Minneapolis Street Sighting: Mercury Cougar XR-7

Malaise-era luxury cars have always intrigued me. The Thunderbird name, too, has always been one of my favorites. Harkening back to 1955, the original idea of the Ford Thunderbird was to have a personal car to may or may not have competed with the Chevrolet Corvette. When the Mercury Cougar made its debut in 1967, it was intended as a more luxurious offshoot of the popular ponycar, the Ford Mustang. In 1971, the Cougar changed focus, and became a personal luxury coupe, facing such rivals as Chevrolet's Monte Carlo among others. In 1977, the Thunderbird and Cougar would become twins, a relationship that would last until both vehicle's demise in 1997.
While I quite like the 1977 to 1979 cars, the 1980-1982s take some getting used to. More formal and square than the previous cars, these new models looked very upright and luxurious, in a way that only a Malaise-era turd can. Gone were the opera windows, the Lincoln-esque profile, the general long-ness of the car, and in were the short-deck long-hood motif that graced every other 1980s vehicle. At least they were still rear-wheel-drive, and able to be had with a (emissions-choked) V8.











The 1980-1982 aren't quite the most cared for Cougarbirds; I still see far more '77-'79s and '83-88 cars than these. Not surprisingly, these haven't succumbed to the bling trend yet. Every single one I have seen save for this one has been a complete rustbucket. Thankfully, this two-tone XR-7 was quite nice. Granted, the color combination is questionable, but at least it appears original. Aside from the odd color choices, I can't really complain about a bone-stock 1980s vehicle I seldom see. The chrome, and badging are in relatively nice shape, especially for their age. The wheels are ugly, but honestly they look better than 90% of the aftermarket options, so I'm glad they weren't changed. On the whole, nothing about this car screams "trashy", except maybe the image the car itself presents.
All in all, quite a rather boring beast of a Cougar, but its a generation that is quite scarce today. This may be the last one I ever see, and for once that's a good thing.