26th Jul 2003, 23:47

Well to begin your wrong about the horse power. The 1991 Mercury Cougar XR7 came with one engine. The 5.0L H.O. 225 horse power and 275lb of torque. Next, with Corvette style suspension it handles very well. That is Fully independent rear suspension, Trak Loc or (Posi), Air bag controlled suspension, and 4 wheel disk brakes. The suspension on this car is so good it will almost out corner a Corvette. Think of this, if you own a 1991 Mercury Cougar XR7 then you own one of the rarest Cougars ever built. If you don't believe me try finding one for sale. You may find a couple, but not near as many for most other years. Except 79 and lower. This car rides just like a Corvette. Like it should.

10th Jul 2004, 21:32

I have owned my 1991 mercury cougar XR7 for about 15 mos. I bought the car in Indiana for $3,000. It had sat for a long time after the user didn't drive it any more, so a lot of electrical problems surfaced. Since I've owned the car, I have had to fix several things including: both power windows, EGR solenoid, EGR valve, front brake rotors, brake pads, ignition tune up, and my AOD transmission. I'm not a "Hot Rodder" as far as my driving style, but I still managed to blow the snap ring off of the front pump in the trans and fuse the 3rd clutchs together. With 3rd gear in a slight snafu, the trans got locked in overdrive and would not downshift. Because the trans is a modern AOD, most transmission shops wanted $3,000 for a rebuild. My guy did it for $2,200. Looking at the transmission, one can see that Ford overlooked several things. First off, the MN12 chassis is nearly 4,000 pounds! A mustang is about 3200! Yet, the cougar/thunderbird receives the same transmission parts as a mustang. The mustang parts are strong, but not strong enough for the abuse of a 4,000 pound car. After finding a Ford transmission "guru", I was able to have the transmission built as it should have came from the factory: seven forward clutches instead of 6, police and taxi heavy duty ports opened up on the valve body, a 3-4 gear change accumulator added ('91 AOD didn't get them) to soften the 3-4 shift, F-150 truck A servo and a firmer, but not "hot rod" shift kit available from TransGo. The OEM shift kit has way too much overlap and 'grocery getter' feel.

Overall, after having the transmission built up for the weight of a 4,000 pound car, I have not driver a better built machine. Once the alignment, brakes, and tune up were completed, the car came to life. I had the tires replaced at 77K with a larger size of 235/55/16. This was perfect. I have driver Saleen Mustangs, GT mustangs, SVO mustangs, and various other blue oval products and this one is my favorite for the daily grind! And it gets an averaged 22 MPG.

7th Nov 2004, 15:31

Hey, I have a 1991 XR-7 and I love it. I picked it up for $1000 and it had 130 thousand miles on it.

So far the drivers side and passenger side automatic windows have failed. I got the drivers side fixed for 300$, and have yet to fix the passenger side. I have question for you cougar guys. When the temperature inside the car reaches, for instance when its parked in the sun on a hot day; my speedometer will stop working.

Also, with the auto-ride system... when I don't have the rocker switch on FIRM, the firm light blinks, I checked it out in the manual and it said to take it to the dealer. I hate the dealer, and just would like to know if you think that I just need to shocks, or what.

I really love this car. It is my first car and have been driving it for a few months now. Since 90% of the driving I do is in town and to school, my gas mileage is piss poor. That also is attributed to my rubber and gas burning driving style :).

All in all I love the car and recommend it to anyone who can find one. -Nick Harris.

12th Jun 2007, 12:40

I just bought a '91 XR7 for 300 bucks. I'm confused about the engine though. Some say that the 5.0 HO is the same as a Mustang GT of same year, and some say it is different. I need to know if this is true because I'm going to scrap everything, but the engine, trans, and computer. I will then transplant all of the above into a '76 F100. I just need to know if an after-market Mustang wiring harness will work for the engine management duties.

If anybody has any answers please let me know.

23rd Dec 2008, 15:38

The engine is the same 5.0L engine that came in the Mustang. It does have the lower power levels listed above due to having a different intake than the Mustang engine. This was required by less hood clearance on the Cougar/Tbirds. The original poster stated that his firm light was blinking on the dash, this means there is a problem with the automatic ride control system. Obviously his judgment that this is a poor handling car is kind of silly after stating his rear shocks were bad. These cars handle well and have a independent rear like Corvettes do but by no means could handle with a modern Vette in serious curves. The AOD transmissions did have the same parts as the ones in Mustangs because it was the same motor. The best stock AODs those years were the ones in the 1989-90 supercharged XR7s and the Thunderbird Super Coupes because those engines had significantly higher torque outputs.

19th Jan 2011, 12:17

I am an original owner of a 91 XR-7 that I ordered. Car only has 120K miles, but due to the size of my "fleet", and having teenage drivers, the wife says it goes soon.

Once the factory tires (FireHawks) were replaced, the car handles great in all weather on all road conditions. The car is very comfortable, it has made many longer trips when new, has been very reliable and I use as a daily driver in Colorado when the weather is good (the "fleet" gives me other choices to play with).

The anti-lock brakes are a pain to diagnose - pump pressure switch failed and I finally found a set of diagnostics that worked, and then to find parts... Ford did start supplying the programmable struts again, but run approx $1200/ set of four.