Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Consumer ignorance--why the contour died

I'm with Skeeter, I too have given up on trying to explain to people the difference. It's still hard to sit back though when people say "a Contour??", or "isn't that a Grandma car?"(My personal fav) or the latest when a guy in a 305 powered Z28(early 90's??) got schooled the other night at the track, he said "oh, it's just a 24 valve". That one I don't understand. I could tell he was embarassed.
Oh yeah, and the bagger in the grocery store telling some girl that it was "just" a contour with a body kit, so naturally my mom ask's him which car he was talking about and he points to mine. She say's "oh, I see..." he says, "why?, is that yours?" "No, it's my sons" He ask's "is it fast?" I offered to take him for a ride, but he declined. His loss.

Of all the things, it's the folks that don't think anything of the cars, like that Z28 guy.
Mike

I personally thought, before I bought my 2000 SE Sport, that all Contours were 4 cylinders. I didn't know until I did some research that after (1998 I think) that the V6 was pretty much standard. I think the Contour has a great stock engine.... I don't know about the SVT, never drove one. But the stock one has more power than a standard Taurus falcon, that's what I don't understand.... why did Ford put a bigger engine in a smaller car????

-Jonathan

Happened with my friend. He knew I had a V6, he just had no clue how much engine space that V6 took up!

Even some Contour owners have no clue about the SVT brand. I was crossing the border into Cananda when some guy in a (se) pulls up next to me and asked me what model of contour I was driving. "Is that a sport" in his words. I looked at him and said it's an SVT, which means it's a hell of a alot faster than yours. I'm sure he thought everything on my car was aftermarket. I think a lot of the blame has to be placed on the dealers. They are the ones that need to market the car to sell it.

yeah I've gotten some looks from families in their Contour SE or LXs and they looked like they wondered why they weren't offered that trim line

I hope not to disturb your Svt chat , What ever a Svt contour is ? Hahahaaaaa........... How many people even know what a contour is ? I have dealer plates on my 95 contour and people always are looking at it as if it is a new model that ford just designed . I had a BMW owner checking out my car today looking at it as if he never saw one before . From 1994 tru 2000 I only saw 1 tv ad for the contour .

Your svt tours are nice , but they are still contours . So quit knocking down all the "other" contours .

The seriously dim bulbs I tell 'em "It's a rental car"

Semi-car literate I tell 'em "It's a factory hot rod"

Real live car person gets a ride... with expected results !!

ZZZ.

as a 95 se owner i do not see the svt guys posts as coming down on non svt contours...this site doesn't ever exhibit that type of quality far as i know...

the svt owners i've seen on the site are complimentary of non svts'...95 se's in particular

and if i were driving an svt i'd want idiots to at least understand that i am not driving a run of the mill contour

and if anyone thinks they have an identitiy problem with the contour u shoulda seen what i went through when i had my 91 passat

people couldn't believe it was a vw...i dont know y because they couldn't believe it was anything else either

After I bought my SVT in MD, my bro up in north east PA (read: middle of nowhere) went to the biggest Ford dealer around and asked the sales guy if they had any SVT Contours. The guy laughed and said no. My bro asked why he laughed and he said that Ford dealers actually have to pay Ford for the right to sell SVTs and in that area it wasn't worth it because nobody has heard of them.

So that is probably why a lot of Contour owners have never heard of the SVT.

Dealer Mx rep: "Your Taurus is ready, sir."

Lots of other people: "Is that a Taurus?"

Porschephilic friend of mine: "Is it a real 'handling' package, or just wheels and a spoiler?"

Gate guard doing the search: "Whoa. Thought it was an SVT there for a minute." (At least he knew it was a Contour, and what an SVT was.)

Mustang Cobra driver at work: "What are you spending money on your car, for? It's just a Contour."