Now I like Jeff a lot. I mean here is a real, honest to God, Ford guy with all of this misinformation. And of course I can’t keep my mouth shut so I wrote this reply:
Jeff,
In addition to Legendary Cougar Magazine I also run a site and forum called ClassicCougarCommunity.Com, so I am pretty well in touch with the Cougar space. I am hoping that what you wrote about the Ron Pratt Cougar was an intentional effort to get the Cougar guys riled up and therefore participating in your new venture.
Otherwise, you kind of screwed the pooch. Ron bought that Eliminator at Barrett Jackson in 2007 and paid $128,700 for it. This wasn’t particularly high price for a Cougar. Last year another Eliminator went for $154K. The year before that a standard GT-E brought almost $185K. Most Cougars trade hands in private sales and there have been many transactions that are close to these numbers for rare and desirable Cougars. Of course there were many not so nice cars that sold for less.
I am not trying to scold you, just to update you on the way things have changed since about 2003 or so… It is as surprising to me as anyone else.
The Mustang outsold the Cougar by a factor of almost 10 to 1, so in terms of gross numbers it is a much bigger market. What you have to take into consideration is that a large chunk of that was six cylinder coupes. Those cars are not comparable to what a convertible or fastback Mustang will bring. There were no six cylinder Cougars, and starting in '69 the base engine was the 351. Every engine offered in the Mustang (except the sixes) was also offered in the Cougar (including the Boss 302, however, only 2 Boss 429s were built). The Cougar was also offered with the 427, something no Mustang can claim.
The best way to understand the current Cougar market is to think of it as part of a Mustang continuum that runs from a six cylinder coupe to the Shelby GT-500KR or Boss 429. Sort of a different body style (coupe, convertible, fast back, Cougar). When Mustang guys talk about Cougars they see it more as a luxury Mustang. In the same way that they may prefer the fast back to the coupe they may prefer the Mustang shape to the Cougar, or vice versa. Although the Falcon and the Mustang were about equally related, Mustang guys never associated the two vehicles. Lets be clear, it has not always been this way. What we see is more Mustang guys getting interested in Cougars, the lines have become blurred.
The Eliminators are now selling for about the same money as a Mach 1. The 428CJ Cougars can sometimes run a bit more than the comparable Mustang due to the relative rarity of the Cougar, and the generally higher level of optional content on the Cougar.
Probably the most significant thing happening to the Cougar market is that the bigger multi make collectors now want to add a Cougar to their collections. I believe in part this is because they know the cars are authentic due to the Marti reports (who knew the most popular Camaro in '69 was the Camaro Z28 with cowl induction?)
Give me a call sometime, and if you ever need Cougar information, I would be happy to help.
always gets in the way. It’s easier to buy a Shelby.