Test drive Ford Cougar 1998 - 2001 compartment

Older brother

My first meeting with Ford Cougar took place at the end of August, at the Moscow Motor Show. The machine attracted the New Edge style with its appearance is still perceived fresh. Anyway, a car with a body compartment is difficult not to linger ...


For the first time, new faceted features appeared on a Ford KA car, then on a small compartment with a cat Puma, after it a Focus appeared, and now a big COUGAR. Ford stylistic strategy has already borne fruit. The world, tired of the bio -design, adopted the Ford Development with a bang, which is about the title of the 1999 European car, which received Ford Focus.


Two years ago, in Frankfurt, the concept of MS2 from Ford Motor Co. He earned enthusiastic reviews of visitors and specialists. Then it was announced that this machine, built on the Ford Mondeo platform, is a prototype of a serial compartment, which for the next year should enter the market after the Puma model.


As promised, Cougar, having debuted in the beginning of 1998 in Detroit, and then in Geneva (Motor #4, 1998), soon went on sale in Europe, filling out a niche, which was released after the release of the long -obsolete Ford coupe PROBE (Mazda MX-6). A little Puma has an older brother Cougar ...




Ford Mondeo Car of the European branch of Ford. The car has two American twin brothers Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique, which differ mainly by design. The coupe was created in Europe as a model intended primarily for the European market, where it is sold as Ford Cougar. So on this side of the Atlantic, it is generally accepted that the coupe is built on the Mondeo platform.


Officially, the new Cougar made his debut in Detroit as a model of Mercury. (In the USA, the car replaced by the old large Mercury Cougar compartment, which was a model parallel to Ford Thunderbird.) The New Edge style created in Europe with Ford Focus, so the company decided that the faceted Mercury Cougar will be in demand there. Of course, patriotic Americans, who have not heard about Mondeo, believe that the compartment is built on the Contour platform. Well, let there be no technical error in this ...


It is interesting that the design of the front, in particular lighting equipment, Cougar is more similar to the MC4 concept, exhibited under the Mercury brand (motor #2, 1997) than on MC2, which performed under the Ford brand (motor #11, 1997).


Releasing the novelty in the sector of the European market compartment, where cars with a blue oval emblem were absent for a long time, Ford expects to repeat the success of the Capri seventies model. So far, a car is popular in Europe and the USA (taking into account the limited demand for cars with a body coupe). They decided to sell it even in Russia, so Cougar was brought to Moscow, and after the exhibition they left Ford at the Moscow representative office. It's a sin not to take advantage of the service position ...


In my hands I have documents and keys to the silver Ford Cougar. I look at the car again with pleasure in daylight. The car cannot be called small (length 4699 mm, width 1769 mm, height 1325 mm), but it looks quite low due to its elongation, which is enhanced by an impressive wheelbase (2704 mm).


A huge door without a glass frame swings widely, and I, slightly bending, slipping into the driver's seat. The driver’s workplace is set up using an electric drive, which is controlled in Fordovsky on the base of the seat pillow, under the left hand. There is also the heating key (not at all superfluous function in our non -fucked latitudes). The seat moves back and forth, up and down, the angle of inclination of the back changes.


The material of the upholstery is skin with fine perforation, which in principle should be in the way in hot weather. (I recalled the racing Ford GT40 also with holey seats.) The seat turned out to be very convenient, both lateral support and clutch properties are good. Planting by five, still an adjustable lumbar support would be added to the assessment, a plus could be added.


The steering column is adjusted along the angle of inclination, the steering wheel with a leather upholstery rim in the hands does not slip. A pillow of safety is mounted in the hub, which does not interfere at all to follow the readings of devices covered in a sporting manner of visor. On the functional and at the same time elegant torpedo there is nothing superfluous, unusual deflectors of the heating and ventilation system remind of the glorious sixties. A round switch is responsible for external lighting to the left of the steering column (quite characteristic of Ford cars), for the light in the cabin on the ceiling at the inner rear view mirror. A number of control lamps (as in an airplane) for example warning about temperature overboard were carried out on the mirror. The yellow snowflake is lit below three degrees, red below zero ...


The internal door panels deserve separate mention. The upper part is trimmed with soft plastic and forms a convenient armrest, and the door handle-break passes with an elegant bend in the door pocket. Solid New Edge. The lower part of the panel is made of material resembling a carpet in texture, the same carpet is laid on the car floor (in the legs, of course, rubber rugs).


