To buy or not to buy? Please suggest

[victor]

I looking to buy Cougar as second car for small family. Looking no more than 60000 kms.
I understand, you love you cars, but homestly, give me you opinion on what is to buy better
1. SW or SX ?
2. Manual or auto?
3. Leather? Aus is too hot for it?
4. What is real fuel cons. in city ? Manual - auto.
5. How many days per year is your kitty under repairs? Honestly.

Any opinions will be welcome, even not polite ones :

[thearrow]

Victor if you can find a Cougar with leather under 60,000 kms then buy it.

I bought an auto because I was sick and tired of driving a manual in heavy traffic but really it is personal preference.

Buy an Eibach if you can find one.

My Kitty has done 125K now and I have just replaced the front struts but generally speaking they are reliable cars as long as they are well maintained (like any car really).

My ATX gets between 10.5 - 12.5 around town and on the freeway gets down to around 7.0/100km (pretty good really).

I get all my parts shipped direct from America when required and it is HEAPS cheaper than buying from FRAUD PARTS.

[Dshibi]

Hi Victor,

The Cougar is a worthy car to consider as it's quite unique! To answer your questions...

1. I went with SX. It's the newer model and has what I consider to be a more aggressive front. However, the SW model has the Eibach version and more common rear suspension setup (The SX rear suspension is different, need to be aware of that if you want to mod the springs).
On the exterior, the only notable differences between SW and SX is the front headlights, bumper, grille and the standard Ford rims. On the interior, the SW has a lot of grey tones throughout the dash and doors whereas the SX is one colour. SW has grey dials, SX has white with different font styles between the two. Arguably, the SX has the better front seats which have better hold of the people sitting in them than the SW did.

2. I went with a manual but that's what was available and i've always driven manual. I don't think there's much difference. The Manual is probably quicker, but to be honest, I don't think too many people buy Cougars because they're quick cars.

3. Leather - yes, if you can get it. The a/c will do a decent enough job to cool you down. It's not the heat you have to worry about, they get pretty cold in winter too. But, Cougar's with Leather seats also come with seat heaters - NICE!

4. I've had the car down to 11.5/100 in city driving, but at the moment it's up around 13.2. I think I need to clean up the air filter and some other bits to get the number down again.

5. When I first bought my Cougar it felt like she spent more time in the workshop than on the road but Ford looked after me as it was under factory warranty (extended). Since then, all the niggling problems have been fixed and she doesn't spend much time off the road at all - only for regular servicing.
So, once you get past any issues with the car, it's a good one to keep with regular maintenance - much like any car as thearrow said above.

Hope this helps a little. I don't think any Cougar owner is going to disagree when I say they're great cars. They look good, sound good and go great. If you can find one at a decent price with reasonable k's and leather, go for it. If you can find a good Eibach version, even better.

Good luck!

Dan