The Mercury Cougar interior color section of the 1968 Mercury Cougar Dealer Guide. You can download a PDF copy of the Mercury Cougar section of the Dealer Guide here.

In 1968, You Only Got a Small Portion, But It Was Still Spaghetti If you’ve never spent a Saturday afternoon trying to figure out which vacuum line goes where on that ’68 Cougar you bought from the guy who thought his vacuum system modifications would improve things, you’re very lucky. The fact is, even Lincoln/Mercury’s technicians needed occasional help when it came to untangling the spaghetti-like mass of vacuum lines under the hood of the ’68 model line.

Even Then, They Knew Just How to Play You If the 1968 Mercury Cougar didn’t have you searching your couch cushions for pennies, the Dealer Guide would. It’s 1968. You’re standing in front of the Lincoln-Mercury dealership. The gas station on the corner is in the midst of a “gas war” with a station down the street; premium is going for 19.9 cents a gallon. Your palms are sweaty. You take a deep breath and walk through the door of the dealership, telling the salesman who meets you at the door that you’re interested in a new Mercury Cougar.

Front View My love affair with Cougars started back in 1991. I had always been into classic cars, and as I approached my 16th birthday I started searching for “my car.” I saw many cars I would love to have and looked at a few that were realistic. I looked at ’61 Impalas, Chevelle’s, etc. Finally, my dad pointed out an ad he had seen at work for a 1968 Mercury Cougar.

The information contained in this article is summary information taken from the 1968 Mercury Cougar GT-E Registry maintained by Jim Pinkerton, and used with his permission.

Dan Gurney specials were produced for the 1967 and 1968 model years only. They were promoted by Dan Gurney who signed a sponsorship deal with Mercury for the 1967 Trans Am racing season. The DGS option included a chrome engine dress-up kit, “turbine wheel covers” and a sticker on the rear passenger (needs to be confirmed it was passenger side please) side window. The chrome engine dress up kit consisted of a chrome air cleaner lid, dipstick and valve covers.

The 1968 model year included: Standard Coupe, XR7, GT, Dan Gurney Special, GT-E, XR7-G Nineteen sixty-eight saw the addition of 2 new model packages to the Cougar lineup. The GT-E and XR-7G. What a great year to buy a Cougar. The car maintained the same body lines from the 67 model with some slight changes. Most notable were the addition of side signal markers on the front and rear quarters, a 2 spoke steering wheel (as opposed to the 3 spoke offered in the 1967 model) and some slight badge changes to the rear quarter panel emblems.