Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Love before or After...?

Well i was in the market for a newer car, at the time i had a modded 94 Toyota Camry. I wanted my next vehicle to have the following options, leather, sunroof, v6, manual transmission and four doors. It came down to a hand full of cars, it was basically between a maxima and a contour. I found a dealership with both a contour and a max. Went and test drove both, but the max drove like sh@t. I loved the way the tour handled and it had decent accerlation and all the features i wanted except leather and a sunroof. I picked up my 97 SE MTX in 2002. Drove it daily for two years and fell in love with contours and knew i would have to have an SVT someday. Looked around after two years and found one local, went out and test drove it and took it home.

The End.

I think I decided on one before ever driving one.
But the things that sold me were:

-exhaust sound (our VP of engineering had one and opened it up every day as he left the parking lot)
-what you get for the $$$
-good looking, fun to drive car with 4 doors that I could drive all year
-it seemed a good replacement for the 93 probe GT that gave me years of fun driving (I miss the mazda 2.5, they didn't come much smoother)

My brother and I had both seen Mondeos over in Europe and had thought it was too bad they didn't have them stateside. When my brother was looking for a car a few years later, he and I looked at Hondas and Subarus, but didn't see anything that really impressed us. We then wandered onto the Ford lot and ran across a small number of Contours/Mystiques parked at the rear of their lot. We immediately recognized them as the U.S. Mondeo and were greatly surprised when we looked through the window and saw that some of them had MANUAL transmissions (which was one of our requirements). We test drove a Zetec MTX -- it seemed to pull really good, especially compared to some other cars we had test driven. When then hopped into a Duratec MTX. My brother (and the uninformed sales rep) thought that you had to press the Traction Control button to activate it... Anyhow, when exiting the dealership, the Duratec Mystique happily "burned rubber" and took off flying! Both my brother and I were hooked after that. He purchased that Mystique and I later purchased TWO Duratec MTX Contours. I also helped my father-in-law purchase a 96 Zetec ATX and a friend purchase a 99 Zetec ATX -- they're both satisfied Contour owners.

Contiques offer a great blend of performance, handling, economy, hauling (5 seats/big trunk) and good looks. As they're a domestic brand, replacement parts are comparatively inexpensive. I do almost all of my own maintenance, so they've been very cost-effective vehicles over the long-haul. My wife loves hers too -- she says she'll miss it if we're forced (by family size) to get an SUV.

My aunt and uncle,who I got my Mystique from are still a little sour that I sold the car 10 months into owning it,and they absolutely hate my Contour because it's green and doesn't have the chrome Mercury grille. My dad hated the car when I got it,he said it was an ugly POS and that it'll last me 6 months before I sell it.

Well,with the paintjob,wheels and everything I've done to it,my dad can't take his eyes off it and keeps telling me how good the paint scheme is. He was impressed enough after I took him out for a drive that he decided to sell his Buick Park Avenue (3.8 V6 w/ Supercharger) and he bought a beautiful,immaculate pearl white 2001 Lincoln LS V8. I think that's about the only car I'd trade my Contour for.

i was searching for a CSVT... and i found a CSVT for a incredibly low price

My neighbor's a well-off Ford Stamping Plant employee who gets a nice discount. I always knew he had the car but never bothered to know what it was until I hit the age of car loving. The ever entrusting guy left the keys to me one day and, well, you can fill in the rest I didn't start modding until I became a member of this site.

He currently owns a Torch Red Cobra Mustang ('03? ) and I believe same year/newer dark green Lariat F150. :drools:

Regardless, I always hear something mean leaving his driveway.

I was looking for a used car. I was in a hurry because I had no transportation aside from a friend's truck, which he uses all the time so I didn't want to keep it too long and take advantage of his generosity.

I wasn't having much luck at all. Everything I found was beat to hell, disgustingly overpriced, or something I absolutely did not want (old base-model LeSabres, etc.).

I almost bought a '92 Bonneville because it was in nice shape, and the 3800 V6 drivetrain is easy to work on and lasts forever. I didn't really want one of those things, but relative to the rest of the used car offerings in the area, it was like a BMW 750i. I pulled into the dealership the next morning, cash in hand, only to find that it had sold an hour before. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

I pulled into a dealer that didn't have anything I really wanted, but I was desperate at this point. It was then I noticed that one of the two Contours on the lot had ground effects and a "24V" badge on the back. I took a closer look and noticed that it had the power goodies and a manual tranny. I thought that the V6+manual might make it sort of bearable. I knew about the background of the Contour and that it had a European pedigree, but my only experience with them before was a '96 Zetec ATX Mystique, which I hated.

Then I took it on a test drive, and I was immediately very impressed with the smooth V6 and the sound it made, and especially the steering feel. It was hard to keep a poker face and act disinterested around the salesman because I had just found the only good used car in the entire freaking city. But I managed, knocked it down to $3500, and bought it that day.

I came here after owning a couple of Mondy's back in the UK. Up until then I never thought much about it ... the Mondy is Average-man's car there.

I test drove just about everything I could lay my hands on here, and DETESTED the handling of most ... plus the fact everything was an Auto. One day I saw a Mystique in the paper with V6 ... but what really caught my eye ... MANUAL!!! My eyes lit up, I researched on the web and read the word Mondeo ... I grinned. We went and test drove it, the water pump blew while we were in it. I found this web-site, got the pump fixed, then went back and bought it.

The poor black Mystique is up with the angels now though, but my wife has one, I now have my CSVT ... and I point out great little V6 Tours from the for sale ads to anyone who will listen.

Back in 2001/2002 there really wasn't much that handled near as good as the Contour (that I drove anyway), so there was no consideration of buying anything otherwise then.