Memoirs: Beware of the Mercury Cougar

At the age of 17 years old my dad bought me my first car. It was cute for a girl ,but it was not the sexy ride that I had in mind to ride in. It was a white Volkswagen ,Golf which had no power windows, power seats, or AC. It was a very standard vehicle; it was great on gas I must say. Being myself I was not satisfied with what daddy had bought me ,so I had a plan to save up as much cash as I could to buy another car that I really liked. I drove the car for about a year because I did not want my dad to think that I was an ungrateful brat.

!
After that year I only had about $6,500 saved up. I decided that I did not want to have to worry about the burden of having a car payment ,so I figured that maybe I could get something nice from a car auction. It did not dawn on me to find out what type of cars were great on gas, great in the snow, long-lasting, or anything that would probably save me a headache in the long run. I just thought if a car was "CUTE" then hey it was for me. What a big mistake that was for me
My dad tried to convince me to wait a little longer before I buy a car and check out a couple of car dealers that he had in mind. Of course, I was impatient and stubborn and things always had to go my way, so I found myself at a car auction anyway.

Once at the auction there was a black Mercury, Cougar that caught my attention. The Cougar was exactly what I had always imagined that I wanted. It was black, small, had a sunroof, and it was a coupe. It was sporty and sexy all at the same time. Meanwhile my dad was saying, " Hey you should check out these Honda's over here, or that Toyota over there." His words were going in one ear and out of the other because all I could see was my dream car at the price that I could afford. After my dad noticed that I had my mind set on the 1999 Mercury, Cougar ,he let me buy it for $5,700.

e
I felt pretty great about my purchase for the simple fact that I had used my own money that I had earned to buy something that I had really wanted. I could not stop patting myself on my back because I was so proud of my big purchase. After about 3 months ,the car began to fall apart. Any and
verything that you can possible think of was going wrong with the car. First, my transmission went and it cost me $2,700 to get it replaced. Next, my fuel pump went ,and it cost me almost $400 to replace it. Then, the axle had snapped while I was driving; this was a nightmare because axles are very expensive to buy. Therefore, I had to find one at a junkyard for about $100 and then have it repaired at an auto body shop for another $200 dollars. A couple of months after that my fuel pump went again and this time I paid $600 to get it replaced. I can not forget about all of the side mirrors that I had to replace because of careless drivers that would drive by and rip off my mirror while I was parked. In total, I spent about $10,000 getting the car repaired over and over again.

I guess this is one of the reasons that the Mercury, Cougar was discontinued. I tried to be cheap and buy a cheap car and I ended up putting so much money into it that I might as well have bought a brand new car. After owning the car for at least 3 years it broke down for the last time , I decided to give up on it at that point. By then I was out of money from getting it fixed so much ,and I opted to catch the bus from that day on. I felt kind of relieved not to have the car anymore, but I was bummed when I had to take the bus again. That was also a sad day for my auto mechanic because he could always count on me to bring him business at least once every other month.

Copyright Date October 2010
I wrote this about three years ago when I had finally gotten rid of my Mercury Cougar....
Follow me on twitter @ Ms_Noel...