car forever or if you bought it off someone and where ? We are trying to locate one that was my husbands Grandfather…. Message me Tiffanymooney65@gmail.Com
i agree with st. ramone de v8 about the comment of 1977 – 1979 being favorite years for an xr7. hahaha. the real couger xr7,s were 1967 to 1970 with the couger eliminator. i had an all black 1968 xr7 around 1972 with the 390 ci 335 hp. engine. hidden headlights, wide ovals tires. ford factory sport wheels and the 6.5 l side badges. now thats a true xr7.
The 390-4V that came in the ’68 Cougar was rated at 320 HP, not 335 HP.
Nice interior. These car are comfortable cruisers. Last time I saw one up here was 20 yrs ago. Canadian winters ate these up pretty fast.
Get it up and running fix the minor issues that it has and drive the wheels off it.For 1K its a screamin deal!!
I will give you $1000 if you can ship it to my house, my boys would like it..
Describing any item or idea with ambiguous wording like the seller does here is leading a potential buyer down a “garden path”, which in reality is lies. “Seems like, looks like, great tread left, oil looks fresh, spark plugs show signs, fuel system should only need,…etc. These are words regularly employed to get a potential buyer to part with their money quick. I hope the ad is redacted and relisted with fact, not speculation. If it is in such “wonderful” condition, perhaps the owner could “easily” tune it up for a “few” dollars and list it as a driving, running, mechanically sound automobile…jeesh, just saying…and btw, this car is a gas guzzler, it will cost large sums of dollars (see what I did there), to drive this car anywhere…(still doing it)…lol
I thought the same thing. Another thing that I thought was also odd is: How do you write an ad but can’t be bothered to check the actual mileage? “The milage on the odometer, if i remember correctly, is somewhere in the mid 90k.”.
its a 40 year old car that looks pretty complete and only $1000.00 or best offer…. as stated before it would make some one a great low entry car in to this great hobby. if it was in my same town i would buy it in a second
Can’t you just see flames shooting out the carb on initial startup? I can. Been there. IDK, I agree with Elmer, original Cougars were the best for me. It’s almost as if, OMG, look what they’ve done to you. ( It gets worse, I believe there was a 4 door Cougar like this) Still, these were nice cars. I don’t see a big call for this, one thing for sure, you’ll probably have the only one at a show.
Howard don’t forget the one-year-only Cougar wagon! But, oddly, I actually like those….just for the oddball factor. I’m currently restoring 4 68-70 Cougars and yeah the 1977-1979 cats are not very popular at all.
This would be an interesting challenge, can you make one of these cool on a budget?
Some ride height modifications, sway bars and set of those aftermarket 17″ Magnum 500 wheels from a catalog.
Next up, de-smog the 351 and add some proper dual exhaust, it could be made into an interesting cruiser for not much money.
If I were a potential seller, I would not use BF as my platform unless it was a pristine, non touched car. Unless the hands of God were the only hands ever to touch it, the commenters here are too rude to let someone sell a car. This guy has a reasonably solid car for an easy entry price. Someone with a low budget and medium skills could have a fun old car to putter around in. Is it a first gen cougar? No. Is it priced like a similar first gen cougar? No. Get over yourselves and get a life that doesn’t constantly revolve around tearing everything down. Let’s hear about and see your cars. Put your money where your mouth is.
I’ll admit, I don’t have a classic car. Would I like one? Sure. But I like living indoors and having some other trappings of a lower middle class life. So I look here to see what’s out in the world. And so many of you are constantly haranguing folks for trying to sell a car. Would the ad suit you better if it said what you want it to say? Then you’d all be running it down for that. Or something else. I do, however, agree that if you’re taking pics to put up an ad, the seller could at least be bothered to read the mileage while the door is open.
Other than that, there is a lot of marketing words used here. And yes, I could see me buying something like this, just to have an old car to play with. In this world, it is the buyer’s resposibility to check out what they are buying beofree handing over hte cash, no matter if it’s new or old. Most of y’all probably have bought a car that was described better than it really was, haven’t you?
Mechanically, this shouldn’t be too complicated to fix or replace driveline parts top get running. If it isn’t rusted through, then that’s not too bad either. Wash it, fix it, and drive it. Fix it up some more as you drive it and enjoy it. Better than sitting around trolling the internet. Not everyone has 69 Camaros, Cudas, Mustangs, and Triumphs in excellent condition for sale on here.
