Faults:

Bosch ABS pump went bad. Took 6 months to find one, and it was in the U.K. Total cost including shipping and installation: $985.55.

General Comments:

Excellent car. Comfortable seats, easily reachable controls.

Two drawbacks are, the cost of the ABS repair, and the other is the land yacht ride when not in the firm ride mode.

Overall; fast and very dependable. One unique point is, unlike others, I was getting 20.2 mpg in town with the H.O. 5.0l (302 cid).

Faults:

Got the car with 66,000 miles.

Front brakes replaced 100% at 67,000 miles.

Water-pump, throttle, alternator and computer chip replaced at 67,000 miles.

Ran amazing until I passed 68,500 miles. I now have a major engine knock.

General Comments:

I got the car so I could travel from home, to school, to work, but now find myself wanting to get rid of this car, because the 3.8L V6 isn't a very reliable motor. So I'm going to drive the car to the ground. It's great on gas for a V6, but I've put to much time and money into it.

Bought it for $1100.00.

Put about $1000.00 into it.

I'm sick of it. I'm gonna fix my truck, and sell it for $500.

I figure it's gonna make it another year, then I'll trash it.

Here I come DEMOLITION DERBY!!! :)

Faults:

Power window motors only seem to last a couple of years at best.

Headlight switch broke six years ago (was supposedly fixed) and has never worked right since.

Idle air control sensor ($8 from junkyard).

Odometer quit working around 7 years ago with 104k miles on it. I have no way of knowing how many it has now, but would estimate well over 200,000 miles.

Brake master cylinder. This is the big repair. To repair this can cost up to $2000. I refuse to pay that much for a part. Instead I went to the local U-Pull-It junk yard and was lucky to find an intact unit (they're incredibly rare and thus hard to find) in a '92 Thunderbird SC. I have yet to install it, but when I do, I hope it works. If not, there are conversion kits available that allow you to use Ford Taurus components, although they're not as good and still rather expensive ($600).

General Comments:

This car is almost 17 years old. I bought it when I was in high school and have owned it for over 9 years. She still runs like a champ.

Although it has had a few minor mechanical gremlins over the years, it has not been a big deal and everything still works good, including the A/C.

Most parts for the car (with the exception of the brake master cylinder) are cheap and abundant and can be found at any junkyard for next to nothing.

While not as fast as a Camaro Z28 or Mustang GT, the Cougar is still pretty quick and handles better than most expensive new cars and will blow the doors off of most.

She is no longer my daily driver, but has been such a nice car that I believe it is worth keeping as a weekend project car. I hope to rebuild it and turn it into a street/drag car.

Faults:

I bought this car with 46,000 on the clock, I parked it at 265,000 because it needed too much work and I got another car, lower miles, that had a blown engine.

I will list the things that I had to fix. Keep in mind, we drove this car for 12 years (love the low salt south) so the list may seem long, but this car never left us stranded.

Replaced head gasket 2 times - at 97K and again at 251K - needed to have heads shaved that time, both upper control arms due to worn out upper ball joints, both rotors due to warpage, Headlight switch, Had to fix heater controller, heater core 5 times, fan clutch, radiator, water pump, front cover gasket, alternator, starter, AC compressor, AC condenser (probably caused failed compressor), turn signal flasher. For the most part, If I did not list it here, I did not need to replace it, and that means it lasted over 200K.

Overall this car held up OK. I stopped driving it because the rear end was howling, it started at 186,000 but never broke, then the transmission dropped 4th gear around 250K. The engine was still running strong so I pulled it and put it in a 94 cougar that had a blown engine.

Keep something in mind about these, and other Ford cars, the odometer gears get stuck and break if the car sits for an extended period of time. If you have one that has set for more than 6 months, it is likely the odometer will quit.

General Comments:

This was a pretty good highway car. I never had any complaint about the comfort or the ride. This thing would cruise down the highway at 80+mph all day long and still get 24mpg at that speed. It was never a quick car, but handled as flat as could be. This is the reason I kept it for 12 years and then planted the engine into a 94 Cougar rather than junking the works.