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the 1983 mercury cougar

Ford Motor Company was in a serious financial problem during the early 1980's. Not only did emissions laws and the oil crisis severely hurt the automotive industry, but styling of that era seemed to be in a big rut. The only modern looking car that Ford produced in the late 1970's was the Mustang. And, sales were falling flatter every year. In 1980, the Cougar was severely downsized and put on the new Fox chassis, which was an all new platform in 1978 and was noted for the first use of MacPherson struts on a rear drive Ford chassis. The styling, though, was bland, and in 1982, in an effort to bolster up the Mercury model line, Ford resorted to slapping the Cougar name on a series of 4-door cars....and even the dreaded station wagon with fake woodgrain (thankfully, sales fell even flatter for those). In the meantime, Ford designers were at a crossroads: the 1980-82 cars weren't selling well at all, performance was nonexistent, and the heritage was being lost. So, chief designer Jack Telnack told his staff to simply make the kind of Cougar they'd be proud to have in their own driveways.

Since the Cougar was a mechanical twin of the Ford Thunderbird (and nearly a visual twin as well), both cars would be drawn up simultaneously. They first drew up a "luxury sport coupe" which, ironically, became the Lincoln Mark VII. The rooflines on the T-Bird and Cougar were beginning to look very similar (just like the previous cars), when it was decided to give maximum differentiation between the cars. The Cougar was given a very formal roofline with a severely vertical backlight, and the Thunderbird had a very swoopy and aerodynamic roofline. The T-Bird had a lower drag coefficient (.36 versus .40 for the Cougar), but the Cougar had the advantage with rear seat headroom. After the cars debuted, the buying public was split evenly between the Thunderbird and the Cougar:� they loved one and hated the other. And that was Ford's intention all along. At least, they contended, the public would form an opinion. The Cougar was an instant hit out of the box, and actually outsold the Thunderbird in 1983.

Other styling cues for the new Cougar blended of formal and aerodynamic shapes.Most noticeable is the use of aircraft-style doors for improved sealing and reduced wind noise. The front end is very upright and formal, but the fender tops and hood have gentle rounded edges. The bumpers are urethane and smoothly round out toward the bottom. A "waterfall" grille and integrated side markers complete the front. Most striking is the reverse "C" around the side back windows, creating a rather large C-pillar. To tie in to previous Cougar models, 3-tier taillights were employed, as well as the "hump" in the trunklid. Fit and finish for that era was surprisingly good, and the car felt exceptionally tight. Interestingly, a new option was side vent windows, now considered fairly rare. Due to Ford's budget crisis, the Cougar shared a majority of its body panels with the Thunderbird:� hood, windshield, doors, front fenders, front bumpers, and rear bumpers.

The interior was largely a carryover from the 1980-82 models, and featured twin bucket seats with a full-length console. Instrumentation was minimal at best, since Ford could not afford to create an all-new interior. That would have to wait until the 1985 model year. Seat patterns were very GM-influenced, and you could, in fact, get vinyl seats. Other than the standard full-length console, there was really not much sporty about the interior; it was geared for luxury.

Two models were initially introduced on February 26, 1983, both with roots in the previous-generation Fox Cougar. The GS was the base model (although no 1983-86 Cougar ever had GS badging), and the LS was the Luxury Sport model. Base engine was the carbureted 112 hp 3.8 V6, first introduced in 1982. It was obvious that the 3.8 did not have nearly the performance nor the potential that its bigger V8 brother had. However, the 3.8 was an adequate motor and returned decent gas mileage, and actually became the most popular engine for all Fox Cougars. Toward the end of the model year, the Cougar added the central-fuel injection equipped 5.0 (302) V8 motor to the lineup, available on either model. Both engines had the EEC-III computer management system.

Mechanically, the wheelbase was 104", down from the 112" of the 1980-82 era, but still larger than a Mustang. Rear seat room was actually quite good. The aforementioned MacPherson strut/A-arm suspension carried over with little modification. As good as the car was, there was no high performance (XR7) version ready for 1983. But since the car sold so well, Ford had some funds to work on the interior and began to revise it early in 1984. A few visual changes were on their way. And, an all-new XR7 model was in the works as well.

Shown at right is the infamous trunklid hump and the 3-tier taillights, which were carryover styling cues from previous Cougar models. The backup lights were located in the center, and had the Cougar cat head adorning them.The trunklid nomenclature read "COUGAR" on the left, and "MERCURY" on the right. The LS model would add the "LS" letters after the "COUGAR", although some early models had no "LS" letters. On the front fenders, V6 models had an "LS" emblem, while the V8's had "ELECTRONIC FUEL INJECTION". This was essentially the only year of the new generation Cougars to wear so much nomenclature. An interesting note: early 1983 models had one-piece cast grilles. Later grilles would be two-piece with detachable MERCURY nomenclature.

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