Used Car of the Day: 1969 Mercury Cougar Eliminator

by Tim Healey

Published: June 4th, 2024

used car of the day 1969 mercury cougar eliminator

We're going full muscle car today with this 1969 Mercury Cougar Eliminator.

As a child of the '80s and '90s, I grew up with angular Euro-inspired Cougars. Those cars were fun in some ways, but there is something about a big, strong muscle car with the long hood and short deck.

This one was originally a Hertz car -- a numbers-matching Rent-a-Racer that is one of 101 built.

Our seller says it has been cleaned and tuned up within the past year and the mileage is just 23,000.

Under the hood is a 351 V8 that pairs to an automatic transmission. There's a 3.0 rear axle out back.

This one has a factory power sunroof, power steering, and power front brakes.

This is a pretty rare car that's apparently in pretty good shape, so it's priced accordingly at $65,000. This car is based in California.

Click here for more.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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2 of 38 comments

Jbltg on Jun 05, 2024

This example seems to be something that should be sold through a fancy auction house, assuming it is what the seller says it is.
I was a kid in 1969 and was very much aware of the muscle cars of the time, but do not remember this one. Cougars always had an extra measure of cool, as Arthur Dailey notes.

3 Reply
Eric on Jun 05, 2024

I sincerely doubt the mileage claim. After being sold by Hertz in 1970 or 1971 it still only has 23k miles? Doubtful.

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