Great value

I bought my Cougar about a year ago for $3900 with 64k miles on the 4.6l (3.8l is garbage--unless you like changing gaskets). I drive it hard and get ~22mpg on the highway, city around 20mpg.

Great car, especially for the money. I like the styling, the size, the great ride, and the power plant under the hood allows the car to get out of its own way. It's smooth on the highway and wind noise is minimal. The interior design is a classic with the wrap around dash, the ford engineers did a great job with this one. Rear legroom is a little tight for adults, but I don't sit back there so it doesn't bother me. The traction control helps keep the rear end in line when the road is wet or covered with snow. The rear wheel drive is a bit of a disadvantage in the snow, but a set of studded snows take care of that. The four wheel disc brakes are top-notch, if you're not used to them you'll nose-dive the car the first time you apply them. Handling is a bit labored, but it's a big car and it's not meant to take corners all that fast.

I've put 20k miles on it since I've purchased it, and the only repair I've had to perform is replacing the upper intake, which was made entirely of plastic, to include the coolant runner going from the engine to the radiator. It's a known problem that the runner cracks, leaking coolant and disabling the vehicle. Ford recalled all fleet vehicles but only did a "campaign" on the consumer vehicles, where they replace the intake with a better designed version with a metal runner but only if the problem arises within 7 years of the manufacture date. My manifold cracked 7 years and 6 months after it was manufactured, so several failed attempts to get ford to pay for it and $800 later I was up and running again. I may never buy a ford again because of this, and there are several class action lawsuits over the obviously bad design.

My only other minor complaint is the squeaks and rattles from all the dash panels. This is a problem with most American cars where an excessive number of panels are used in the cabin. After 84k miles, they rub against each other and causing excessive squeaks and rattles.

All in all it's a great car, just make sure the manifold has been replaced if you're considering one.