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Thining of selling already.

beyond that, i fit my daughter in the back seat just fine. i usually put her in the center. what REALLY sucks about putting babies in the back seat is the lack of light. cant see shiit back there at night. i was going to do the second dome light mod but never got around to it. im sure it would have made a world of difference though.

Try a couple of these, they're very bright and look almost stock in my car: http://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-Silv...bs_1/104-4936502-1157568?ie=UTF8&s=automotive
 
A stick in traffic

A stick in traffic

To me a stick in traffic isn't much worse than an automatic in traffic... when I am sitting still, I have it in neutral with the brake pushed... All I am holding is the brake same as if it were ATX. when I go I never get out of 1st so there is really not much shifting... mostly first gear to coasting. I guess if you wanted to stay on the person in front of you's bumper you would have to work in a traffic jam.
 
I do that, even with the automatic sometimes, less pressure on the brakes, and heat in the trans..Holding the clutch down gets tiring quick!
 
I do that, even with the automatic sometimes, less pressure on the brakes, and heat in the trans..Holding the clutch down gets tiring quick!

I've got stuck in stop & go traffic when they do paving around here during the summer. That gets real tiring after 5 or 10 min.

Otherwise we don't have a lot of traffic around here, and a manual transmission is so much nicer when you're carving corners and going up and down hills.
 
People get into the mindset that a car like the Contour is "too small" for having a child. It's not. Our stroller fits lengthwise in the trunk as well as sideways, so there's plenty of room back there still, and frankly, if you can't carry all your stuff in there, you've just got too much stuff. All you need is the car seat, a diaper bag in the floorwell where the car seat is, and a reasonably sized stroller. Forget the DVD player or all that dangly crap for the kid to bat at and just sing to him or her...they'd rather hear you than anything you can get on DVD.

I agree, this is the line that people use that drives me nuts...

"I have a baby on the way... So I upgraded to something a little bigger..."

and I immediately think to myself "OK... The contour was designed to be a midranged family car that you could comfertably fit 4 adults into... The SVT model was designed to have all of the luxery and comfert of a BMW, while adding a hint of power and fun into the mix... as Car and driver has stated "its the poor mans BMW"

So WHY are people selling it because they are going to have one addition to the family, a baby seat will easily fit in the back. Whenever my friends and I would go on road trips and stuff we would always take my contour, everybody was comfertable, and my stereo was really good :)
 
I've found the SVT to be quite the capable family car, commuter car, business car, road trip car.

More then enough room for the sub box (10"), stroller, cargo net etc etc, we've crammed it as full as possible all the time with groceries and a stroller, you just need to be creative with what goes where. The baby seat fit perfectly in the middle which gives me son (An avid fan of cars, trucks and motorcycles at the ages of 2) a great view of the road and corners so he’s never bored! On that note I actually lucked out and got the Eddie Bauer super all in one baby seat with tan synthetic suede so it matches the interior.  Hell I even moved twice and did it almost all the with CSVT, save for the real big stuff. Edit: Forgot to add that we are expecting another baby in about 4 months and haven't given any thought to replacing the CSVT.

As for commuting I generally commute ~70KMs (~40+ miles) return in a day, QEW-427-401 (meaningless to ppl outside of the GTA) and then back again and it has it's far share of bumper to bumper moments and what I've learnt in contrast to driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee LE is that feathering the clutch provides better application of power to the wheels that is more indicative of bumper to bumper traffic then riding the brake and tapping the gas on an automatic. And I think the conscience active nature of driving a manual keeps your mind on what’s at hand and thus you are less likely to get into a fender bender on the highway. And there is enough sport in the CSVT to make the commute an enjoyable one that generally leaves me arriving at home with a smile as I’m sure to enjoy some stretch of it, even if it is just a matter of popping down two gears to hear it growl.

At various times in my line of work I’ve had to commute well over 400kms one way to customer site, and I was more then comfortable for those distances and didn’t dread the drive back at the end of a long day either, on top of that I found the CSVT get’s great highway milage at ~600+ kms/tank (on 94 octain). Taking customers out for lunch isn’t much of a problem as the car easily fits 4 adults, with or without the baby seat, although for professional reasons rather then ergonomics I put the baby seat into the trunk prior to said trips, and it fits easily without any hassles.

Similar to business are the road trips. The ride from Toronto to Ottawa to grab some E1 rims with snow tires off of Nima is a great example. With the my son at his grand fathers and the wife and I with GPS and my laptop it was a blast, took the back roads all the way for almost 600+ kms one way! Ride comfort, sporty nature and gas mileage all made this for more then an enjoyable ride! I’d be more then happy to do it again.

Enough of my ranting. If you’re not happy then there is more then enough reason to get rid of the car.

:)
 
Sorry to hear that you are planning on selling the tour. I know what you mean about Chicago traffic. PM with your buy it now price.:cool:
 
I lived in Chi town my whole life until a few years ago. Yes, driving in traffic with the CSVT can suck, but it makes it all worth while for those "winding country road" days!!! :D
 
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