Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Message to all SVT owners

Guys, I have spoken to Troy on the phone as well to get my SVT certificate. He's for real and was very helpful, so I'm not surprised to see him here acting concerned.

I, personally, have had NO PROBLEMS with my 98 EO SVT except the sunroof and it has 39.5K miles. I love this car and have owned many Fords over the years. I'm on my 3rd F-150, and previously owned 2 Mustang GT's before the SVT. I have also owned numerous other mainstream foreign enthusiast cars:
TR-7, 2 RX-7's, an MR-2, a Honda Civic, and Sentra SE-R. I truly believe the SVT Contour is on par in quality with anything else I have ever owned. I love it more than any car I have ever owned. But, at 46, I am considerably older than almost everybody on this site. I also suspect I got a good quality production version.

Troy, if you have been monitoring CEG for a while, then you know that other, especially later model SVT Contour owners have had many problems. They are mostly under 30, have very large incomes for their age and the potential to earn much more down the pike. They are very well educated so when they speak to others about their experiences with Ford, it is likely to hold creedance. If Ford discourages them now, then they are losing a very lucrative future market and are gaining negative word-of-mouth.

I own a small business and know it is much easier to keep current customers than to gain new ones. But I also know about the bottom line and the need to contain costs. If SVT were to develop the transmission fixes, oil baffle, and water pump solutions outlined here and provide it for free to owners still in warranty and at reasonable cost to those outside of warranty it would certainly improve Ford's chances of keeping their current SVT Contour customer.

I had a problem with my 97 F-150's V-6 engine. It went bad at 55K miles and the replacement also knocked and was replaced 10k miles later. Ford replaced both motors for free. Despite the fact that I was livid at the time about these motors going south so early, I leased another 2001 F-150 (V-8 this time) last month because I felt a certain LOYALTY to Ford and the dealer who took care of me before. Get the picture.

Anyway, appreciate your concern and we hope to hear from you and other SVT guys who own SVT Contours more often on this site. Thanks.

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Kickimus Maximas Buttimus
98 EO SVT Toreador Red
01 F-150 W/ 2 horse/habit

[This message has been edited by SVTCole (edited March 30, 2001).]

Damn. You guys are scaring me. My '99 SVT Contour has never had to go back to the dealer for unscheduled service in the 2 years and 25K miles I've had it (and I got it with 3 miles on the odo). Tranny shifts smoothly, no oil light coming on at autocrosses (of course, from years of driving British sports cars, I habitually let the engine warm up and trans warm up before going anywhere...), sunroof works fine, rear bumper fits nice, fewer rattles than my ex-roommate's '99 Jetta GLX (or prtty much any of the hundred cars I've owned in the last 20 years...).

Am I doing something wrong?

What's scaring me is that these problems won't show up until it's out of warranty...

Yes, if these things are common issues, then a fix should be made and dealt with. And yes, it would be nice to see Contour stuff in the catalogs along side the other SVT products. But it's obvious that enough people need serious issues resolved first.

Troy, Ford and SVT have a large, and very vocal, group of enthusiasts here who could really help future advertising at a cost considerably less than a TV spot just by fixing the issues on the SVT Contours. The negative publicity that this large a group can generate would cost Ford and SVT more...

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While I may be new to this board, I'm not new to the automotive scene...

