Just wanted to say hi to everyone and share with you about my Cougar.
I'm in Queensland, near Kingaroy and have a yard full of Fords. '78 Escort Coupe, '78 Cortina TE Ghia sedan, '82 Falcon XE S-Pak wagon, '86 Falcon XF S-Pak sedan, '86 Fairmont Ghia wagon, and lastly the 2000 Ford Cougar SW 2.5L V6.
I bought the Cougar start of this year, second owner. Had 110,000km on the clock but it still looks and drives like a new car (smells like a new car inside too). Paint is Spruce Green, interior is Leather and it's a manual 5 speed. Only mods so far is a 2nd immobiliser/alarm (with a numeric pad to unlock), tinted windows, and a new mp3 header unit with USB input so I can have 16gb of music plugged into the dash.
The Cougar has averaged 32.4mpg over the last 11,000km since purchase. The little cat has performed flawlessly from day one (except when I flattened the battery listening to music in the shed
). No breakdowns, no leaks, and drives like it's on rails. Keep her under 4000rpm and it's like a little kitten, but get the rpm over that and it transforms into an angry wildcat.
Everywhere I take the Cougar it attracts attention. Most have no idea what it is. I took it to the All Ford Day at Cooyar in September and was flooded with questions about the car from those that attended (even the officials).
I plan on doing some more mods to it. Have a set of Lenso D1R 17x7 5 spoke wheels on the way from the UK (Aussie Lenso importer claimed they didn't come in 108x4 ET35 - their loss). I'll wrap them in Toyo Proxes T1R 225/45ZR17 when they get here. I have a set of V-Tech light covers ready to fit. Plans are to get a full bodykit consisting of Razzi side and rear skirts (nice and subtle and accentuate the nice Cougar ines), Duraflex Z3 fenders and drifter front bar and the Visteon hood scoop. Still undecided on which hatch spoiler (The kids say a big one, but I don't know). Because most of the car will need painting after the bodykit I'll change the paint colour to a 'hurt your eyes' holographic metal flake bright yellow. Am also working on a mural of a Cougar tearing it's way out of steel to go on the panel between the door and rear arch (don't know if I'll use it yet).
Performance wise I'll replace the headers and fit a twin system with some high flow cats and change the intake for something that breathes alittle easier. Will see how this goes, but may try for more power. 230-250hp would be great. It'll get some bigger brakes and a slight suspension drop.
My only dislike is that it's FWD. I can live with it, but I don't like it. Everything else about the little cat I just love, and love to drive it, most times just for the hell of going for a drive in it.
Thanks for reading, Mark