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Mexican made CDW-27s?

B

Brent372

Official SE Event Coordinator
Joined
Dec 27, 2006
Messages
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Location
Coconut Creek, FL
I am looking for a car for my step-daughter and found a 1/2 way decent Mystique for sale for $900.
The VIN starts with a 3 though.
I thought all CDW-27's (EDIT: well at least Contours, Mystiques and Cougars) were made in Kansas City.
This one, inparticular is a 1998.
 
IIRC, only SVTs were for sure made in Kansas City while all others were a mix of Kansas City and Mexico.
 
Brent372 said:
I am looking for a car for my step-daughter and found a 1/2 way decent Mystique for sale for $900.
The VIN starts with a 3 though.
I thought all CDW-27's (EDIT: well at least Contours, Mystiques and Cougars) were made in Kansas City.
This one, inparticular is a 1998.
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All CDW-27 Cougars were made in Flat Rock, MI at the Auto Alliance plant.
 
elraido said:
My 95 was made in Kansas.
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care_room.jpg
 
...technically it was Missouri, not Kansas :/

I think the cars were made in Mexico, with only some minor final assembly being done in the KC,MO plant, just so they could say "Made in Kansas City" %)
 
Linkman said:
All CDW-27 Cougars were made in Flat Rock, MI at the Auto Alliance plant.
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The Cougars were not CDW-27, but had thier own program name of SW164. You are correct about them being made at AAI in Flat Rock.

ghent96 said:
...technically it was Missouri, not Kansas :/

I think the cars were made in Mexico, with only some minor final assembly being done in the KC,MO plant, just so they could say "Made in Kansas City" %)
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No, two completely seperate assembly plants. Cars were not partially finished in Mexico and shipped to KCAP.
 
Rara said:
The Cougars were not CDW-27, but had thier own program name of SW164.
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This I didn't know. I've always referred to all of them as "CDW-27 platform vehicles." Do you know the differences between CDW-27 and SW164? Is it just a bookkeeping change, considering how mechanically similar they are?

Rara said:
You are correct about them being made at AAI in Flat Rock.
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I attended CougarFest 2001 in Flat Rock, and Mercury was a sponsor. The show was held on the plant grounds, and had the opportunity to tour the plant. Amazing to see Mercury and Mazda vehicles with no common parts coming down the line interspersed, and still having all the correct parts show up in order.
 
Linkman said:
This I didn't know. I've always referred to all of them as "CDW-27 platform vehicles." Do you know the differences between CDW-27 and SW164? Is it just a bookkeeping change, considering how mechanically similar they are?
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CDW-27 was the first program for the whole family of vehicles based on the architecture, and thus was used to describe the generic platform as well as the original Contour program. Cougar came later, and while sharing much of the mechanical underpinnings as we are so familiar with, EVERYTHING else was different, all the body panels, all the interior, etc etc etc. So it was definately its own program, designated as SW164. The S stands for "Sport" or "Specialty" depending on who you talk to, even within Ford, "W" stands for World, and 164 is the program number. For the CDW27, CD refers to the car size class. The Contour is technically in-between a C sized car (Focus) and a D sized car (old Taurus) so they called it CD. Fusion is also classed as a CD sized car, and incidentally the original Fusion program was CD338.
 
Rara said:
CDW-27 was the first program for the whole family of vehicles based on the architecture, and thus was used to describe the generic platform as well as the original Contour program. Cougar came later, and while sharing much of the mechanical underpinnings as we are so familiar with, EVERYTHING else was different, all the body panels, all the interior, etc etc etc. So it was definately its own program, designated as SW164. The S stands for "Sport" or "Specialty" depending on who you talk to, even within Ford, "W" stands for World, and 164 is the program number. For the CDW27, CD refers to the car size class. The Contour is technically in-between a C sized car (Focus) and a D sized car (old Taurus) so they called it CD. Fusion is also classed as a CD sized car, and incidentally the original Fusion program was CD338.
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Wow that is some good information to know. I don't disagree with you, but I would like to point out that many parts between the Contour and Cougar are VERY similar, whether it is body panels, interior trim, etc. :shrug:
 
zorrex said:
Wow that is some good information to know. I don't disagree with you, but I would like to point out that many parts between the Contour and Cougar are VERY similar, whether it is body panels, interior trim, etc. :shrug:
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Still different part numbers. Not to mention the cougar was a basically a 3-door hatch, where the contour was a 4-door sedan, this means that a rather significant portion of the structure was unique to the Cougar. Also note that the Mystique would have technically had its own program number just to cover the minor differences between it and the Contour, I just don't remember what that program code was. Mercury Milan was CD339, and the Lincoln Zephyr was CD378. Even the Expedition and Navigator had different codes around the same time. The versions that launched in 2002 were U222 for the Expedition and U228 for the Navigator just to give a few more examples.
 
Rara said:
Still different part numbers. Not to mention the cougar was a basically a 3-door hatch, where the contour was a 4-door sedan, this means that a rather significant portion of the structure was unique to the Cougar. Also note that the Mystique would have technically had its own program number just to cover the minor differences between it and the Contour, I just don't remember what that program code was. Mercury Milan was CD339, and the Lincoln Zephyr was CD378. Even the Expedition and Navigator had different codes around the same time. The versions that launched in 2002 were U222 for the Expedition and U228 for the Navigator just to give a few more examples.
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Interesting. Well, going back to the CDW27 platform, does the "W" for "World" have any bearing on what vehicles fall under the platform, like maybe it encompasses more vehicles? I guess I'm trying to ask if the Mondeo is part of the CDW27 platform, technically? I think I'm getting myself a little bit confused, but I was always under the impression that the Mondeo, Contour, and Mystique were the same platform, and the Cougar was a variation of the platform. Regardless, this whole platform number stuff is confusing :laugh:
 
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