Start with what the Mercury Bobcat is: a car with gasoline engine, built from 1975, as the oil crises and the first emissions rules rewired the industry. What it meant takes a little longer.
Under the skin
The engine is gasoline engine. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the BMW 3 Series, the Hyundai Pony, the Volkswagen Polo. Nearby in the Mercury catalogue sit the Mercury Capri and the Mercury Comet.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Mercury Bobcat has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.