Grill of My Dreams

By DENISE GELLENE

July 2, 1998 12 AM PT

With its hideaway headlights, sporty chrome grill and muscular V-8 engine, the 1967 Mercury Cougar was, according to ads from Ford Motor Co., “a man’s car.”

An advertisement introducing the car showed a svelte brunet with Cleopatra eyes provocatively posed next to the Cougar. “A new kind of road animal,” the ad said.

That was then. Withdrawn from the market in 1997 because of dwindling sales, the Cougar is back and redesigned. And this time Mercury is aiming the smaller, two-door sports coupe largely at women.

Lincoln-Mercury, the stodgy luxury division of Ford, has big ambitions for the car. The updated Cougar is critical to Mercury’s quest for younger drivers. While typical Mercury buyers are in their mid-50s, the Cougar, with its unconventional styling and peppy engine, is aimed at people in their mid-20s to mid-30s.

“This vehicle has a different role from any other [car] in the Mercury lineup,” said Michael Jennings, brand manager for the Cougar.

Mercury’s approach in designing and marketing the Cougar reflects that. Early on, engineers took the unusual step of quizzing dozens of women about a prototype car, using the information to make changes in the position of control levers and the shape of seats.

In early spring, months before the Cougar’s June launch, Mercury took dozens of dealers in their mid-40s to mid-60s to a trendy Florida nightspot for a dose of youth culture. At follow-up training sessions, dealers received tips on how to do business with savvy twentysomethings.

Despite the preparations, the Cougar faces significant challenges. Industry analysts say that many Gen-Xers’ idea of a sporty vehicle is a sport-utility. Beyond that, analysts say, the musty Mercury nameplate is apt to turn off potential buyers for the car, which has a base price of $16,595.

“One of the biggest disadvantages is that it is a Mercury,” said Wes Brown, a consultant with Thousand Oaks-based Nextrend.

Such images can be hard to shake. General Motors Corp.’s Oldsmobile division several years ago tried to convince younger buyers that it wasn’t “your father’s Oldsmobile.” But the attempt backfired because the slogan reminded young adults that older people tended to choose Olds.

More recently, General Motors introduced the Catera, a small Cadillac that it hoped would attract younger buyers to the staid luxury line. But many Catera buyers have turned out to be older drivers who like the youthful image of the “Caddy that zigs.”

Mercury argues that its image problem is different. Ian Beavis, marketing manager for Lincoln-Mercury, said Gen-Xers aren’t turned off by Mercury--they simply are unaware of it.

“Older buyers know us, but younger people aren’t even aware of us,” Beavis said. “Mercury is not a blip on the radar for them. . . . With a message that is relevant, and a product that is relevant, that is not too much to overcome.”

It is doubtful that many Gen-Xers are familiar with the muscular Cougar that was named Motor Trend’s 1967 Car of the Year. Symbolized by a growling mountain lion, early Cougars attracted such a following among hot rodders that Hertz ran weekend “Rent a Racer” promotions. A souped-up version, called the Eliminator, came in flashy fluorescent hues.

Aimed at upscale, professional men, ads from the 1960s brimmed with machismo that seems shocking today.

“Mercury believes a man’s car should be full of better ideas,” said an ad touting Mercury’s hideaway headlights, sequential turn signals and tilt-away steering wheel. “A man’s car at an affordable price.”

Eclipsed in sales by other sports cars, Cougar in the 1970s and ‘80s went through redesigns that drifted from its sports car heritage. And while the 1999 Cougar still lacks the size and muscle of early models--the largest engine available is a V-6--it represents a return to Cougar’s sporty roots, some say.

“It looks like it’s going fast when it’s standing still,” said Phil Parcells of Rochester, N.Y., owner of three early Cougars, including a bright blue 1969 Eliminator. “It has the look.”

A look aimed at women buyers, that is. Mercury focused on women because they are increasingly buying sporty coupes--the Pontiac Grand Am and Sunfire and the Saturn sports coupe are driven mostly by women. Mercury expects that 60% of Cougar buyers will be women--the reverse of 1997, when 65% of buyers were men.

