First, found CEG just by searching for shizzat about Contours.
How I got my car: I decided to drive my Cavalier RS into a drainage ditch upside-down on Christmas morning, 1997. Totalled the car ("no kidding!?!"). I said that there was no way my vette was ever touching snow & salt, so I got to talking to my dad about finding another daily driver. His girlfriend was one of the top sales people at John Lance Ford in Westlake, OH. I told her I need a car and I need it soon, but I'm not driving a 4-banger and it's NOT going to be an automatic. She said how about a used Contour? I said let's see it. She showed me a '95 2.5L Dura, automatic. "Take it for a spin around town and tell me how ya like it."
Well, coming from a beatdown 2L 4banger Cavalier with 120K+ miles, the 2.5L Dura was a screamer, even with an automatic. Brought it back and said, I like it. Now show me a manual transmission model. She went in, did some searching. Came back and said, "Only one we have is down in Florida. It's fully loaded, leather, 95SE 2.5L Duratec, 15" 6-spoke aluminum wheels, power everything including moonroof, premium sound system. 19K miles. Gonna cost about $12,500." I told them to get it on a truck and bring it up. I had the car a week later and signed the papers on January 13th, 1998. Merry Christmas to me! I asked about the SVT, but they aren't an authorized dealer :-(
Update: I have 118K miles on the car. Had all the typical problems you read about here. Plus some you don't. Some of it was the car, others were because of thier piece o' shiznit service dept who wouldn't be able to find the bottom of a lake if they were standing on it.
I was going to drop some money on the car this year (intake, exhaust, blah blah blah.) Figured I just spent $1650 on wheels/tires/rotors/pads, I might as bump the performance as well. Just recently I came to my senses and opted not to. 118K miles. No warranty. Too much money to spend for not enough performance gains. I'll get a chip to remove the speedlimiter and be happy with that. I have other cars for driving fast. No need to drop more money into this car. Anyways, I'm buying a big motorcycle next year to add to my toy collection, so I'm saving up for that instead.
