I want to start off with saying that this car isn't a bad car by any means. Drives really nicely, sleek, compact, excellent gas mileage, and has truly held up well over the years of use. My fiancé and I haven't had a single issue with it -- until we had a baby. This is definitely not a family car. It only has two doors, so you must lean the seat back to install a car seat, put the baby in, and take out of the car seat too. The back seats are very deep bucket seats, so this is far from ideal with a car seat. Space was also nonexistent inside the car once a baby was in it. However, the trunk, while it looked tiny, managed to hold one convertible stroller and a pack and play!

The car is solid with a good body design and still gets good gas mileage. The car still handles quite well for its age. The electrical system has held up well. The steering and front end are still in great shape. This vehicle has had easy maintenance records, and there's room to work on the vehicle if needed. The interior has held up very well, considering the age of this vehicle. The design doesn't introduce any blind spots. Overall, we've been quite pleased with this Mercury.

I purchased my 1999 Mercury Cougar Used with 142,000 miles on it. It had been very well cared for by it's previous owner and this is key to having a good experience with a used vehicle. Mercury had a hit with the Cougar's engine design. It is very similar to that used in Ford's higher end vehicles like the Jaguar and is very reliable and long lasting. However with mine being a 1999 model, the first year of it's generation there have been some other small issues to deal with. Comfort wise - I find driving the cougar to be very nice. The driver's seat has plenty of legroom as does the passenger seat and both are quite comfortable to sit in for long periods of time. The rear seats are smaller bucket seats that might get a little cramped after a while, and there isn't much legroom in the back. However, with this being a two door sporty vehicle, there is very often not very many people riding with you. Another handy feature of this car is the trunk. With it's hatchback configuration, and folding rear seats it is easy to haul a lot of cargo with this car. The only problem I've seen so far with this is the lowered headroom in the rear seats, you have to be careful closing the hatch with someone sitting back there, but once it's closed you really don't have to worry about bumping your head.