Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Car advice

My Contour is being looked at this afternoon, if it turns out to be serious, my parents don't think it worth putting any $ into.

So here is what they think, I should go to the sales department and get a lease number on a focus zx3.

My question is what do you think of a Focus? If its a lease I will never be out of warranty. All it will need is routine maintenance, and by the time anything big could go wrong it would not be my problem.

So do you think a Focus is a good 3 year driver? Ford has some pretty good offers right now.

BTW Hows the facotry audio in it?

Its just about always cheaper to keep your old car. Compare your lease payments to what your repair bills may be.

If your lease is $300 per month for instance, you certainly are not likely to have to spend $3600 per year to keep the contour going...are you?

Also the focus is an ugly car, unlike the contour.

There looking at it as the vehicle is not worth that much to put a big repair into.

Since December I have spent a 1000 in repairs.

That's a lot in 3 mo. How many miles do you have on it? you won't get that money back by dumping the car, though.

You won't get much for trade in on a '96 either...

Hope it ends up not being another big problem.

I've spent $1500 in the 15 months I have owned my 95...that's repairs and maintenance and includes new tires which I new I'd need when I bought it.

I'd keep the 'tour; then again I'm biased

I have always planned on driving this car into the ground, and now that I know I can get an entire long block for <$2k if something should go wrong, you can bet I'll be dropping a new motor in if something terrible happens to this one. It's much cheaper for me to do that than get into payments all over again.

<$2k for engine...is that installed price?

One problem I am in PAYMENTS! W/ the Tour. Either way its a fact of life for me. I surly will miss the Tour.

And according to the Ford dealer it is TERMINAL.

um...no

Keep in mind the Focus is turning out to be a horribly unreliable small car, by far the worst in Consumer Report's last survey (over 60% more problems than average).

I cannot recommend the Focus to anyone with such poor reliability. If you want to trade for a small car, the Mazda Protege is by far the best choice.

I agree, trade is the best. Then there's an end in sight to your payments. With a lease car, you end up with nada. That's why I have my three cars; one will always run. I only have to make payments on the Tour, and they're low. With you only having one car, do the research, talk to mechanics and buy a reliable car.