What do you guys think of a used '94 Mercury Cougar?

[DarkManX]

It has 17,000 miles on it, yes thats right 17,000. The car hasnt been used or inspected since 1998. Because its own by an old lady that cant walk, and used the car to drive to church once a week. And was previosly owned by another lady. I checked it with carfax and its clear. It has a V8 4.6L drives really nices, looks like crap, needs body work, Sh!tty color, interior is plain, exactly like Ford T-bird which looks alot before from the outside, but I can purchase this car for 5,500. It almost like new. its plain, has no "features" the only thing it has is alloy wheels and "premium sound". Anyone own one of these or anything similar? what do you think? nice deal? bad deal?

 

[PCAddict]

Buy it. If you don't, tell me where it is and I will.

 

[DarkManX]

like you said you live in bucks couty, then look really hard, maybe you can find it its in levittown.

 

[PCAddict]

ROFL

Seriously dude, you should buy it. That is a sweet deal. Do you need a car?

 

[DarkManX]

yea, I will in 6 months, but my dad really likes that one The only thing that sucks is that no place for a nice big LCD screen for a
"CarPC" :|

 

[Tominator]

<< looks like crap, needs body work, >>



What could possibly cause this in 17,000 miles?

 

[DarkManX]

well not alot of body work, the right front side is damaged and needs the light fixed, the lady said someone backed into her sister on a plaza.

 

[PCAddict]

If you don't take it, I might go look at it. I have a connection for bodywork.

 

[DarkManX]

cool, ill let you know.

 

[thedarkwolf]

My dad has a 96 t-bird 4.6l auto with 200k on it. The thing has been the most trouble free car we have had to date and we have had lots of high milage cars. Sofar I think the only thing we have had go wrong on it was a seal in the intake manifold blew and allowed most of the collent to leak out, but that was covered under a recall. The T-Bird has tail lights that go most of the way across the rear of the car. The outer lights our just normal lights but the inner ones are led arrays, I think, and cost a bundle when they burn out. I think we were quota something like $150, just for the light, when one of ours went out. We just unhooked the other side and just use the outer lights now and haven't had any problems. The cars are also suppost to warp front rotars like crazy but we haven't ran into that problem yet. One more I just rememberd change that trans fluid when it says to. The cars have a tendancy to develop and shudder/vibration/ at a certain rpm in I think second gear but changing the fluid takes car of it. Just make sure they get all of the fluid including the tourque converter. We have had that problem but at 200k the trans is still as strong as it was new. For a big car the thing also moves pretty well. Its no mustang but you can light up both rear tires when you want to and sometimes when you don't want to . I think he also gets around 26-28mpg on the interstate so its not bad on gas as long as you keep your foot out of it.

 

[Dooling37]

Well I don't much of anything about the reliability of the cars, but I know they're damn fun to drive! I say for that price, go for it!

 

[InTheClouds]

I have a co-worker who owned one and he told me had all kinds of trouble with the transmittion. After sinking $1,200 in a new trans. he sold it because it was too much trouble. He then later found out that the 93 and 94 models had a manufacturer rebates on them because of trans problems. He got his money back in the long run from haveing the trans fixed. I would check with Mercury to find out what that situation is about. He may have been lying but I figured you might want to look into it.

 

[searcher]

It is on Consumer Report's, &quot;Used Cars To Avoid&quot; list:

Mercury: Cougar '91, '94-96 * Mystigue '95 * Sable '91-94, '96 * Topaz '91-94 * Villager '96

It has been my experience that it is wise to heed the Consumer Report's, &quot;Used Cars To Avoid&quot; list.


Michael

 

[RU482]

FORD
-----------
Found
On
Roadside
Dead

Ford and mercury are one in the same, any questions

Add the &quot;little old lady owned it&quot; theory to maintenance to it and I'd say it's a real winner

 

[HardTech]

well, it's domestic.

For that much, you can get yourself a nice, used Civic and get better gas mileage and more goodies

plus, knowing Honda, you won't have to do jack to it for like 200k miles

 

[Paul]

Poop, thats what I think...

 

[thedarkwolf]

there is one problem with the civic and that is its a civic boring. The 4.6L is a hell of a lot more fun than a little buzzy 4 banger and still gets decent mpg and as I stated earlier we have one with 200k on it now and no problems. Just change that trans fluid.

 

[RSI]

Something tells me you haven't actually driven too many Civic's... just get a used Si, pretty fun cars to drive.. even though they are &quot;4 bangers&quot;, the light weight makes up for it.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Thats true I forgot about the performance models. I still prefer the big rwd v8 over a little 4 banger though. I like that touque and room.

 

[DarkManX]

today I looked at the car again, as I started the engine the &quot;check engine&quot; light came on, it woudnt go off, I tried restarting the engine, so we figured its a bad censor somewhere, how much do those cost to replace?

 

[PCAddict]

Probably an O2 sensor because the car isn't run enough. They are pretty cheap. Good thing is that it's a pre-95 car, and you can pull codes pretty easily from the computer. 1995 and later models have OBD-II which means more sensors, and a more complicated system. It requires a very expensive scan tool to get codes from the computer. On a pre-95 model you can get a $30 code reader from WalMart that will do the trick.

 

[DarkManX]

yea I saw one at pep-boys around 25-30. In my dads chevy caprice he had the same probem. Oxygen sensor got brocken and smashed.