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

Searched the web. Caught the dealer for on a bait and switch. Bought the car straight up for wholesale. The rest is history.

I was in Midland, Michigan, sick of pumping money into my Scirocco 16V...i looked around and couldnt find anything in a stick that i wanted, so I found a 96 GL with 10K miles (this was in beginning of 1998) and paid 10K. I had great service,,they actually drove the car to my job so i could test it,,,I drove it back to the dealer, so I bought it.

Then, at 120K miles (oct 2001), I decided time to change..tranny wouldnt downshift into 3rd, just slightly beat up, although engine was flawless.
The guy here in atlanta, GA, said to me,,,look, its oct 31st, end of month,,,what do I have to do to get you into this 1999 SE sport, with 53K miles...he gave 1K for the GL and sold me the car for 7500 dollars, fully loaded except moonroof and leather.
My prob was that my credit is shaky and paid crappy interest rate...as soon as I can get lower interest rates, I am trading for an SVT...

I had a 90 T-bird SC which needed alot of work. My wife had a 89 Tempo that was on the way out. We went it to get the SVT and came out with a SE instead (she cannot drive stick)..I really wanted the SVT..a few weeks later I dumped the SC and got the SVT..few months after that we dumped the SE and got a Grand Cherokee...

Had a 82 EXP, that decided to catch fire on me coming off the interstate,a friend had a Mystique 4 banger and I liked it. Was on a 7 day off stretch so started to look around, found beauty at a small lot close by and stopped to ask if she was a stick, was lucky enough to "test" drive it all weekend and signed the paper work as soon as they opened monday morning, never took her back and will not give her up until there is absolutly no hope of ever fixing her!! LOVE MY TOUR!!!!

drove the sh*t out of a 95 dodge neon ATX,only had it for 9 months, drove it into the lot with a streak of oil following me . could not take the beating . well they said ( ford dealer ) ohh nothing wrong with car perfect shape we give you 4K for it dammmmmmm hell ya , so i seen her sitting there the last on line almost behind the blg. she look so sweet and thats the end....still happy

Later

iMotors.com (during their first run at business)

they tracked down my car on the east coast, shipped it out i took a 1/2 hour test drive and took her home!!

My wife's was an ex-rental (Zetec auto) that the dealership had taken back, cleaned up, and put in the used-car showroom for about the price of a new Escort (which is what she had originally wanted, but I thought we should poke around some more). We took it out for a spin, and I told her "you really would rather have this car." Glad I did, because after a few years it became my car when she got a company Civic (that I hated).

When she left that job and lost the Civic, she took her Contour back and I went car shopping. I ended up testing out a '95 LX V6 that a Brit was trying to sell quickly since he was being moved out of the country. It was in decent, not great, shape, but he was asking a really nice price for it and I decided to overlook my worries about the V6's durability (and the lack of records...that still spooks me after 6 months with the thing) and went for it. Thanks to the Capitol CEG, I'm much more confident and happier with my decision because they've helped me out big-time, and now I've got some SVT hardware on it and have other project-car plans in mind.

A buddy of mine started looking at the 98.5 SVT's and finally when my 93 Sentra S-ER died I need a car right away. I went by Sheehy Ford in Gaithersburg and picked up my 2K Black SVT. I have loved the car for awhile now. It's been sitting at the shop for almost 3 months now. The place that has it keeps telling me they are going to fix it and always comes up with something else to delay it. It is now supposed to be done next Wednesday. I have forgotten how nice it is and how much I love the sound of the exhaust.

My family discovered that we needed a third vehicle, since everybody was going in totally separate directions at the same time. One day, Dad says "let's go car shopping." Second place we hit up is a Ford dealer. Saw a 2000 T-red Contour; Dad test-drove (I'm under 18), liked it, but salesman completely ignored me when it was pretty obvious I'd be the primary driver of this car! We leave and go to another Ford dealership (Ford Lincoln-Merc), and are looking at Mystiques but they were too expensive. Salesman comes out, turns my head to a shiny T-red '98 Contour. Salesman is nice to me; saleman knows my selling points (it's shiny; it's got keyless entry; it's got 24K miles); salesman gets sale.

Later that day, Mom happens upon this site and tells me about it. Next day, I register on the forums. Before I registered, I barely knew the difference between a V6 and a 4-banger (hence my selling points were largely visual!). I've learned a LOT thanks to the CEG.

I still have most of the cars I ever purchased (in sig) except for a couple that were wrecked, a couple taken by ex-wives and a couple traded in. A few years back when we had SuperTouring here and in Europe I started getting interested in "sport sedan" type cars. Interestingly enough, I had first researched the Contour SVT during those Supertouring years but they were too expensive for me new. Last December I thought maybe the time was right to buy so I started shopping online. I found my E0 in Autotrader.com for $4K less than the dealer had on the windshield when I went down to look at it. Already had Eibachs on it so that saved me even more dough. Now all I need are some 17's and some other mild mods and I'll be in great shape.

Karl