Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Contour / Ford Quality. Is there a reason to worry?

my Contour has been very reliable. ALL of the problems I have had with it were original Ford design flaws.

I have suspensions clunks, clanks, etc.
The heater blower relay thing burns up every 10k miles or so.
Steering components are rattly.
Five recall notices in one month- airbags, other 'minor' stuff.

So, while few things on my car have failed inexplicably, I am NOT impressed with Ford's engineering department.

In short, I will be at the Honda shop next time around. I am also considering Volkswagen.

There are horror stories with each manufacturer, of course, but some cars are far more reliable than others. Look at the new Focus- it got Consumer Reports WORST rating for reliability- even though they like it better than any other small car...

That's my six scents.

Randy

Well like one of the posts further up I have a '98 Duratec and a '96 Vetec and both have been great cars and my wife and I love them but we have had a ton of recalls. If it hadn't been for the recalls we would have only put in regular maintanence $$ up until now. There have been no major or minor repairs required that wasn't covered by a recall.

Its a great car, I have a 1998 LX V6. It under the warranty, just let them fix it until its out. Then dump it, if you must. I have almost 94k miles and mine haven't had half the problems you have had.

Other than recalls, I have done only a IMRC part repair. Well, also a lot of junk in the intake. Nothing $6 of Fuel injector cleaner couldn't fix.