“This is not a car in the very hard, aggressive, muscular sports car mold,” said Gemma Grouse, an engineer involved in designing the car. “It is designed to be more sophisticated.

Before creating the car, Mercury engineers say, they went to unusual lengths to find out what women want. Dozens of women explored Cougar prototypes and drove competing models, such as the Honda Prelude and Mitsubishi Eclipse, to help engineers figure out what features matter.

Engineers softened the contour of the seats so that skirts wouldn’t catch on raised edges. A storage compartment for CD cases was added. The opening height of the tailgate was lowered so women could reach it without stretching. The finger grip on the gas tank cover was enlarged so women wouldn’t break fingernails on it.

“It sounds like a really stupid thing, unless it happens to you,” Grouse said.

Ads for Cougar from Young & Rubicam in Detroit subtly pitch women. In a TV spot, a suave young man behind the wheel of a Cougar ditches a disguise after getting through a military roadblock. “He” turns out to be a she. To reach young adults, Mercury has placed ads for the first time in Rolling Stone and on MTV.

Auto industry analysts say Mercury won’t have trouble selling the 50,000 or so Cougars it plans to produce, though it faces obstacles in attracting Gen-Xers.

Jim Hall, a vice president with the consulting firm AutoPacific, said adults in their 20s and early 30s aspire to sport-utility vehicles, which are roomy enough for five or more friends to pile inside. Sporty coupes generally don’t have enough rear legroom to seat adults comfortably, Hall said. Cougar has more legroom than typical sporty coupes, though it is, of course, no match for an SUV.

“You can’t do anything with a sporty coupe,” Hall said. “You can’t take friends to the beach--it’s got no room.”

Another challenge is whether a dealer force accustomed to mature buyers can effectively court younger consumers.

At dealer meetings last spring in Orlando, Fla., and Phoenix, hotel ballrooms were equipped with stages where twentysomething actors talked about cars on a “Friends”-like set equipped with couches, posters and bicycles hung from the ceiling. After that, dozens of dealers in Phoenix were taken to a noisy virtual-reality game parlor, and dozens more dealers in Orlando were sent to a House of Blues to watch alternative-rock fans gyrate inside a mosh pit.

Dealers and salespeople got more insights about young adults at seminars in 22 cities. Among the hints: Don’t write off customers in T-shirts, torn bluejeans or overalls because they don’t look prosperous. “These people could be CEOs of a software company,” Cougar brand manager Jennings advised dealers.

Although no figures were available, Mercury said it is pleased with sales of the Cougar in its first three weeks, results that have been encouraging enough to cause at least one dealer to alter his outlook.

“In the past, I would fire a salesman with an earring,” one dealer said in a letter to Beavis. “Now I’m thinking about hiring a salesman with an earring.”

* YOUR WHEELS: So-called run-flat tires are becoming more widely available. Classified, G7

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Drive, She Said

The new Mercury Cougar, above, is being marketed more toward women, in contrast with the male-oriented Cougar of three decades ago. Women are becoming increasingly important to auto marketers. They account for more than half the buyers of compact cars and an increasing percentage of sporty-vehicle sales.

Types of cars and their popularity with women

Percentage of cars, by type, driven by women:

*--*

Type 1996 1997 Entry compact 54.5% 57.8% Premium compact 56.9% 58.0% Lower mid-size 51.5% 53.6% Upper mid-size 45.0% 43.9% Entry sporty 58.4% 63.0% Mid sporty 48.0% 44.3% Premium sporty 21.9% 23.5% Basic large 30.3% 27.5% Near luxury 39.9% 39.3% Traditional luxury 28.1% 23.7% Foreign luxury 26.2% 27.5%

*--*

Cars popular with women

Models with the highest percentage of female drivers in 1997:

Mazda MX-3: 69.3%*

Toyota Paseo: 68.2%

Saturn coupe: 67.8%

Pontiac Sunfire: 65.4%

Nissan 200SX: 65.3%

Saturn sedan: 65.2%

Eagle Summit: 63.6%

Nissan Sentra: 63.4%

Hyundai Elantra: 63.1%