Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests SHO as a winter beater?

Linky

For the price sounds like it may be a good deal. I'm looking to use it as a winter beater/backup car. Plus I will need transportation while my trans gets rebuilt. It would stay mostly stock and not be driven too hard. Ironically it would be faster than the CSVT if i were to get it.

Any opinions?

I'd say if you have the maintenace records/history on it. Best bet is if it's had it's 60k, 120k, etc mile maintenance done.

Mark

do your research on what a SHO requires for maintenance etc, and answer the question yourself. Too many people buy the SHOs thinking cool quick 4 door sedan. 6 months later they are bitching and complaining because its a money pit and they can't find parts for them. www.shoforum.com and www.shotimes.com are your friends.

Thanks for the links. The maintenance and small repairs don't scare me but "money pit" does. I don't want something that will screw me after maintaining and driving it right.

If you maintain it right, it won't give you anymore problems than any other car that is that old. However, even maintaining it properly can be costly...

That's a good deal.. We just sold our 95 SHO with 102K miles for $3K. It too had the failing A/C, and a CD player that quit. It's true things do cost quite a bit when things go wrong, but if you're truly just using it for snow days, it'll probably be good for you.

check out the trader section for cars that you'll get a better history of than just buy off ebay or autotrader. You'll pay more, but its worth it
http://www.shoforum.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=10&f=16

or also www.shoclub.com too

My Taurus (well Sable) story...

My first car was a '90 Mercury Sable. It was origially owned by the wife of the owner of a Lincoln-Mercury dealer, and then my parents. So it led a pretty easy life. It was COMPLETELY loaded--black leather, digital dash, moonroof, JBL CD player etc. I loved that car, until everything just suddenly crapped out between 100-105k miles. The head gaskets went, then the power steering pump, then the water pump, the starter, fuel pump, some electrical glitches, and then it started making this horrible clanking noise when I'd start it up. Turned out either the torque converter was ballooned out or the crank had developed a lot of free play. Whatever it was caused the nuts attaching the flexplate to smash into the bellhousing. Then one day I goosed it to pull into fast moving traffic, and one of the motor mounts let loose. I gave it back to my dad, and he ended up selling it. It probably wasn't far from being a reliable car simply because there wasn't much left that hadn't been replaced, but I ran out of patience.

After owning that car it took me YEARS to get used to being able to take a car out of town and not have any problems.

Now imagine that same basic car, with an engine that needs expensive maintenance every 60k miles, and a clutch that goes out almost as often, and costs about $900 to replace if you have a garage do it. I'll pass! It's a shame because I like the SHO. I've considered buying one several times, but then I remember that damn Sable and the urge passes.

Thanks for the input guys. I sent the seller a list of questions. I don't need a SHO per se, but sice I found one within my beater price range of 0-$700 I figured I would pursue it.

BTW - I am curious what kind of insurance you guys have on your cheap-o cars. With full coverage the SHO would cost almost as much as my Contour Listing it as a "pleasure" vehicle with just PLPD gets the rates cheap. What kind of ins. do you guys have on your beater rides.