Let's try to go back back for this, you need to throw back the back of the front seat, the corresponding semicircular handle was found on the side of the back, next to the Airbag inscription (side pillow, therefore). But even the child’s liberated chair is not made in the freed opening, it is adjusted to a tall person ... you need to move the seat forward, and with an electric drive this is a rather long story ... The front passenger seat is already without bellows, only heating, but it easily moves forward. Nevertheless, you cannot call a simple process of penetration.


The bucket seats have pretty decent sizes, and there are a lot of legs behind the legs, but only people of medium height and complexion can conveniently accommodate in the second row. It will be crowded in the buckets full, and the high will have to sit, leaning forward due to the falling line of the roof. What do you want from the compartment? Most competing machines are even closer from behind. But the trunk pleased with volume. This is where the car length has gone after folding the back of the rear seat Cougar can be compared in cargo capacity with a family sedan.


The setting of the rear -view mirrors did not take much time, the review of a good low ceiling and side roof racks do not interfere with the situation in front of the large windshield, with a slightly less success, you can observe what is done from behind.


The start of the engine is accompanied by a characteristic Ford bell and illumination of control lamps. At idle speeds, the motor is barely heard by a 2.5 liter of the Duratec-shaped Duratec with a capacity of 170 hp, migrated to Mondeo (in the gamut there is also more than 2 liter four-cylinder, with a capacity of 130 hp).


The clutch pedal is quite informative, with a slight elastic effort and an average move, gas with its sensitivity and feedback is the ensemble played with the clutch. The programs switch easily and clearly, in a short lever with a convenient tip, small moves, moments of turning on and off each step are felt well. The steering wheel with an amplifier allows you to easily maneuver (for example, when parking), the dimensions of the machine are felt clearly, which is also very helpful in narrow places.


We get out on the road. That's why Cougar was created. The car instantly reacts to the press of the gas pedal, quickly gains speed ... The engine, as if by a slaughter, begins to make a characteristic whistling sound. And I would like to go faster in this sense Cogar provides a lot of opportunities.


The motor operates very exactly in the entire speed range (the red zone begins about 6,000 rpm.). However, COUGAR needs a free road, during the day in Moscow you will not ride with a breeze ...


The efficiency of braking is higher than all praise. Yes, and can it be different in the presence of disk ventilated mechanisms on all wheels. The brake system of the car was eliminated from tangible shocks on the pedals inherent in the early versions of the Ford ABS.


Now about the suspension, more precisely about the chassis. It worked perfectly with the engineers as it should. I had to ride both Mondeo and Focus, I must say that Cougar strengthened me in the opinion that European Ford models are primarily for the driver. The suspension is quite suitable for such a car, tougher than that of Mondeo, but not so much as to cause reproaches of comfort lovers (if compared with the chassis of Mondeo, the rigidity of springs and reptile stability stabilizers has been increased, the road lumen is reduced and the rut is expanded). A couple of times in too embossed places the rear suspension pierced, but without cruel strikes on the body.


At a relatively low speed, the steering wheel amplifier does not leave the driver with his worries. His help was felt by the growing reverse action on the steering wheel, striving to return the wheels to a straightforward position. Typically, an artificial stabilizing moment on the controlled wheels is determined by the selection of the kinematic parameters of the front suspension in conjunction with the angles of inclination of the rotary axis and the shoulder of the run -in. In the case of Ford Cougar, the characteristics of the steering amplifier were added to them. At first it seemed unusual, even annoyed like someone controlled a car with you, but then I got used to it. Everything became clear later, when it became possible to drive properly. The steering wheel gained commendable sharpness, the importunity of the amplifier disappeared, and Cougar became even more obedient, demonstrating what it is capable of in experienced hands. The car quickly makes it clear how to behave with it, allowing you to easily correct errors ...


It is a pity that the day is so short, besides, you have to be distracted by food and sleep. I would drive and drive without getting out of the steering wheel of this wonderful car. In terms of controllability, stability and dynamic characteristics, Cougar will furnish almost all of its rivals (which average compartment can boast of the V6 engine?). The appearance is excellent, and a large trunk with a comfortable entrance makes Cougar more practical than most coupes of this class.


It remains to wish the machine a successful passage of certification tests and good luck on Russian roads.
 
Sergey Ivanov
 

Source: Motor magazine [No. 11/1999]