Troy and others....
First off Troy let me say it's a stand up move of you to come in here and solicit opinions of us. Especially of your own free will. It proves to me YOU are an enthusiast. Kudos to you!
I am not an SVT but rather a 95SE owner. To see why, look through all these other posts. Troy, I suggest you subscribe to the list as well. I have been subscribing to the list and reading all these things(performance wise) about the SVT since 1997 when I bought my current 95SE just a few months after the SVT Contour was released. Ever since I have had "svt envy" until about a year ago when I realized that my 95SE is better put together than any SVT out there. What the heck good is all that scrumptious power if the diff is made of glass? Plus, I absolutely HATE cable shifters. I admit they have their benefits, but I prefer the rod my 95 has. And how about heated mirrors, lightup door handles, a locking glove box with a light, and a clock in the dash??? I point you to one car; the Volvo S40. Not near the handler the SVT is, but that can be fixed with little effort. It has the motor, the doodads and the luxury the SVT should have had, and as far as I can tell from the people I know that own them - the reliability as well(and it's 22,900 base price is in line with the SVT's-albeit without leather). I have driven every year SVT(contour) built, and not you not ford not thier owners, could pay ME enough to own one(shame too because I love the green and tan color combo). Is it fast, hell yeah. Is it an awesome handler, hell yeah. Will I ever own one, hell no. I cannot tell you how much this breaks my heart to say. I am Ford family; my father worked for ford for 20+ years in the buffalo stamping plant as an electrician, and was proud of the work he did, as well as believing in the company he did it for. He must be turning over in his grave with Ford's conduct lately. The explorer scam, the Cobra fiasco, and the contour debacle? We have owned nothing but fords my entire life(good cars- every one), and I will continue to buy ford products (rather ford owned products) for as long as is reasonable. But I tell you this, I won't buy another contour, and I won't even think about a cat. So where does that leave me? Outside the brand turning to volvo, bmw, audi, VW, etc. I have to admit, I love to wind my car out, I love to hand grand ams and accords their pride at lights and in curves, and I love the fact that my car went 45K miles without 1 single problem (when the h20 pump went at 82K) I got lucky with my car, no doubt. But I feel nothing but sorrow for these poor SVT guys. They have rippin cars, but have to be more careful with them than I do with mine(of course, I don't believe in wheelspin, either ). My seats are more comfortable, my interior feels nicer, and after 85K miles, the only rattles are my teeth when I drive on lovely rochester NY roads. Both ford and SVT should be ashamed of the way they have treated SVT owners, and in my opinion should right the wrongs of the car. I'm not much into tuning, my thoery is buy the car you want and leave it alone w/the exception of stereo mods, so I can't really say SVO needs to put parts out for the SVT Contour, but I do think there is a market for it. Aside from tshirts and pens and the go fast parts, both ford and SVT need to make good on the bad h20 pumps, the bad tranny's and diffs, and for god sakes the crappy oil pan designs but we all know it will never happen. Carving pennies or dollars here or there is a stupid way to do things. SVT is one of the few mature names in performance left. I here integra Type R and I think ricey kid car. I here SVT Contour or SVT Cobra, and I think well thought out, mature performance driving machines(The M class of Ford, if you will). Those days are numbered. Cobras with bad intakes, contours with bad trannys, diffs, and crappy interiors, that's a recipe for losing customers. I figure the damage that has been done to ford by itself with these cars will take well more than a decade to correct. Assuming they don't pull out the shotgun of stupidity and shoot themselves in the foot some other way. Aside from recalling all SVT contours and replacing saggin bumpers, crappy trannys and diffs, and fixing the oil pans, there is nothing you can do. But I can offer some advice, go over that focus with a microscope. Put an adult interior in the thing and make sure it can take being driven the way you're advertising it can be driven(i'll be happy to test one for you if you like ). At 16 grand, it has stiff competition from the protégé, GTI, sentra crowd and ford and svt will take a soaking in that market if the car turns out to have and oil pressure problem going around turns a 5k rpm that cause the engine to digest itself. If SVT and ford won't fix the problems of the past, at least learn from them. And again, kudos to you for opening yourself up to what you had to know to be a powder keg of angry ford owners

--chris Hirtzel
95SE mtx

My main concerns are with the basic treatment from SVT.

Unlike some of the others here, I have not had any issues with the tranny, oil starvation, shifter, sunroof, or anything...I will state though, I do have some bumper sag. All in all, so far the car has been a complete joy.

My complaints are with how SVT looks at their customers. I would expect 'no contact approach' had I just purchased a Ford, but I bought the SVT. Other than a couple magazines that have nothing in them for Contour owners and get this, hardly anything that just says SVT...everything has Lightning or Cobra plastered on it , a few issues of SVT Enthusiast, which is now gone (I however did see a Contour article in one...thanks), and a certificate, you guys are non-existent. In my fifth year of owning a Saturn (just your basic run of the mill car) I was receiving invites to Spring Hill, Tennessee, ball game tickets, booklets from SPS Racing (an invite to the aftermarket world), notifications on events in the area, pamphlets on up and coming cars....things I think SVT should be doing, not sending a "This is your last copy" magazine ?unless we get some cash?...and giving it to SVTOA, the site we needed to fight to get recognition from...

No offense, but I get about the same contact from Ford in buying my Explorer...pretty sad to say huh?

If this vehicle is truly Special...we as owners should be treated as if it really is, from the people we trusted when buying it.

