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.
