1990 Mercury Cougar problems
NHTSA has received 104 complaints about the 1990 Mercury Cougar, and 20% of them involve electrical system. After that come cruise control (18%) and seat belts (15%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 104 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Electrical system 20% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 11 and 9
- Injuries and deaths
- 6 and 0
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
What the data shows
Safety-related details: 11 complaints mention a crash; 9 complaints mention a fire; 6 injuries reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 83% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1990 ranks 11th most-complained-about out of 12 model years of the Mercury Cougar with enough data (28 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 3 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
With foot on brake and rear ended, drivers lap belt button is stuck with latch separating and shoulder belt didn't restrain from hitting steering wheel. Tt
Driver entered vehicle, put on lap/shoulder belt, put vehicle in drive position, suddenly vehicle accelerated and took off, tried to apply brakes, which did not work, driver steered vehicle towards a wall, vehicle was totaled.
Tl* the contact owns a 1990 mercury cougar. The contact stated smoke emitted from underneath the hood when the engine was turned on and within seconds the engine was on fire. The fire department advised the fire originated at a fuse box located in the battery and alternator area. The vehicle was destroyed. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure and current mileage was 89,000.
Heavy traffic on state highway engine overheating alarm activated,incident has occured twice,in traffic,everything had to be turned off and I had to pull off of highway, other complaint dash panel lights out with definitely electrical issue,almost will not start,this occured while driving and now eill not come back on at all