Welcome to the group , BV1 ! Hopefully you'll find a nice , clean , low-mileage SVT Contour soon . If only I was closer to deciding what I'm doing with mine ...

My friend lost the engine in his Spec-V due to the cat issue you talked about . That sucked . The car had less than 20,000 miles on it . The car has never been the same after that . Doesn't seem to have the same "kick" that it had before . An insider told me something about Nissan changing the settings to a "safer" mode (on engine swap cars) or something - doesn't seem right to me , as then it's not the same car that he test drove & spent his hard-earned cabbage on . His love for the car sorta fizzled out after the engine change .

~~~~~~~ Phil Black & Tan 2000 SVT Contour #2137 of 2150 35,000 miles & counting !