1986 Mercury Cougar XR-7 2.3L turbo from North America
Summary:
Freakin' awesome
Faults:
The car was going through timing belts every 10,000 miles for a while, but has since subsided.
The alternator went out at 110,000 miles and we replaced it with a rebuild from "Manny, Moe & Jack" and went through 6 of those in 8 months before switching to NAPA.
General Comments:
This car handles like it's on rails.
The turbo is even factory original! We just followed the recommended procedures for priming it when changing the oil.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 24th June, 2003
31st Mar 2008, 18:56
UPDATE:
Car now has 193,000 miles and still running strong. And hasn't cost an arm and a leg to fix when it does break down.
Still running factory turbo although I disconnected the factory boost controller and installed a manually adjustable one to increase boost to ~24 psi.
Blew the factory head gasket at approx. 189,000 miles, a fuel pump at 191,600 and shattered the distributor gear roll pin at 192,500 (probably due to "hot rodding") ;)