Mercury Cougar

The Mercury Cougar is a nameplate applied to a diverse series of automobiles sold by Mercury from 1967 to 1997, and again from 1999 to 2002. While most examples were produced as two-door sedans, 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 Torino-based Mercury Montego two-door during the mid-1970s, the Cougar subsequently became 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.