Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Reliability SVT

I just bought a 99 SVT with 75k on it. The car is in excellent shape in and out(had to have been garaged). It has a 3 month warranty. Should I be worried? How reliable are these cars at this mileage? Should I buy and extended warranty? Any other thoughts?

My SVT has only 28k on it, and I've only put the last 2k on it, so reliability has not really been an issue for me. From what I've read on this board, I can offer the following. I would ascertain whether the waterpump has been replaced or not. OEM's have about a 100% failure rate apparently, and I plan on changing mine very soon. Make sure the tranny is in good working order, if you have good clutch and shift feel, I'd just make sure you keep it maintained. Hopefully you'll get some answers from those with similar mileage, but this is what I can tell you. Would you mind telling me what you paid? I gave 13k for my '99, green over tan, 26k miles.

For the peace of mind I would buy an Extended Warrenty. I have a SVT but it's VOID of warrenty so that isn't really an issue with it. My 97 Contour has almost 100K on it and has had 3 Transmissions. One extended warrenty whould have covered all of that. Instead of me being out 4 grand, but that's just my opinion.

I have an extended warranty for mine and I am very happy about it. I believe in the routine maintance will prolong YEARS to the car. But sh*t happens anyway. The last thing I need is for the tranny to give me grief a month or two after the warranty expires.

I got the extened warranty by accident and really didn't care about it. Now, I am so stoked that I got it. Think about it. $1k now for three years vs. three years of things that go wrong (and that can be much more than $1k.)

Any car is only as reliable as the quality and timing of the maintenance performed on it.

I have had no mechanical failures (sunroof aside as the design is a manufacturer's defect :rolleyes: ) in 22k extremely hard driven miles.

I am very meticulous when it comes to maintaining my vehicles!

Is it still possible to get a bad quality controlled car? Yes, however at 75k miles I think any quirks would have reared their head already.

Oh yeah... Change the water pump unless the previous owner provided a date & receipt of when he did it. The stock one is a known problem.

get the warranty!!!!!!!!!!!