Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General if only Ford were the same as VW....

I believe a large part of the problem is that us car buyers are NOT Ford customers.

Ok, collect your selves, we are not GM, BMW, customer either. Ford, for the most part, sells all of it's auto/truck production to dealers.

This model makes it really hard for the average customer to have much sway with Ford since they are not selling you the cars.

I'm sure they had to force dealers to take Contours at the end in order to get allocations of more desireable cars. Probably including the SVT Contour. Mr Dealership owner, you want X Cobra Mustangs and Y Lightning, well you also have to take Z number of these SVT Contour thingies we have over here.

Of course, the Ford owned stores here have not done well where Ford took over some privately owned dealerships. Ford is probably better at designing, building, and then decontenting cars than they are at actually selling them to the public.

With the dealer network, Ford really doesn't deal with the public, but with those dealers.

Unfortunately, it seems Ford will let just about everybody become Blue Oval Certified, or whatever the program of the month is, so the dealers work towards certification instead of actual customer satisfaction.

Of course, I'm doing a really great job at pointining the problem. I don't have much to offer in terms of solutions, other than if you find a good dealer, try to do business with him, since it will be him that has to go to bat with you to get Ford to pay for warranty and after warranty adjustments.

Remember, we are not Ford's customers, the dealerships are. As long as the dealer is selling the cars, I bet many other things are allowed to slide.

My opinion.

TB

Dealers understood Tempos and their customers. People who just wanted a cheap new car with a little more room then a sub compact.

The Contour was supposed to bring in new well versed car customers who would have looked at a Honda Accord. The dealers were like, "we go this car, but the Taurus is bigger for a little bit more". No sale.

Also, the car was outsized by mid 98, when bigger Accords and Malibus were out. The Altima suffered the same fate of beeing too small for a mid size, too big for a compact.

I would love an SVT Taurus... but I settled on the Sport edition



I love it, but I wouldn't mind more

As for dealer, I knew more than they did about the car :rolleyes:

Why doesnt Ford promote using the Ford Focus that are in WRC? make some fast moving sazzy ad with someone thrashing the car around? It does fairly well there...I wish they started to cater to the Highest Common denominator in their advertizing, and let it trickle down...

have you seen the focuses they offer in europe though? i think thats the point hes trying to make: as nice as the fsvt is, they have twice as much power in europe. its always been the same thing with volkswagen and the gti, but now they are actually bringing over a european gti.

I think I need some enlightment:

In europe I thought it takes a bigger % of someone's earnings to buy a car. I also thought gas is waaay more expensive, I also thought that insurance is more expensive. I always thought that the USA was supposed to be a leader and have the best.

Well, it seems that we dont get the best, and I cant figure out why. IF they think we wont buy it, how come the eupeans plunk their euros for the goodies. I dont believe that all europeans know about cars and are enthusiasts. It seems that the eurpeans cater to more niches than we do here. Here we only cater do the bland masses, and we will give the enthusiast some watered down version of what the euros get. If there werent enough of a market, why do we sell so many bimmers, volvo, audis, etc..I love those cars, but If i could have ever gotten a Sierra Cosworth, I would have chosen that over any other...

Why dont they start the designs from scratch so they are certifiable there and here. I think their stinginess now hurts the mid to long term.

Didn't Ford just announce the replacement for the Taurus at one of the auto shows? I can't remember the name of the car, *someone help here*, but all they provided was a picture of the car. It looked pretty hot to me, nice smooth lines. Now if we good get an SVT version of that, 4 doors, phat V8 or HO-V6, maybe that Marauder engine, or maybe a Turbo-6. When is SVE going to start getting into turbos? I understand they would prefer to crank as much power possible NA, but they decided to slap that Eaton on the Cobra to sway their power woes! And they obviously had that option for the Foci, I know 0-60 v.s. handling, but seriously, we do want power.

