Minneapolis Street Sighting: Mercury Cougar

For people that grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, the Mercury Cougar was known as being either a cousin of the Ford Mustang, or a plusher, more luxurious alternative to Ford's popular Thunderbird personal luxury coupe. I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, and I saw the Cougar get turned into a FWD Ford Probe replacement. While this most recent iteration of the classic nameplate never had much success in the US market, in Europe that car was.. well.. not quite a hit, but over there, it had a smaller sister called the Puma. Here, though, the Cougar was fodder for Cavalier, Sunfire, Tiburon, Celica and Eclipse buyers.
In the 1980s, when Ford tried to push Mercury somewhat upscale, some of the brands' cars got kind of confused with what their market was. The Sable was a twin of the Taurus, and it was priced a bit more; the Topaz, was either a slightly cheaper or slightly more expensive Tempo depending on how it was optioned, and there's this: a cousin of the Ford Thunderbid. So, how did Ford emphasize the Cougar's luxurious intentions? Simple. Slap a Mercedes-esque grill on it, give it a rather "formal" roofline, and stick a set of "upscsale" wire wheelcovers, or it could be had with.. these things.
When I was younger-- okay, quite a bit younger, these cars used to be everywhere--I'd see them in all trim levels, with wire hubcraps, with these godawful wheels, with aftermarket sawblade wheels, and various stick-on foglights and what have you. I kind of grew to like these cars, even moreso than their Thunderbird cousins. I have no idea why, either; I've always kind of wanted one in gray with sawblade wheels and a dented up passenger door. Why? I haven't the foggiest; probably because I saw one in that very same condition when I was about six, and for whatever reason, the image stuck with me, and its still the first thing I think of when someone mentions "1980s Cougar"
This one is obviously a bit battered, like most of its remaining Minnesota kin; sever rocker rust plagues the bottom half of the car, but interestingly, aside from that relatively minor fault, this Cougar seems to be in rather okay shape. Apparently rust affected quite a number of these cars, because I certainly don't see nearly enough of them. Or it could be that people decided that somehow a more expensive Thunderbird didn't quite cut it as a luxury car. And who could blame them? While I doubt these cars were all that costly in their day, I'm sure a Monte Carlo was more of a luxury car than these things, but then again, the Monte Carlo ended up being a FWD car too.
Do I think these cars need to be saved? Not neccessarily in droves; sure, having some nice examples to show a future generation would be nice, but really, these aren't that impressive. Sure, they could have an optional V8, but really.. is a gussied up Ford two-door car important enough to warrant collector status? Possibly someday, but as it stands, it's just an old two-door car that gets driven around and battered about its daily commute-- and that's all this Cougar will ever be.