Maybe this should be called Barn Finds with Elitist Princess Commenters. The guys try their best to make this a good site and then the commmenters come along tearing it down. I wish I could sell you guys for what you think you’re worth.
I think we all got a well deserved A$$ chewin’. By gar, it’s been a while. ( if you think this is bad, check out the Vega thread)
“…..with Elitist Princess Commenters.” Whooah – you’ve been told, guys!
Ha Ha!
Elitist Princess Commeners.Thats awsome made me laugh out loud .(I’m still laughing as I try to write this)Thanks rando you made my morning.So true ,honestly its a $1000.00 car what more can ya say.Jimmy Buffet has been known to say that he remembers when ya could buy a $100.00 pickup truck”can I get an Amen for a $100.00 pickup truck”Same idea here .The way things are in this so called hobby this really isn’t a bad deal.
Or, he could have gone the Craigslist way and just wrote “’77 Cougar, lost storage, $1000” and got just as badly ripped.
You are never going to please everyone.
My cousin had one of these. Bought it new. For a grand you can get yourself a pretty decent cruiser with very little work involved. Seller may negotiate, but sellers can’t go up in price. Only down.
OK people, I probably should keep my mouth shut here, but after reading all the comments I only want to say one thing. I tried to describe this car as best as I could. In no way am I trying to mislead anyone with my description. It’s been over a year since I acquired the car and I do not remember the actual mileage. I have spent the past year searching for a trunk lid and have had no luck. Underneath everything is a very clean car that I think is well worth a grand – if a trunk lid can be found. I know, IF. Anyway, I just don’t want to see it scrapped which is more than likely where it will end up. No more storage and covering it and sitting outdoors, well, we all know what happens. The description I provided is an honest opinion, I’m not here trying to fool anyone. If anyone knows of a 77-79 Cougar trunk lid that’s available, please let me know and I’ll buy it and keep the car. Thanks.
I have fond memories of these cars. I’m my late teens a good mate of mine bought a ’74 Cougar in 1979 in the Netherlands. It had fire damage to the hood & we got it going on a very small budget. We would drive to the West Coast of France, through Paris and the villages & people would stop to look in shock & go Oh La La
I’d love to have another one again. Shame it’s so far away.
Well worth saving in my books!
Hi Gary, while represented reasonably well, ( hood open, air cleaner off, looks bad, maybe could have cleaned it up, you’d be amazed at what that does for a sale) you are dealing with a car with limited appeal to begin with. Truth be known, this car was about as far away as you could get to the original Cougar.( I guess it has some interest as the last of the Cougars) It initially was a fancy Mustang, and while Mustang stayed with it’s sporty roots, Cougars got all fat and bloated. Now,,,if the car looked like your picture here, that might be a different story, but it will cost thousands to make it look like that, and when done,,,,you’ll have a ’77 Cougar. Sorry, dats the old car hobby. Now,,,about the MGB,,,
Gary please call me about the cougar. I’m really interested. My cell# 484-239-8465. Thanks joe
Joe, I’ll see you tomorrow at 9am. As for the other cars in the garage, they are long gone now. The Cougar was last to go.
Gary try this eBay item number:
282357639965.
eBay item number:
272548037579 here is the emblem.
Talking about buying any car for $1,000 or less, is that really a bad buy? I easily pay that yearly just to maintain my daily driver now. I say fix it up and drive the wheels off of it! What can you lose, you only live once. If you like it, buy it! I love the $1,000 or less finds!
hate to say it – but, these cars are not very desirable. i had a 79 that looked great and ran fine – and i could not even sell it for like $2,000 ! $1,000 is too much……….
Mom had one. Couldn’t see over the hood and kept running into things. I’d take the MGB or Corvair over this beast. No room in my garage for any of these three cars though.
Just my $0.02: I work on a lot of Cougars, mainly first gen. Those are the ones that money (if that’s what you’re angling for anyway). The 77-79s are the last of the long hood style, very similar to the Lincolns and T-Birds of the same era. As some have stated above, you can do some work and make these fairly cool. If someone is looking to get into the old car hobby, these are not bad rides. You can buy them fairly cheap, parts (mechanical anyway) are still easy to find and relatively inexpensive. Pull of the smog stuff if your state will allow it, dual exhaust, maybe swap out the manifold and carb, and have some fun. Isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?