A little under a year ago I drove 2 and half hours each way to new jersey to get my modified 2000 svt contour, and now 20k miles later I have traded it at a major loss. I had always wanted an SVT, since I had 96 contour SE MTX since it was new for almost 5 years and loved the car.
Some problems I had with the SVT:
--main seal had to be replaced (between motor and tranny), was leaking oil. This was a costly repair even though its a simple thing, because basically the motor and the trans have to be taken out to do it.
--grizzly clutch came apart, replaced with a spec stage 3, which is awesome, but this was also costly.
--exhaust droned a lot, I replaced a lot of components on the exhaust and only made it worse, which annoyed me but infuriated my fiance because she thought I did it intentionally at first, even after she believed me the car was not good for making trips. I later found out the real reason was because the catalytic converter was gutted. I ordered a carsound, but I will never get to hear how it sounds on the car, since its gone.
-- most people that rode in it (including gf) did not like the ride quality because of the suspsension. This wasnt a problem for me, but anyhow.
-- dash warp, bumper sag, broken axle when I took it to the track (not too expensive to replace though), interior light sensor on front doors went, minor other things.
I shopped it around a bit, but 94k miles and its relatively underappreciated status ended up only getting me about 5800 on trade-in. I coughed up 5k on price difference alone from when I bought it, not mentioning mods (MAF, chip, mufflers, resonator, CTA, tires, clutch). Oh well, such is life
I think they will sell it at wyoming valley motors if anyone wants it!
My new car is a black/dark gray two-tone 5 speed subaru baja turbo. We both like the funky look, it has much more interior room, rides smoother, and it is faster. The car is rated 210hp/236tq at 3600 pounds, but it uses essentially the same 2.5 block as the WRX STi with smaller turbos pushing 11.6# boost (2.9 less than an STi), and after driving I know the car has to be more like 250+ hp, it has tons of torque and just keeps pulling. I didnt beat on it too much, since its brand new, but I think we will be very happy with it.
So even though I didnt get to know many of you too well, ill obviously be around less.
