Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Poll: If you had to do it again...

Who buys an SVT as a family car?

I bought mine in late 99. Nothing else on the market was remotely close to it's level of performance. Well nothing that wasn't about twice the price.
Also it looks outstanding. I think it looks better today comparatively then it did back then. Unfortunately too many new car designs now are being designed by completely blind idiots. Less then half the new models make it out of the FUGLY stage of brainless copy-cat design. This futuristic retro kick is beyond lame. It has only worked on a handful of new models out of hundreds available.

I'd have to say "yes". Although the styling had never quite grown on me, the mechanicals themselves have proven to be extremely troublefree. After almost 200,000 miles, I haven't replaced anything except for the usual wear items. Still have the original rear brake linings, current set of tires have 86,000 miles on them with still 7 mm of tread depth. Front brake pads replaced once. On its third set of spark plugs. Other than fluids and filters, thats IT for repairs. Fortunately, its new enough to have escaped the waterpump and wiring issues.

Yes definitely. But I would have been smarter with my mods and spent less $$$.

I do love the car. It's just too cool in so many areas - looks, sound of the engine fantastic handling, smooth riding and comfortable inside. It does so many things well. And I have gotten so many complements on it over the years, even from people who don't normally like Fords or even cars in general. It's an immensely likeable and unique car.

Negatives have been:

- The transmission SUCKS - w/o the trans problems my view of the car would be much more positive.

- In some aspects the car is fragile and poorly designed - parts wear out faster than they should.

- I've spent way more money than I'd like on it - and some of it was unecessary waste. This has taught me how much car I can really afford.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll own my car. I have a potential buyer and the chance to "get out" of this car and into something nicer is tempting. OTOH, keeping it for awhile would help me financially since it's paid off (ironically enough). Either way I'm done pissing away big money into it.

I would do it again. I wish I could say that if I knew what I knew now I would have bought an SVT, but I wouldn't have. We were VERY newly married and I took her there looking for an Escort. She talked me up to the Contour. Neither of us was sure if we could make the payments, so a larger payment... Probably not.

There have been things go wrong, but we own it and love it...

I would do the same all over again. In 2000 it was the best looking, best performing car for the money (in my opinion). My wife told me that the way the SVT sounded and accelerated was a part of the attraction to me when we were dating. It currently has a little under 60k miles on it and it hasn't given me too many problems so I can't complain. But i'll probably sell it soon to get something else (05-06 Subaru Legacy GT 5 speed).

The csvt came out when i was in highschool, it was the car i wanted badly...of course i did not have the funds, my buddies use to give me so much crap about wanting a contour...but i bought it a year ago at the age of 22 and they all were happy for me...took me 5 years, haha, so i would definately buy it again, just wish i could have had it when the miles were in double digits

Yes, EVEN THOUGH the previous owner mistreated her badly (list of stuff in Oasis query in GENERAL forum a few weeks ago) and the dealer I bought it from didn't know or pretended not to know the car's past. Given all the car had been through, I'm fairly amazed that it's been as reliable as it's been. I also like the fact that, at least the SVT version, is fairly rare. I mean, really there were no domestic 6 cylinder small sedans with a manual transmission during the time frame I was looking except the Contiques. I didn't even consider imports except the Mondeo so I got the next best thing.
Karl

I'm still amazed at mine. I can't believe my odometer reads 96K and the engine purs like it's brand new. It's so quiet for a 4 banger.

I voted probably, though I would have gone about the whole thing differently. This car was really the worst financial move I've EVER made.

I bought it used in 2000 for 11k (incl. paperwork). I didn't know a 17.9% interest rate was bad, so I picked it up. Being 19 and having no credit other than a gas card, i felt lucky. After finally paying it off last october, it ended up costing me just over 18k. Now I'd be lucky if it's worth a tenth of that.

But it's been a good car. Nothing to big that I've had to repair, just a ton of little crap. It hasn't been in a state of not needing *something* since very shortly after I bought it. Now it has all kinds of little things wrong that I really don't care about.

Since it has no real selling value, and I took it in the cinnamon ring on interest... the thing will never be sold. I'm going to drive it until the wheels fall off, unless something BIG decides to bite it.

At today's value, I'd probably buy another one if I could find something with 50k or less on the clock. I won't buy anything else that depreciates so fast ever again.