Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests thinking of trading my SVT for a SHO

Well title says it all really. My situation is I still owe about $5000 on my SVT and money is extremely tight right now. I think I should be able to sell me SVT, pay off that loan and be able to pick up a decent first or maybe 2nd generation Taurus SHO.

For the money I cant think of a much better buy out there. I looked at some older DSM's but I dont know I've really always liked the SHO's.

Really how reliable are the SHO's.

Defiently want an MTX, I've heard they changed something in the tranny's a certain year that made them better. Dont know I could be wrong.
Anyone know of a SHO messageboard like the CEG?

If I had to choose btw the two cars, obviously I'd choose the SVT...but it looks like I'm going to have to let it go.

Any info/suggestions are appreciated.

-neal

http://www.shotimes.com/ is a great message board for the SHO.

DO NOT get a slushbox...they're nightmares and MANY have problems. you may save some money by stepping over to the SHO but be prepared to get nickel and dimed to death. among other things, they require an extensive tuneup every 60k miles. all in all i think they're decent cars, though i like the handling and looks of the SVT MUCH better. my friend has been through a bunch of them. he started with an ATX and now has a MTX with a pretty much shot engine and trans at 90k miles. the ATX had HUGE tranny issues, even after being rebuilt it only lasted about a year. if it were my choice i'd stick it out with the SVT. just my .02

ummm, you just really scared me. I dont know if the reliability of the SVT is much better though.

I do agree that the SVT looks 10x better also. That will be something I'll miss...all the oooh's ahhhh's, the long stares, head turns, and just all of the compliments. I truly love my SVT.

Thanks for your info and the link

-neal

SHO = crap quality. Good engine but everything else sucks. Consumer Reports warns you to stay away from it. The 96+ V8 SHOs were also prone to engine failures.

your opinions are making me rethink my options. I guess the engine is alright for the most part but everything else fails b/c its a Ford. Ah well, back to the drawing board. What about a first gen DSM? I've heard bad thing about them too though...

-neal

Brother has a 95 SHO 3.2L ATX

He is the 2nd owner and the car is stock.

Around 60K miles is on it now and he has yet to have any major problems other than brake issues.

ATX trans normally lasts about 75K miles on the 92-95 SHO's.

It depends on how you drive I think. He learned not to treat the automatic with shame after his last 2 ATX cars needed tranny rebuilds.

But buying a car that is 8 model years old is begging for maintenance costs.

You will have better overalll luck with the 96-98 SHO in terms of quality I would think as it is not as sporty and most likely not as prone to failure. I also think the 96-98 have not been driven hard like the 92-95's.

When I totalled the Contour, I was looking at SHOs to replace it. The V6 ones have a sweet-ass Yamaha engine that is bulletproof. But everything else in the car was total crap (there are exceptions, and some SHOs will be problem free). So then I looked at a 96+ SHO with the Yamaha 3.4L V8. They are prone to cam sprocket failures, which wrecks the whole engine. The guys at v8sho.com were showing that 25 of the 250 members lost engines from that. The new engine cost $6500!

Don't listen to GSRGuy, he's a Honda guy.. My mom has a 95 SHO with 72K miles on it, and she's owned it since day one. She had some expensive repairs around 65K (radiator, battery, belts, etc), but these are normal repairs for a 7 year old car.. Other than that, it's been faultless.. Heck, I'd trade you the SHO and $5K for the SVT possibly

I've owned an '89 MTX (the only flavor the came in) modded to hell and back and I've had a '93 ATX. Two things I loved about them both:

1) Size - You could fit full-size adults in any of the seats with actual legroom in the back.

2) Engine - The 3.0L and 3.2L Yamaha V6 is one of my favorite engines of all time. Bullet-proof and revved like a schizophrenic on PCP (I had an 8K RPM redline via a Superchip burn).

Unfortunately, the brakes on both models were good for about 50 feet before the faded like mad, the handling compared to a Contour SVT plain sucks and everything inside the engine bay (apart from the engine) fell apart at one time or another. I'm not going to even try and go over the list of repairs that both cars went through...

Maybe I got two high-maintenance rides, so ask around if you are still interested in changing over.

Best of luck.

sujeet, check your pm's

-neal