1999-2000 Mercury Cougar

After skipping the 1998 model year, the 1999 Cougar was introduced to replace the Ford Probe. This time, the Cougar was a front-wheel drive sports compact like its predecessor. Mercury's struggle to appeal to younger buyers in the sport compact segment despite traditionally having a coupe in showrooms, and "purists" crying afoul of the Cougar's radical transformation, contributed to its demise on August 9, 2002 upon Ford restructuring its model line. This Cougar was available with a 2-liter Zetec 4 cylinder or a 2.5 liter Duratec V6. Both automatic and manual transmissions were offered, and only 500 were built with a 4-cylinder paired with an automatic, and the V6-equipped cougar can take it to around 145 miles per hour.

Image date: June 2007