Car of the Month March: Dan McMonagle’s beautiful 1973 Mercury Cougar XR7

Features:

• Dan McMonagle’s beautiful 1973 Mercury Cougar XR7
• 351c Engine
• Automatic
• 3.50 gears
• Awesome driver–this car can be driven anywhere with all of the upgrades done to it to make it a great classic car!!!

See the gallery for this 1973 Mercury Cougar XR7!
Click to see our Gallery

Mercury Cougar is a nameplate that was applied to a diverse series of automobiles sold by the Mercury division of Ford Motor Company from 1967 to 2002. While most examples were produced as two-door coupes, at various times throughout its production life, the Cougar was also sold as a convertible, four-door sedan, station wagon, and hatchback.

As was the common practice within the Mercury division, the Cougar shared its basic underpinnings with a Ford counterpart. At the time of its introduction, it was based upon the Ford Mustang. While briefly based upon the Ford Elite during the mid-1970s, the Cougar would subsequently become the Mercury counterpart of the Ford Thunderbird for the rest of the 1970s into the late 1990s. After its initial discontinuation, the Cougar emerged as a sports coupe counterpart of the Ford Contour “world car”; as such, it was sold outside of North America as the Ford Cougar.

For many years, the Cougar was important to the image of the Mercury division; advertising often identified its dealers as being “at the sign of the cat.” Female models holding big cats on leashes were used as part of Cougar advertising in the early 1970s.In production for 34 years, the Cougar is second only to the Grand Marquis in longevity.

The car was assembled at the Dearborn Assembly Plant (DAP)—one of six plants within the Ford Rouge Center—in Dearborn, Michigan from 1967 to 1973, at the San Jose Assembly Plant in Milpitas, California from 1968 into early 1969, at the Lorain Assembly Plant (LAP) in Lorain, Ohio from 1974 to 1997, and at the Flat Rock, Michigan Assembly Plant from 1999 to 2002.