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GOODNESS, city folks love this car! The 1987 Mercury Cougar XR-7: Bright red, clear-coat metallic paint. Truly catty side windows. Sleek, slick, cool, jazzy. Too jazzy, maybe. Definitely not a machine for all tastes.

I figured I’d get snubbed a bit in this one. I was right. The Cougar XR-7 produced lots of upturned noses in the Northern Virginia suburbs. “Dude car,” one Arlington service station attendant sniffed.

But across the Potomac, in the heart of the District of Columbia, the XR-7 was a star. City people honked horns in approbation. They rolled down car windows and shouted “All right” and “Real nice” and stuff like that.

In the city, the XR-7 started many friendly conversations, like:

“Hey man, that’s an ’87?”

“Yeah.”

“Cougar?”

“Yeah.”

“How much?”

I told him.

“No {stuff}. Not bad. Where’d you get it?”

I told him that it wasn’t mine, that I was “testing” it.

“Testing it? Testing it? {Stu-f-f-f}, man You need some help?”

Complaints: I needed some help. The press release said the compact XR-7 could seat five people comfortably. I couldn’t believe it. This is a rear-wheel-drive “sporty/specialty” car. Its cabin is consumed by a centerline hump — an obtrusive bit of front-to-rear ugliness caused by the driveshaft.

I found four adult-bodied riders. The front rider was okay. The three people in the back got squeezed. The back rider sitting in the middle, over the hump, complained of cruel and unusual punishment.

And this: The Cougar XR-7’s cat windows fit the car’s name and theme. But their framework hurts driver visibility. Those swept-back front pillars, for example, tend to obstruct peripheral vision. Those ultra-wide rear pillars don’t help much, either.

Praise: Vaaarrrooom. There’s nothing “meow” about the Cougar XR-7’s standard five-liter, electronically fuel-injected V-8. It’s a big, growling thing, a street runner rated at 150 horsepower at 3,200 rpm.

Some of us never grow up, I guess. I’m sorry, but I like the sound, feel and rush of this car’s engine. And, yeah, I know that, even with its computer controls, the XR-7’s V-8 isn’t the most sophisticated powerplant out there. So what? It does well what it’s designed to do, and that makes me happy.

Ride and handling: The XR-7’s relatively short, 104.2-inch wheelbase (the centerline distance between front and rear wheels) contributes to some rough riding over bumpy roads. But ride and handling are terrific over reasonably cared-for highways.

The XR-7 uses four shock absorbers in the rear (compared with two rear absorbers on most cars). Two of the rear absorbers are mounted vertically to soften the car’s up-and-down movement over bumps. That pair needs some work. The other pair is mounted horizontally to help control the car’s side-to-side motions. That pair works just fine, particularly in hard cornering.

Sound system: Ford’s top-line Premiu m Sound — AM/FM electronically tuned stereo radio and cassette with graphic equalizer. Sweet vibrations.

Mileage: About 20 to the gallon (22.1-gallon tank), combined city-highway, running with mixed loads (one to five occupants). Climate control system was in use most of the time. Mileage might have been adversely affected by newness of the engine, which had less than 400 miles of use at time of delivery.

The XR-7 is equipped with a four-speed overdrive automatic transmission, which also affects fuel efficiency.

Price-as-tested: $18,867, including $3,207 in options and a $432 destination charge. No stuff.