Rarest MN12: 1989 Mercury Cougar XR7 5-speed

We featured a 1988 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe recently, and many of you indicated it’s a favorite.  We love those, too, but that’s not our favorite T-Bird/Cougar from the 80s and 90s.  The winner is the two-year-only supercharged Cougar XR7.  210 horsepower may not sound like much today, but 315 lb-ft of torque available under 3,000 RPM is impressive even today.  The rumor is that fewer than 3,000 were built with the 5-speed manual (most for the 1989 model year).  That’s out of almost 200,000 Cougars over the two-year span.

The seller here claims to have done a fair amount of recent work and issues are limited to the headliner, dash and exhaust.  We’re curious as to what one of these would sound like with a mild custom exhaust, anyway!

Do you want to know the product details, etc. for all your favorite Mercurys?  We knew you did!  You can pick up your own copy of the out of print Mercury Illustrated Buyer’s Guide at AbeBooks.com.  Your host didn’t go pull his copy, but remembers the numbers on this car pretty well because a friend in High School had a brand new (unfortunately automatic) one of these.

Click for Craigslist ad
Largo, FL (Tampa Bay)
$3,200
Posted by CG

We’re glad this one has stock wheels – they sometimes disappeared, but they’re cool in a subtle way.  With the white-out grille, it’s a bit surprising Mercury didn’t add white wheels in true late 1980s fashion.

These are not easy to spot from a distance, so they make great sleepers.  Exterior bits unique to the supercharged (XR7) models include the wheels, white grille plus XR7 badging on the front fenders and the rear of the car.  Under each fender badge is small “supercharged” script, which changed to “5.0 Liter V8” after they killed off the S/C V6 for the 1991 model year.

Bad news with these cars?  Yep – mouse belt!  What a throwback, though!  Interior is nothing great by today’s standard, but the seats were multi-adjustable, the suspension had auto and firm settings, there was a boost/vacuum gauge and there was a cool rolltop-style extra dash compartment atop the primary glove box.  We’d probably hunt for a more stock-ish shift knob if we dragged this home.

Nothing weird here – intake upgrade doesn’t cause too much concern.  If the smog checkers give you trouble, the good news is that under-hood parts are shared with the more mass-produced T-Bird SC.

Ad text:

i am looking to sell my 89 mercury cougar xr7 with the 3.8 supercharged motor with the 5 speed manual transmission. nothing was swapped, it is all original. it has 108,000 miles on it and it still runs like a champ, no smoke, no knocks, and everything works great. 

pros:
i have replaced the water pump, alternator, crank position sensor, plugs and wires, all new pads and rotors all around, new battery and starter solenoid, oil changed every 3000 miles, all brand new tires about 2 months ago, new motor mount, new tie rods on both sides. there is probably more but i cant think of any.

cons:
head liner above the back seats is drooping a little bit, the dash is cracked but they do make dash caps and covers for it, the paint on the front bumper is faded, and i cut just the mufflers because they fell apart on the inside but its not really loud at all. also the intilock light is on and i think its just the wheel speed sensor.

ive put a lot of time into this car and if you know about it then you know what it could be worth and what it could do. this was a rare limited production car, you wont see another one like it around. im asking 3,200 obo for it, just make me an offer the worst i can say is no. i will consider trades also. you can call or text me at 727-xxx-xxxx thanks for looking