Remember that girl in high school? You know, the really good-looking one that seemed different from the other good-looking girls because you thought for sure she had a great personality--and then you finally got a date with her and found out that she was just like all the rest of 'em? (Ladies, feel free to alter the previous sentences to fit your gender.)
Well, the new Mercury Cougar, with its alluring curves and world-class design, is one of those uninspiring prom queens. Based on the Contour chassis, the Cougar is the reincarnation of Mercury's personal luxury-sport coupe. It is available only in a two-door model, and its Contour underpinnings are wrapped in what may well be one of the most attractive things ever made of metal. The Cougar's body is covered with creative and beautiful design elements, and the interior is equally pleasing to the eye.
Before we drove this car, we were all ready to love it. Having driven Contours of various iterations and come away happy, we thought that getting rid of two doors could only improve an already fun and competent chassis.
Something was lost in the translation, though. The Cougar, while able and well-balanced, is utterly without a soul. Its 2.5-liter Duratec engine has a broad, flat torque curve, but it really doesn't move the car with any sort of urgency--as our 16.3 second 1/4-mile run proved.
The chassis is well balanced, and the handling is predictable and neutral, but this doesn't do much to score points for a car that is generally unremarkable.
The good news is the Cougar is a relative bargain in today's new-car battlefield. Our loaded test car stickered out under $22,000. Lose the leather, the sunroof, and a few other cushy options, and you can still have a well-optioned Cougar for around $19,000. That's not bad for a car that, in truth, really has nothing materially wrong with it.
Truly, the Cougar's chief shortcoming is the fact that it fails to inspire the driver the way the Contour does. The Contour has the same good manners as the Cougar, but it seems to be constantly asking the driver for more. The Cougar just doesn't have that kind of rapport with the driver. It is pretty, though.
