I clearly remember the first time I saw a new for ’67 Mercury Cougar – and I thought it was fabulous! I hadn’t been much of a Mustang fan, though it wasn’t long before I came to realize that the Cougar was closely related to its extremely popular cousin. But the Cougar spoke to me in a way the Mustang didn’t. My interest in the cat waned with the introduction of the ’71 edition, but I now favored it even more than the corresponding and redesigned BIG Mustang. Move forward two years, and voila, we have, for your review and courtesy of Curvette, a similar ’73 edition – in drop-top form, marking the true end of the line (Cougar, in my estimation, came completely off the rails in ’74 with a move to the midsize Montego platform). This very clean convertible is located in Seattle, Washington, and is available here on craigslist for $15,900.
Cougar, in ’73, offered two body styles, coupe or convertible, and two trim levels, standard, such as our subject car, and XR-7. Yes, it had grown up quite a bit from its original 1967 incarnation, but still sold well, knocking out 61K units in ’73. The convertible proved not to be as popular, with only 4,400 seeing the light of day that year. Largely unchanged from the Gen II introduction in ’71, the most obvious difference for ’73 was the addition of the federally mandated five MPH front rammer. That noted, I’d suggest that Mercury engineers and stylists did a pretty good job of affixing the sizeable protuberance to the nose of their pony car. This one’s a looker – all of it. The finish is well preserved, and the folding top shows as new. The seller claims “always garaged,” and that’s easy to believe. Note the “Styled Steel” wheels; other than the center cap, they’re reminiscent of Chevrolet’s ubiquitous “Rally Wheel”.
I’ll admit that I wasn’t a fan of early seventies kitchen appliance hues – and like them even less as a car interior shade. Sure, the innards of this 81 K-mile Cougar look fine, certainly not too much time in top-down sun mode, but avocado green? Well, OK, I guess, it was a sign of the times – and it is certainly a departure from today’s boring abyss commonly found in most new cars. This ragtop even has a top boot – I wonder how hard it would be to find another in avocado? As is often the case with convertibles from this era, there is no A/C.
Besides the big front bumper, another sign of the times was diminished HP, once again, thanks to the Fed and its regulations. In this case, our Cougar’s 351 CI V8 manages an output of 154 net HP – while not impressive, it is pretty typical for the early-mid seventies. The seller adds, “Can be driven anywhere.” A four-speed manual gearbox was still available as an option in ’73, but this Cougar possesses the standard, and commonly found, three-speed automatic transmission.
I like this car! It’s not something that I would want to own today, but maybe at some time in the past – I can really appreciate its condition – and really, its rarity too. Yes, it works for me; how about you?
Nice. Looks like it would make for a cool cruiser. I think I like it for the reason Jim cites: one may not like avocado green, but at least the interior isn’t black or some shade of gray like every new car today.
A couple of cans of vinyl dye and the interior can be any color you want, LOL!
What a nice car. I can’t wait for car show season again, a couple of these usually show up. Lose the mudflaps though.
Andy maybe they live down a gravel road 💁♂️
Love the interior!
At that price, it won’t be on the market much longer. If that’s your cup of tea & you’ve got the cash, make a move pronto!
Avocado green when hit by the sunlight at a certain angle turns baby poop yellow. Sad, but I do like this Cougar otherwise. Much better than the elephant Mustang of the same year.
These Cougars resonated with a certain group of people who cherished them and kept them for years. Great to have a used car so well cared for.
I remember our neighbour purchased a new 1974 Cougar XR-7 hardtop with a deep red exterior with a medium grey interior which went well with red. The red paint was not quite maroon or burgundy certainly not cherry bomb red. At 14
I wished I could purchased one! The styling sure looked great coming down the road.
I’m the proud owner of a ’72 xr7 droptop. Took me 10 years to resurrect it for human use. It looks similar to this, sans the front porch. Funny thing is: when I show up at a cruise-in, it generates a lot of “didn’t know these were made”. When you stop to think about it, they were run down the SAME assembly line as the Mustang until 1973. I have a few photos of that, and it seems that Ford made 1 Cougar to every 8-10 Mustangs.
i love the look of this body especially a convert but the interior color would be a no sale for me. i will say that the price is decent for a drop top. summertime fun for sure
The Good: Overall condition, white paint with a white top, 351 bolted to a C4 A/T. The Bad: The price is a tad high, no A/C for when a pop-up thunderstorm hits and you have to put the top up, the styling of these second-generation cars isn’t my favorite. I’ve always preferred the first generation cars instead. The Ugly: Avocado Green interior. The Verdict: A good solid daily driver that could be a star with some upholstery dye, aftermarket A/C and engine upgrades, to restore some of the ponies the EPA took away! If it was on the East Coast, it would be on my short list. GLWTS!
It most likely would have an FMX transmission. The C6 would also be a possibility. The C4 was not available in a 1971-1973 Cougar.
I don,t think a c-4 came with any 351s
Very nice car a future collectible for sure and a convertible no less, seems to be worth the asking price these were good reliable cars with all the luxuries of a premium car. These were fun and enjoyable to drive person who gets this car just go and enjoy it, it will increase in value as the years go on…