By the sounds of it you should do okay with this car, as you mention you took meticulous care of your old Honda.
The contour will need to see more care than your average driver would give her, but if you are happy to take the time and effort to keep her running it's not such a big problem.
For instance, my old Mystique was in fair condition when I got her 3 years ago with 100,000km on the clock. I found this site, read-up on all the possible things that can go wrong and pre-emptively fixed them. I ensured that all the suspension components where in A* condition, and babied the engine and tranny with frequent fluid changes and checks. I always made sure that body work was taken care of quickly if anything appeared (like paint loss/rust from the kids damaging the body). After 3 full years (nearly) and being stored outside mostly in Ontario she was still in excellent shape. Just before last Christmas in-fact we went car shopping for my wife, and I was checking trade-in values. Three salesmen actually told me that I would be crazy to trade her in, and to keep her!
Of course saying this, I've seen enough that have obviously seen only oil changes that are truly falling apart.
If you're not going to beat on her, which it sounds like you won't, I don't think she will cost a great deal more than most cars ... just make sure you have some savings handy because the Contour seems to be an all or nothing problem girl
As far as mechanics go ... I would recommend trying to either find one that really has got a little experience on these, or find one that is happy with you providing input on them. A fair number of guys will be happy to just do their thing, and get mad when you tell them otherwise. I'm sure there are plenty of people on here who can attest to knowing the problem from CEG and their mechanics swearing it is something else.
As for hearing a lot of negative things about Ford, I will say that I will never buy a North American Ford ... but the Contour is a little different.
i didnt search im sorry