Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General What's your Contour story? (How did you find your Contour?)

Inquring minds at CEG want to know the story behind your first Contour/Mystique/Mondeo!! What did you drive before? What made you purchase it? (Was your current car going, did you like the look/feel, etc). Also, how did you find CEG?

My story:

My first car I had was a 1987 Chevy Cavailer wagon, 58k miles, 2.0 4cyl with 85 HP for only $1000. Suprisingly, with 13 inch tires, that sucker would go through ANYTHING. I got it when I was 18, was able to drive it before my 19th birthday (Registration, etc) and my dad replaced the muffler/exhaust for me on my birthday. That car got me through college, and before my graduation, I noticed the damn transmission wouldn't shift into 2nd until it was drove for 15 minutes. I figured it was time for a new car, and started looking around. I drove a couple of duds (2001 Cavalier, 1996 Oldsmobile) and then, when I was leaving the Ford dealership for the day, I spotted a dark red, almost maroon, Ford Contour. It looked EXCELLENT. I went back on Monday (The day I graduated, btw) and took it for a test drive....I was in heaven. This sucker was only a 4cyl, but had great pickup, all kinds of power goodies, great handling, the works.

Then came the best part

The dealer came in while I was waiting for them to get an exact price, and they told me they'd give me $1500 for my wagon (Which means they didn't spot the tranny problem :p ), and also, they told me that they screwed up on the price. The price they had was for a 99 with a stick-shift and more miles. Mine was the 98 with an automatic and less miles (which means worth more), so they had to give me the price of the 99. So I got my 98 Contour, 4cyl, 40k miles for only $7000 with my trade! After a couple of months of driving around my baby, I happened to do a search for Ford Contour and this website came up.

Ever since then, I've been addicted :p

So, what's YOUR story?

I drove a '96 SHO on lease and my lease was going to end in July of '98. I went to my favorite Ford dealer to see what I might lease next. I knew the SHO was no more.... so now what.

They always kept the "show" cars lined up along the outside wall of the showroom; Cobra's SHO's etc etc. I saw this 3 (Silver, Black, Red)4 door sedans there and I thought "What the hell are those" SVT Contours was the reply. Love at first site. Test drove the silver one and I was hooked. The handling, the power, the sound.. everything.

After I had it a while, I realised that the stereo sucked compared to my JBL in the SHO and obviously it is a different class of car. But, I love it to death.

Connie came to me. She was parked in my drive and it was love ever since. Actually my dad found it for me at a small Ford dealer in north western MI. Yes I was looking for Contours. He was on his way down GR to look for cars I had found in papers and happened to swing into this dealer. I had to have it.

Previous car - 1993 Taurus GL wagon. It was beginning to be a money pit in $1000.00 increments. We were driving to a friends house when I saw some Contours at a local dealer with a $3000.00 factory rebate sign in the window of one......

Well ... I call JD Ford and talk to a salesman. Not much arm twisting required. $3000 rebate + $2500 for trade in + "A" plan = a real sweet deal. 1 test drive of a T-red loaded SE.... MINE.

It was time to replace my college car that wasn't worth fixing, Summer of 2000. I get the A-plan so Fords were highest on the list. A friend of mine had a 97 SE that I liked a lot and they were really cehap with the end of production. 5-Speed SE's were about $13k. Well, a dealer search at the time showed 1 stick in the 3 closests states and it wasn't a good color. I test drove an atuomatic, but blah! No wonder Ford is discontinuing this car, is what I thought. It was fine basic transportation, but nothing I could get excited about spending $15k of money on. If I'm getting a new car, it better inspire me. Wife didn't like the ZX3 and all other Foci were too heavy for the motor. Up the budget to $20k for Taurus, SVT Contour, and Mustang GT. Who wants and automatic - no Taurus. GT was very nice, but lack of legroom, headroom, and all other interior space turned me off for a car I was probably going to put 20k miles a year on. The SVT just felt right, everything about it. So, we made our decision. I called a different dealer and said told him exactly what I wanted, color and gave him my CC # for a deposit. The next day I had the loan check in route to the dealer to take delivery when my friend calls me on the cell saying there is a $2000 rebate on SVT's starting that day. I had the salesman investigate, and wha-lah I buy my friend dinner to thank him.

had a 94 ranger b4 my 1st tour...changed jobs and needed something with power and cruise for my new commute...went to my dealer and told him i wanted a v6 spd...he found me a 95 gl and got it for me...after putting 100k on that one, traded it in in june of 99 for the silver 98 svt...got 104k on it and still running

james

Saw it, loved it, bought it, sold it, miss it......The End!

I had a 96 GMC Jimmy SLS on lease that was in a terrible accident - Insurance company insisted on reparing it, and $13000 later, it still wasn't the same - I wanted out of my lease, and GMC was willing to let me break it with no penalties (I was 6 months early), because the SUV was in high demand at the time. So I went down to the Ford dealership to look at a 98 Cobra. They had about 30 Cobras (coupes & verts) on the lot, but none in the right combination for me (Coupe with leather, black on black).

Having read so much in the magazines about the SVT Contour, I asked the sales guy if they had any. He didn't even know what it was, but we finally found one. I test drove it, thought it was pretty cool, and thought about it for awhile.

The only other car I was looking at was a 98 Eclipse GS-T Spyder. But the only one left within 100 miles was red, and I wasn't too keen on that color. Factor in the lousy financing rates, and the lack of flexibility in price, and I was getting frustrated.

I switched jobs at this point, so a month went by between when I first drove the car, and when I finally bought it.. In this month, the E1 models came out, so that worked out great!

So back to Ford I went, to drive the car again.. I was able to get a $400 recent college grad discount, a $1200 Ford Citibank discount, 0.9% financing, and buy the car for like $300 over invoice, and there was no comparison.. Now the gap between the SVT and the Eclipse was about $6000! So I signed the papers, drove it home, and never looked back.

Just sold the car today, 2 days shy of 46 months of ownership. Was sad to watch her drive away.

I was eagerly waiting for the "new generation Tempo" to come out in early 90's. I had a 1991 Escort GT, but wanted something bigger. I ended up leasing a 1994 Mustang V6 on impulse, when they first came out. But was a waste of $$ just to have a car that friends WOW over.

When the Tours finally came out I them, but had to wait till lease was up. I rented two CDWs and drove them in bad weather on business trips, liked one Mystique so much, I wanted to take it home with me.

In 1997, I had enough of a trade in and looked at used 96's, but found a 'lightly used' 97 for a little more. Was a good car for 4 years, but wished I got the V6.

Now I "fixed" that with my current car.

I had gotten very sick of my 92 tempo and was searching for something new. My father already had a contour so that was a place to look. I was looking through an auto shopper and found the car. Showed it to my mother not thinking much about it. I was gone on a school music trip and she made my dad go look at the car and he had to buy it when he saw it. It was the Zetec like he thought I should have and it had the 5spd I wanted. It was faily loaded andwas in really good shape. And the rest is history, nearly 2 years and 20 thousand miles later