1979 Mercury Cougar: Outside the Muscle Focus

Total 1979 Cougar production reached 172,152 cars, this record's own dek and production table agree, with the Cougar Club of America's registry table matching Wikipedia's figure exactly, this record's own note stating the club total is not shown to be an independent lineage from Wikipedia's. Of that total, 163,716 carried the XR-7 badge, this record's own production table states, while conceptcarz's own spec-page production figures give 2,831 two-door hardtops and 5,605 four-door pillared hardtops for the Cougar and Brougham lines, figures this record's own production notes state sum with the XR-7 count to exactly 172,152, the total already in the table.^1,2,3

This record's own overview states that the Cougar Club of America's registry groups 1979 together with the 1977-78 Cougars, and that the registry's page gives no 1979-specific engine list, a gap this record's own engines and transmissions sections carry forward, both left entirely empty for the year. This record's own production notes state plainly that rows are separately scoped and not to be added together unless a note says they partition a total, and that 1979 sits outside the 1967-1973 muscle focus the record otherwise covers in depth, carrying only totals and configuration context for the year.²

Mercury's 1979 literature is documented as listing fifteen exterior colours, eleven standard and four optional Glamour metallic paints, seven of the fifteen new for the year, plus nine vinyl-roof colours, and the same literature says more than sixty options were offered, this record's own key facts section states. This record's own options section itemizes nine of them by name: the XR-7 Chamois Decor Group package, a power moonroof for the XR-7 only, an illuminated visor vanity mirror, 6-way power seats, an illuminated entry system, a power lock group, a 40-channel CB radio requiring a radio, a Sports Instrumentation Group with ammeter, oil pressure and temperature gauges, trip odometer and tachometer, and a wheel entry spanning luxury, deluxe and wire wheel covers, styled steel wheels with trim rings, styled road wheels and cast aluminum wheels, none of the nine carrying a price or installation figure.²

This record's own paint table carries 36 colour entries for 1979: the same 21 colours listed across the full 1977-79 span without a model-year-specific attribution, plus 15 colours the 1979 Mercury exterior colour chart itself ties to the Cougar specifically, 11 of them standard (Black, Silver Metallic, Dove Grey, Dark Red, Light Medium Blue, Dark Blue Metallic, Dark Jade Metallic, Pastel Chamois, Dark Cordovan Metallic, Light Chamois and White) and 4 offered as optional metallics at extra cost (Medium Red Metallic for the XR-7 only, Medium Blue Metallic, Medium Dark Orange Metallic and Medium Jade Metallic), consistent with the key facts section's own count of eleven standard and four optional Glamour paints.²

Fourteen interior descriptions are carried without codes for 1979, this record's own interiors section shows, drawn from the brochure's own text: six Brougham Decor Group Twin Comfort Lounge seat colours, six Cougar flight bench seat colours offered as the optional or standard bench in cloth-and-vinyl or all-vinyl, and two XR-7 Chamois Decor Group bucket seat pairings, one in saddle Huntsman cloth with chamois vinyl and one in blue with chamois trim.²

This record carries no 1979 price at all; its own price notes explain that a figure once shown here, sourced to J.D. Power's live valuation pages, was pulled from every page on the site because those pages can change without notice and cannot be independently checked, and that no replacement has yet been found. No specifications, performance figures, identification codes, documented conflicts or unpublished leads survive in this record's own respective sections, all left empty for a year this record's own production notes describe as outside the 1967-1973 muscle focus, carrying only production totals, configuration context, options, paint and interior description for 1979.²