I agree, Contour isn't the greatest name ... and we all know the travesty of naming the Mercury Mistake!
I can't imagine that changing the name would have helped the car a great deal over here though. Ford really seems to have missed it's target markets with it.
When you consider the Mondeo was designed not only as a family car, but as a 'rep-mobile' (to fight the noble Vauxhall/Opal Cavalier) ... it should have really been released in the same light here. The whole point of a rep-mobile is that it's easy to drive, and is sporty to drive ... as most reps are mid twenties to mid thirties.
What would have helped the Contour/Mystique here would definitely have been to make the V6 standard spec ... maybe with the 4 banger Zetec as a downgrade, or only on a single basic model.
The idea of a 'world car' was/is great, but you really do have to tweak it to match your market. This was the let down, and no name changing would have helped.
Personally though, I wonder what would have happened if they had let the car run in production for longer, and gone all out to hear consumer feedback and react to it.