Look at the current market: Audi S4, VW Passat W8, 4 door speaders coming like EVOVII, WRX STI. The market exists for a 4-door fast sedans. I think the Contour came out before its time.
I'm sorry, but the Focus is a horribly unpleasant styled car. Its hurts the eyes to look at it. But Ford hit a homerun, why? Because it appeals to the general public. We, I'm afraid, are not the general public. And for people looking to by compacts, the Focus is a good alternative to the thousands of damn Civic SIs out there.

BUT, what about us 4-door power hungry MOFOs. I don't like people badmouthing the CSVT because they didn't sell well back in the day, because it simply was not the cars fault. We can argue about it all we want, but everyone I know who owns a CSVT, gets good comments about it all the time. As far as 4-doors is concerned, if Ford thinks that the 4-door Focus SE is an good alternative to the Tour, someone remind me to kill myself. Its a box-on-wheels, no smooth lines like the Tour, stupid 130Hp Zetec, and even if they put that SVT engine, which they obviosuly wont, in that box, I still wouldn't want it.

As far as the future is concerned, we'll have to wait and see if they do anything with that Taurus replacement, 'cause if not, I can't see myself buying a Ford in the later future.

Did anyone else see the CarandDriver TV review of the FSVT? I thought they presented it well, and I think the car has a good place in the 2-door hatch performance niche.

Feel free to disagree in the thread, but keep flames to a PM.

I'm going to place much of the blame on the dealerships.

When I was shopping for a car in 99, I was looking at something that had some performance and was reasonable on insurance. Grand Am was considered, V6 Camaro, V6 Mustang, ZX2. Though I had grown up in a GM family, I didn't like the looks of the Camaro, especially the V6. So I started shopping 3.8 Mustangs.

Test drove one. It was okay. Wheels and interior were so cheap though. 15" wheels?? Uggh. So I asked the dealer if they would order a set of GT wheels, swap them, and charge me the difference. They came back to me a few days later and said no. Also the lack of a sunroof in the Mustang left me wanting.

So I went to another Ford dealer. Big, well lit showroom. Spotless ceramic tile floors. Large lot. No pushy salesmen. That was the first time I had ever seen or heard of a CSVT. It was the featured vehicle in the showroom. And to make a long story short, I bought that exact T-red car days later. More performance than a V6 Mustang, for equal money up front, with better styling and a lower insurance payment.

Where I made the mistake was, I had my closest SVT dealer trade for this car with the nice, big modern dealer. I thought buying from the nearest SVT authorized dealer would make things easier. My nearby dealer was the opposite of the big place in every way. Dirty. Frowning employees. I was told that no SVT products could be test driven, so I had to buy it on faith that I'd like it.

Subsequent service visits were a nightmare. Grease on door panels, boot scuffs on interior, interior pieces not tightened down after miserably failing to fix the noisy windows. 2 weeks of bantering over rear suspension noise. Then it happened again in a few months.

Since then I've started taking my SVT to a Lincoln Mercury dealer, and get treated SO MUCH BETTER. Respect. Clean car. When I lost a jack point cover after their last service call (probably because they didn't snap it in all the way), they replaced it free no argument.

Troy, you say there are 600 dealers that are SVT? I say drop that number further and watch them like a hawk. Quality, not quantity.

I have about 30k miles and I love my vehicle. When it comes time to replace it, I'd like another SVT product. Cobra would be fine if I knew I'd get treated properly.

If I buy a $35k Cobra, I expect to be treated as well as a $35k Lincoln LS owner. There's the bottom line. Right now I don't see that happening, and unlike with the Contour I wouldn't have mechanics at LM that would understand my Cobra.

Brian Dors
99 SVT

No, The Cross Trianer will be built in Chicago, with all Taurus production shifted to Atlanta.

Supposedly, there will be a Mazda 6 based Ford sedan offered in 2006. The bigger and more expensive 500 will come out in 2005.

Sorry, but I won't wait that long. And a new Taurus SES isn't remotely "sporty", I see them all the time at the rental car lot near me.

Ford USA seems to only understand trucks and Mustangs.