Thanks for listening Troy...I am already getting a better opinion by just venting my frustrations


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Joey
2000 SVT Black
#1811 of 2150

MODERATOR
www.svtperformance.com


If you're in a war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at the enemy, throw one of those small pumpkins. Maybe it'll make everyone think how stupid war is, and while they are thinking, you can throw a real grenade at them.

Troy,

Good to see someone from SVT here. I can only speak to my own ownership experience so far. Other than a sticking throttle and a noisy rear suspension, I've had zero problems with the 99 SVT after 47500 miles and climbing daily. Yes, the interior certainly doesn't match up with some of it's competitors and road noise stinks compared to the German/Jap rivals, but I enjoy the exclusivity of the SVT products, so I guess for me the exclusivity was more important than the potential quality issues.

I also recognize the the SVT Contour was SVT's first foray into the FWD performance sedan segment. So to a certain extent I would imagine that the SVT Contour was a "live and learn" experience for SVT just as much as it was for the CEG'ers here on this board.

I for one recognize that we cannot really compare the SVT Contour to the SVT Cobra in brand recognition or popularity. I completely understand why SVT jumped all over the 99 Cobra engine problema, the SVT Cobra is SVT's claim to fame, I would've done the same thing no doubt.

I see the SVT Focus and while it's not for me (have three kids/wife), I see that SVT has learned a thing or two from the Contour effort and I'm personally glad to see it. My only question is:

Is SVT considering an SVT version of any other Ford 4 door sedan at this point in the game?

I for one am trying to plan out what I'll be driving in a few years and I'd like to see SVT get another product offering in the high-po 4 door sedan market, especially since the SHO isn't around any more...



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Regards,

Craig J. Baldwin
99 SVT Contour - Silver - #49/2760 - ES Front Motor Mount Inserts, Bosche +4's w/Magnecore 8.5mm Competition wires, RActive Racing Pedals, KKM/Pro-M 75mm MAF in the garage...

I would like to begin by stating the following things are what i love about my SVT:
-performance, performance, performance
-incredible exhaust note
-sleek european styling with just enough edge

But if the following items were taken care of, I would be a customer for life:

-tranny
-water pump
-oil pan

I have put 27K miles on my SVT in a little over a year and I love driving it, but hate owning it due to all the problems I have experienced. This is my 1st Ford and possibly my last if these issues are not corrected. The SVT Contour is an incredible machine but with some very large flaws. Without these, the car would be simply incredible.

Troy, thank you for taking the time to read thru all of our posts. I do appreciate your effort.

Thank you,

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Mike DeLange
99 SVT Tropic Green

What Toadster said plus:

I love my Contour SVT.

Thanks for making such a great car.

Oh...one other quick thing...

Learn from your mistakes, there's still time, give the Focus a name!

There is a lot of information here, and I want to thank everyone for his or her input. It is good to see that everyone is open an honest with their concerns and I will try to emulate that to the best of my ability.
I don?t want to lead anyone on with empty promises. So, I think I should explain what I can and can?t do.

I think some of the issues that have been raised could be cleared up with an explanation of how a vehicle that has a common issue is found, researched, and resolved. If these steps are not followed, we could converse until our fingers fall off, get upset in the process, and be nowhere in the end. You have to follow a very strict procedure to eliminate the possibility of anomalies. This process is what is followed when a tech service bulletin is issued on a vehicle. When you take your vehicle in for a warranty claim at the dealer the problem and resolution is recorded. If the dealer has no reasonable resolution the contact the tech hotline. The tech hotline is an important component because they can get resolution to highly unique situations as well as recording the number of occurrences. If there is a consistency that shows up with the problem and resolution, it is passed then on to engineers to find root cause. The root cause of any particular problem could be anything from unique environmental conditions to, customer specific use, manufacturing, etc. Once a root cause is established a resolution needs to be made. The resolution could also be a number of things, such as anything from customer or tech education to a newly designed part. As you can see this is a lengthy process but it is necessary. If you concentrate on an issue that is nothing more than a strangely unique situation, you could easily be missing a real issue.

