Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General What's your Contour story? (How did you find your Contour?)

I had a roommate that was a salesman at Phil Long Ford here in Colorado Springs. I stopped in one afternoon to talk with him, and he said that he had something for me to look at. He said it was an SVT, so of course I was thinking Cobra or Lightning, but it wasn't to be(am glad for that).
I took one look at her, and told him I wanted it. He suggested that I drive it first, but I didn't need to.
I traded in my 95 Corsica 4 banger and within the hour I was tearing down the straight open roads out on the plains.

July of 97', I was driving an '89 Escort w/ over 155,000 miles on it. Was still in half decent shape and was all paid for. But, in view of the fact that I had a 75 mi. commute to get to work back then, I started thinking about trading. I stopped at local Ford Dealer. First two vehicles he showed me were a '97 Escort with 24k on the clock..and, a '95 Contour GL w/ 33k on it. As I looked the two cars over, the salesman even suggested that I get the Contour because it was "more car"...So, I bought it. Kept it until Aug. 01...then did one of the dumbest things I have ever done...traded it for a 2000 Focus LX.
The Focus went into the shop 8 times in 10 weeks.The dealership bought it back, and put me into a 2000 Contour SE, 4cyl., ATX. (this thing was darn near mint condition..) Awfully nice car, but....I just can't stand ATX....at least I have a Contour, though.

I was driving an 89' Jeep cherokee laredo. I loved that car. I put pacestter headers and dynomax cat back on it. With badass 2.5 inch twin exhaust tips. And some cool Dunlop Sport Rover GTX2 tires. My parents sold one of their beater cars and so when I came back from school I was left without a car to drive since the jeep went to my mom. I looked online for 94-96 impala ss and drove one and realized it wasnt my style(fat guy smoking cigar car but still just think about the mods! not the kind of car for a 20 yr old) I looked online and found a 98 svt in some small used car lot. Went, drove it, fell in love and got free SHM headers and cross drilled rotors out of it and only 35,000 miles for a 4 year old car. I love this car.

I already had two cars; high mileage on both. I started a new job in Jan. 02 which required lots of driving, sometimes at night, so thought I'd better buy a newer, lower mileage car. Wanted one with a trunk, and four doors. Started out wanting a Taurus, but looked and looked; almost settled on an Altima. Went back to the Ford dealer one more time and found out he had one Contour one of the mechanics was using. I thought "Well, the Contour isn't made anymore; so probably not much in demand, I can save money". Plus this dealer sells a lot of cars which have been bought new from him and he's done all the maintenance on. This Contour was a one owner with 37,000 miles and the one owner was a little old lady the dealer gave me the name of and I talked to her. I thought I was getting a better buy than a 2001 Taurus I'd looked at, with lower miles and more power than the 97 Altima I'd almost bought. I had no idea what a beautiful car I was really getting. I feel like I'm in the seat of luxury in my 'Tour (it's name is "Redbird"). I have to force myself to drive the other cars, and the big Olds is a pretty sweet ride too.

My brother needed a car for college and so he took my 94 Montero to NY with him. My dad and I decided I would need something to drive during the summer and maybe bring with me to college. We found a white with white and blue interior Mystique(Young American edition) They couldnt sell it because it was such strange colors. It was the best car I ever owned until one night when a thunderstorm flooded the Susquehanna River valley and my car. I bought a 2000 Mystique with the insurance money. My dad offered to trade me his Infiniti Qx4 for my mystique so he could trade it in. I took took the trade. That takes me to this weekend. The Infiniti had 135000 miles on it and was making noises. I drove by a Saturn Dealership and spotted a 99SVT. I walked in and walked out with the keys to the SVT.

Damn, Neelnug...you're doin' alright for yourself! Congrats on the SVT!

Got it handed down from my dad! He got it because he originally wanted a Taurus but needed something with pep. He knew about the CDW27 platform and drove some Mondeos in Europe, so BOOM.

Neelnug, all I got to say is daaayyymmm. Now that's the way to go. Congrats and welcome.
Mike

I bought a Silver 1998 SVT in May of 98. Had to get rid of my 1994 Mustang GT because my conpany would not pay my car aloowance for a car older than three years. Saw the SVT and bought pretty much sight-unseen. Two weeks later, the dealer got a shipment of 98.5s and I was upset because of the few upgrades. 9 months later I was having warranty work done on the car and I saw my current car on the lot: 1999 Tropic Green SVT. Went back to pick up my 98 ofter the work was done and traded it on the 99.

  Mine is a story of desperation.

  A few years before, the motor in my 1994 Tempo overheated and was ruined.  I was barely able to scrape together the resources to have a new motor put in it.  The new motor had a 12-month, 12,000 mile warranty, which, living 50 mile from where I work, really lasted about half a year.  Nearly a year after the new motor was installed, a part broke off of one of the pistons.  Still heavily in debt as a result of buying that motor, I spent several months and a lot more money trying to fix it.  I honed out the affected cylinder and installed a new piston, but things just kept going wrong with that motor after this point.  I'd fix one thing, and something else would break.  By the time I gave up, I'd replaced two pistons, and the head, along with countless other more minor parts, and was beginning to suspect that the block itself was damaged beyond reasonable repair, from the original piston failure.

  I'd reached the point where I was convinced that the only way to properly repair this car was to replace the whole motor, again.  It occurred to me that there were resources by which I might possibly be able to borrow enough money to do this.  Alas, no, I couldn't.  I needed $3,000, at least, and I was able to come up with only $1,100.

  I was beginning to wonder about the feasibility of buying another car.  I was aware that because a car loan is secured by the car, it might be easier to borrow the money to buy a car, compared to the unsecured borrowing I was trying to do.

  There's a Hyundai dealership that has set up business in a K-Mart parking lot, here in Lompoc.  I was desperate enough, at this point, that I would have actually considered a Hyundai, if that was all I could get.  I was wandering through their lot, with my wife, looking at their used section, when this 1996 Mystique caught my attention.  About that same time, so did one of their salesdroids.

  The $1,100 that I was able to borrow ended up making a very good down payment on this Mystique. I was a bit concerned about the fact that it had over 100,000 miles on it, but it appeared to be in remarkable condition for a car that's seen that much use.  It did need a new timing belt (and, as I later discovered, when I actually took it in to have that done, it also needed new timing belt tensioner pulleys).

  I ended up selling my Tempo for $400 to a gentleman who has since fixed it up with a junkyard engine, and has told me that he's quite pleased with it.

  This was all just about a year ago.  At this point, I am convinced that the Mystique was a very good choice.  It seems to be very reliable, compared to other cars I've owned.  I'm amazed at how it peforms and handles.  Many years ago, I rented an Eagle Talon for a short while.  I would have rented a Neon, but they were all out of those at the moment, so I got the Talon.  OK, I thought, this would be fun.  The Talon, I found to be a big dissapointment.  It looked like a fancy, sporty-type car, so I thought it'd be fun to drive.  It didn't perform or handle any better than the more mundane cars to which I was accustomed, it was awkward to get in and out of it, all the controls just seemed wrong, ergonomically, there was little usable cargo space, and it had a stupid spoiler that blocked the view out the rear window.  My Mystique performs and handles about the way I had expected of the Talon before I actually drove it, without all the disadvantages that are inherent in sporty-type cars.