Originally posted by arin:
uh, I'm getting scared now.. I just checked a review website and it seems there's A LOT of lemons or this isnt a very quality car.. I've saw a lot of transmissions going out circa 60,000(don't know if it's auto or what) and I counted 20+ recalls on consumerguide...
I really don't recommend Contours when someone is looking for a car.
This isn't a Toyota that you don't have to maintain. So because of that, a lot of the problems are caused by owners "abusing" the cars by not servicing them.
Supposedly the Zetec (4 cylinder) is more reliable, but that's just from the mileages that have been posted. Someone has nearly 300K miles on a Zetec, but I bet a maintained Duratec will last that long too...
Now the Automatic... they are hit or miss. The early ones had issues with the valve body, and in turn, usually end up with early failure. But if it was maintained properly (flushed at regular intervals), even the early ones could last.
The manual have problems with the differential... on a Zetec, this probly wouldn't matter b/c of the low power (130HP IIRC), but with a Duratec (170HP?), you can destroy it with some really hard driving/mods (especially on the SVT - 190/200HP IIRC).
So pretty much it boils down to, if the car was driven hard and unmaintained, it will be a piece of crap and a money pit. If it was maintained, then it could last for a long time.
My horribly maintained Zetec/ATX made it to 160K miles with no severe problems... ticked really bad (sounded like a diesel) and tranny overheated a lot, but it was fairly reliable for me.
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