Re: Do they still offer Ford Cougar in North America

The Mondeo is a seperate car. More like the American Escort than Cougar. In fact when I was Germany we rented a Mondeo station wagon. Fast as hell little 4 cylinder turbo deisel. I had it up to 160 MPH on Autobahn. What a rush. Didn't have any take off but top end was all good!!

Reply to
EMTurbo
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Sigh. The original Mondeo was program CDW27, common with the North American Contour/Mystique. They were identical under the skin, and only some late-hours waffling gave the Contour different exterior sheetmetal than the Mondeo. All of these were updated as CDW162, as I recall, and the Mondeo has been updated as CDW126, I think.

SW164, the last car to bear the name Mercury Cougar, was program SW164, which was based directly off the CDW27. If you look closely, you will see that the wheelbases are identical, rather long for a 2+2 of that class. This car replaced the ST44 Ford Probe at the AutoAlliance assembly plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, and as the Ford Cougar, replaced the Probe as an export model to Europe.

Anyway, neither Mondeo nor Cougar is based on any Escort. The Escort ZX2 was available with a version of the 16-valve Zetec 2.0 engie that was the base for Contour/Mystique and optional in Mondeo. I believe that Zetec's were also offered in later-year European Escorts, which are totally unrelated to the North American Escorts.

Mondeos have always been offered with a wider range of engines than the Contour/Mystique. While the North Americans got a choice of

2-liter Zetec or 2.5-liter Duratec V6, there are 1.6 and 1.8 Zetec's in Europe. I suspect you got a 1.6 in your rental car.
Reply to
Stephen H. Westin

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