Originally posted by HITMANinMI:

The car wasnt made to be a race car, just a family sedan, thats all Fords intent was, except for the SVT of course.

You people knew that before you even brought the thing and now you complain it doesnt have power, how dumb.





Wow. You are so wrong, and so unknowing of the jewel that you possess.

I agree that "race car" was never the target, but to say that it's "just a family sedan...." Well, I guess it depends on what you know. That's how Ford marketed it in this country, as an answer to the Accord and Camry, but since it also had to compete in the rest of the world with less mundane cars, you had an awful lot of time spent on such un-family car worries as steering and handling. And 170 hp was a very good number in 1995. Sure, Honda and Toyota brought out their own V-6 models around that time, but they were kitchen appliances in comparison, and at $3-5k premiums. Even the Maxima SE, while possessing a finer and more powerful engine, had begun overeating it's way to heavy softness. I had loved the previous generation of Hondas, and lusted for a Maxima for years, but then here was this Ford. I did a lot of research on this car and many others before I decided to buy. It's "just a family sedan" in the same way that a BMW is, only at just over half the price. And while it was never successful at competing in the 4-wheeled appliance field, it ended up being a jewel in the rough when it came to performance.

Sure, it possesses that annoying "Fordness" of skin-deep beauty: Interior trim that's just OK, gaping body seams with loose tolerances, and other details that seem as if they should have been easy to do better. Sure it was built in KC. But its heart is all European Sports Sedan.

Function before fashion. '96 Contour SE "Toss the Contour into a corner, and it's as easy to catch as a softball thrown by a preschooler." -Edmunds, 1998