Photo: Vanguard Motors
It must have been quite the experience being a sentient, decision-capable adult back in the days of the muscle car craze. The breed was fresh out of the oven in the early 1960s but became so successful that soon the market got flooded with incredible four-wheelers built to never-before-seen levels of performance. You only had to choose right.
One of the many offerings at the time was the Cougar, the nameplate that for years has been synonymous with a Ford-owned brand by the name Mercury. Neither are alive anymore, but that doesn’t mean people are no longer crazy about Mercury Cougars.
Introduced right at the height of the muscle car craze in 1967, the Cougar was, in fact, Mercury’s take on the Mustang. It also quickly became the brand’s highest-selling model, and given how Mercury was scrapped from the Blue Oval's corporate book in 2011, no other one will take that title from it.
There were close to 3 million Cougars sold in the 30 years the moniker was on the market, but few of them were Eliminator variants boasting the legendary Boss 302 engine. And here’s one now.
This particular Cougar comes from 1970, and it shows just a little over 61,000 miles (98,000 km) on the clock. We’re told the car was first and foremost used as a dealer demonstrator (it did so in Chattanooga, Tennessee), and that partially accounts for the rather low mileage, but also the great condition the car is in.
One of fewer than 500 to have been ordered that year with the Boss 302 engine and the 4-speed manual transmission, the Cougar Eliminator shows no apparent signs of deterioration and an interior that seems to be surprisingly fresh, and also undamaged. All that, of course, makes it a very expensive prize. Probably too expensive.
Exactly $164,900 is how much the selling dealer expects for it, which is a hell of a lot more than the sums these cars usually go for, including at auctions.
Introduced right at the height of the muscle car craze in 1967, the Cougar was, in fact, Mercury’s take on the Mustang. It also quickly became the brand’s highest-selling model, and given how Mercury was scrapped from the Blue Oval's corporate book in 2011, no other one will take that title from it.
There were close to 3 million Cougars sold in the 30 years the moniker was on the market, but few of them were Eliminator variants boasting the legendary Boss 302 engine. And here’s one now.
This particular Cougar comes from 1970, and it shows just a little over 61,000 miles (98,000 km) on the clock. We’re told the car was first and foremost used as a dealer demonstrator (it did so in Chattanooga, Tennessee), and that partially accounts for the rather low mileage, but also the great condition the car is in.
One of fewer than 500 to have been ordered that year with the Boss 302 engine and the 4-speed manual transmission, the Cougar Eliminator shows no apparent signs of deterioration and an interior that seems to be surprisingly fresh, and also undamaged. All that, of course, makes it a very expensive prize. Probably too expensive.
Exactly $164,900 is how much the selling dealer expects for it, which is a hell of a lot more than the sums these cars usually go for, including at auctions.
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