Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Car advice

keep the tour,you would be better off. I have a 95 tour with 112000 miles on it , its in the shop right now for the timing belt,egr valve,and a vacum leak its only going to cost $300, the car has ran good since i bought it 10 months ago. i too was thinking of replacing my contour with a focus at one time but thanks to "CEG" i quickly changed my mind. i'm glad i did i plan on keeping my tour till its no longer fixable,well hopefully you keep the tour. by the way how many miles does your tour have on it,and whats wrong with it?

91,000 and Tranny just crapped out.

Wow at 91,000 Man you got lucky!

Mines had a new one every 32K! Currently 97K and getting a little worried...

well look at it this way if you choose to have you tranny fixed you should get another 96000 miles out of it, and you should only have to pay between $1000-2000. I know that seems like alot now but think if you lease our buy another car you'll pay alot more than that in payments and intrest.you said you already put money in it so you shouldn't have another big break down for awhile. by the way what did you already fix?

Sorry to hear that.

Can they replace it w/mtx?

What about sticking a used tranny in? Especially if you do decide to get rid of it.

If you decide to trade it in, they are going to screw you over and you probably be flipped in payments. What I mean by flipped is: You won't get enough money to payoff your loan, therefore the rest of that will be carried over to you new loan, which this case will be a lease. Your payments would be higher than normal.

I am a little sketchy on how old you are, but I'm guessing in the age of 16-19ish(correct me if I am wrong). If your still in high school, don't lease it, just for the main fact that other kids are careless and don't give a sh*t about the car next to them(giving you a nice little door ding). If you have dents or unusual wear to the car(dents, scratches, etc), the dealership will charge you for it. Also, if you ever wanted to mod your car you couldn't, because it would void the warranty, hence you would be subject to overcharge on the lease. Thats enough about leasing.

If you buy a NEW car, you are still under warranty for 36k or more. You can buy an ESP for the car and have it 75k or more. It's YOUR car and you would be able to mod anything on the car you wanted. Remember it's YOUR car, not anyone elses.

I would actually buy a NEW transmission and then drive that to the ground. Our cars have horribly resale value, causing the low trade in value. One other thing before I am done, don't even look at Kelly Blue Book. because the dealership will hardly go by it. It's not worth arguing either, because then they are less likely to deal with you on the car.

Alright, thats enough for now, if you have any questions, ASK!!!!! I did work at a car dealership for a while.

I would say that if you like the Contour you should keep it. I will be getting a ZX5 fairly soon. I am just tired of the Contour, even when it's clean and shiny it's still old. And although it is a fast car, I can't use that speed in the ice and snow. It is a nice car but I would like to try something new, and from the times I took out a Focus I really liked it so it is replacing the Contour. I will say that the cost of repairing the tour and fixing it over the next few years is way lower than payments on the Focus but I'll live.

I am actually almost 22. I like the Tour, but I find it REALLY hard to put over 2 grand worth of repairs into it. I have contacted the dealer I bought it from 9 months ago and there going to "see" what they can do to give me some kind of satisfaction.

I under stand about leasing, and I am basically renting a car for 3 years. My parents have been very happy with leasing, they leased two Blazers. First Blazer they leased was a 97, turned it in scratch on the fender and a dent. GM did not charge them a dime for them. I will be building no equity into a Focus what so ever if I lease it to, but if I was to finance a car for 48 months, what equity I am building there, I would probably dump it after 3 years anyway. In that case I would still be backwards most likely in it. I am not a big into "MODS" hell if I did any of those things when I financed it Ford would void the warranty (correct me if I am wrong). I mean the only change I made was the stereo, and I can live with the standard CD player in the Focus. After this I have really kind of begun to dislike the Contour, I mean I should have not gotten a car with that many miles on it to begin with.

Well I talked to the "selling" dealer of the car. (Chevrolet Dealer) He says he was "sorry" but there was nothing he can do, since I did not buy the extended warrenty. I said I was never offerd an extended warrenty option. "OOPS I guess I forgot he says".

I say it looks like know that I will have to take out a lease on a new car, and take a heavy loss on the Contour. "He says have you considerd a Chevrolet." It better be one HELL of a deal, I am going to call him back this afternoon, if we were to do ANY business it would have to be a great deal AND they would need to come and pick up the Tour. I dont want to tow it 50 miles home. CHING CHING!

Well, good luck whatever you do. Just keep in mind the "unmentionables" of buying (and maybe leasing; I don't know 'cause I've never leased) a car: e.g. taxes, annual registration, etc. It can get expensive in a hurry.