Lets start with the hard stuff first. It appears that the transmission seems to be the most common mentioned item. That makes sense, personally I think that it is the hardest working, most punished, part of the vehicle. Here is the honest part. The MTX 75 is overall a good transmission and has had very few complaints. That doesn?t mean I?m saying you each individually don?t have issues, or the fact that you may have common issues. That?s why I need information from anyone with a service concern. The things I need are VIN, how many visits, where those visits were, what was done at each visit, and a detailed description of what that issue is. There are obviously a number of you so I will also need your patience as well. Some of you are quite correct that I am not going to be able to single handedly convince Ford to give you new heavier duty transmissions, but maybe I can help some of you to your satisfaction.

For those of you that race your vehicles. First the 2.5 Duretec does have a ?windage tray?, so you are on equal ground with the Cobra in that essence. It is simply a piece of sheet metal that mounts under the crankshaft which prevents the crank from ?stirring? up the oil in the pan. Its primary objective is to reduce oil foaming and resistance caused by the crank rotating in the oil. It won?t though prevent oil starvation. The best resolution to that is a baffled oil pan or a dry sump. These are both very costly and are not needed in a daily driver or for that matter your typical weekend passionate drives. There is certainly no reason to worry about driving you vehicle day to day, this simply will not be an issue. But that?s why if you plan on racing a vehicle which accounts for almost all production vehicles you will need a baffled oil pan. This is precisely why the 2000 Cobra R which was designed for racing has a specially made, baffled, Canton oil pan. What I can do for interested parties here is look into any alternatives for the Contour. As soon as I get some info I will post it here for the group. Next as far as the differential is concerned, we were aware of an issue in the past. The engineer?s resolution was a hardened gear set, and a TSB. Again with the hard truth, Ford is not going to retrofit your Contours with a Quaife LSD. If you plan or racing a vehicle you need to appropriately out fit it. This is the same answer I would give someone if you had a, for example sake, 94 Cobra for drag racing. I would recommend a 31 spline 8.8 over the stock 28 spline. Does this mean the 28 spline is a bad design? Absolutely not, that just means in a particular use you may need to customize the vehicle to handle the added stress of that particular use. In the case of the Cobra 28 splines, they would be fine for daily driving or weekend AX, but go drag racing an add slicks and the probability goes up for axle damage. Anyone interested in particular parts should call Vadim Federovsky at the Sho Shop. We have provided them with some support, for example the project car he currently has was part of our effort to help promote aftermarket parts. Obviously, Vadim has done a great job promoting the SVT Contour and we are grateful. Also I would like to add the normal warning, any time you modify your vehicle you can potentially void your warranty. If the added components are directly a cause of the parts failure Ford won?t warranty it.

Now lets talk about some stuff that?s a little more fun to talk about. It appears that many of you would like to see Ford produce an equal car to the SVT Contour for you to transition into. Like the Mondeo etc. I couldn?t agree more. But unfortunately we at SVT have no control what Ford overall produces. In the simplest way I can explain it is we look at what Ford mainstream is producing and select the vehicles that best fit SVT. In the 2002 model year that happened to be the Focus. I know this vehicle doesn?t fit everyone?s needs in the forum. But I have been getting the same kinds of enthusiastic begging from the Focus fanatics since its arrival in 2000, that there needs to be an SVT version of the Focus. One of the most difficult things to do is predict the future, but that?s what we have to do. For instance development starts now for vehicles 4 years out. That?s 2006-7!

Also, let me reiterate that we would love to continue to offer a similar vehicle. I know this is hard to believe but I can?t stress it enough, we didn?t want to see the SVT Contour go. The head of SVT still has his 99. With all of the vehicles that Tom could have he has an SVT Contour. Hopefully that helps everyone understand that we are looking out for owners of this type of vehicle. It just depends on what available from Ford.

I can understand some people wanting the items we are offering in the future, like the premium service and the new features of the 2002 SVT Focus. Who wouldn?t? We try to improve the vehicles every year, and these are prime examples. The 2001 vehicles get the added service functions, because we felt it was the right direction to go. I don?t think anyone would disagree with that. But it is just as unreasonable to make it retroactive, as it would to give a ?00 Lightning owner the ?01 Lightning?s 20 extra hp. Would I love to do that? You bet. Does it make business sense? Not really. I hope I don?t anger anyone more I?m just being as open and as honest as I can be. At least the communication link is here and we can continue to talk openly.

Lastly, I want to stress if you are having an individual service concern e-mail me as much information as you have and I will get someone to help you out.

Thanks everyone

I?m sure I missed something

Troy

Thanks for your reply Troy.

FWIW, Tom Scarpello has his Contour listed for sale in our classified section, I thought that was kinda funny.