Now that I'm driving a sexxay new Mazda 3S hatchback, here are some of the things that I miss about my late Contour:
- High mileage at high speed. What other car this size could get 30+ mpg at 80+ mph? One of the first things I noticed with the Contour was that when I took my foot off the gas on the freeway, it scarcely slowed down.
- Steering feel. The tightness and road feel when driving near straight beat the Mazda 3, and everything else I test-drove too.
- The ability to go over residential speed bumps smoothly at 25 mph. In general, the tour is much better at smoothing bumps while still being able to corner hard.
- Back seat room. The Mazda is, after all, a compact. The Contour was... I guess you'd call it "almost midsized".
- The feature that lets you adjust the cruise control speed up or down by 1 mph.
- An ATX shift lever that you can operate quickly by feel without having to think about what you're doing.
- The big back window.
- Believe it or not, the speakers. (The Mazda comes with Bose speakers which are, like every Bose product, hideous garbage with a huge price markup.)
- Seat upholstery that breathes. Those Mazda seats... I may need to put sheepskin on them.
- Outside keyholes in all the expected places. The Mazda hatch has only one outside keyhole!
- Front compartments that are actually sized right to put CDs in. (Not that my contour played CDs.)
- The absence of a dead-pedal.
Things I
don't miss:
- Disposable head gaskets. Plus other engine parts prone to premature failure, like the timing belt pulleys and maybe the water pump.
- The primitive automatic transmission.
- Brakes that were about as brawny as Kate Moss.
- No spare power for high altitude.
- A trunk you can't wrestle a bicycle into.
- No lumbar support.
- A cassette deck that changed speed when you stepped on the gas.
- Cheap interior plastics.
- Seat belt shoulder height adjusters that jam and break.
- The city mileage.
There's no doubt I'd still be happy with my first Contour, had it lived. What I've got now, though, not only outperforms it significantly but is also more practical.
