Originally posted by 98 SE:
Originally posted by richs:
I never understood why FORD cancelled the Contour. They are still making it in Europe. Now they don't really have a sport sedan until the Fuzon comes out. The Focus is nice but it is more like the Escort. Ford has left that whole area of a nice sport sedan to every one else. Some times these guys are brain dead. I think they were relying on Mazda to fill that area, but it does not have the Ford label. I know Ford ownes Mazda but still not the same. Obviously I am a Ford guy, so when I go to Ford at Carlisle I rely enjoy it.

Rich S



Because the Contour was not dubbed a "sport sedan" in its later years. I heard "grandma car" associated with it much more often, and the ratio of Zetec/ATX to Duratec/MTX is staggering. When you factor in that a new fully loaded Contour cost nearly as much as (or more than?) a Taurus, people made the move to the larger vehicle.

Loads of other reasons.



matt you got one part of the problem on the head, old people drie these cars and most are zetec atx's

the other part was the car, my 99 anyway was about 20K new and it is just about loaded, now you spend that much you could get a Taurus which is bigger for about the same price, or if you were looking base line, a fully loaded Escort

what didn't help either is that the COntour took the spot of the Tempo and that is enough said there

finally it didn't sell like they thought it would right, I mean by 2000 they stripped everything from it and it was mostly a rental car

I mean I watched that car and driver where the SVT was put against the leading sports cars at the time, it performed as well if not better then the Audi and BMW ranked above it and cost about half as much, but they couldn't put it first because Ford doesn't make sport sedans that couls hang like that and not many would buy them either

but were are the select few, I still remember the first time I saw and heard a SVT, I was at Lime Rock for a Shelby/Mustang show and the guy got onto the track and somehow into the show area, all I remeber is harting that exhaust and looking at it and saying that was really cool

- 95 Mystique LS - Zetec/5spd - 99 Contour SeVT Sport - Duratec/5spd Official NE-CEG Contour/Mustang Family