99 SVT fall'in apart...

I'll trade you. I've give anything for cosmetic problems rather than the mystery mechanical problems my car has. (No acceleration. Long story short, Ford charged me $85 to give me bad advice; now I'm getting a "real" mechanic to look at it. And this hasn't been the first problem.

Yes if your hands persperate at all, then your steering wheel will dissolve rapidly. That's why I got a steering wheel cover right when I got my SVT. Problem solved. And you can get some vinyl polish/protectant to solve the problem of your black trim pieces. There is always a solution, or someone who gives up too easily. lol

Originally posted by 00SVT:
Aren't you the same guy who posted this???

Yeah, well, my attitude has changed since I recently found out my car is worth $7,200-8000, when I still owe $10,000 on it. I have so much negative equity in this car its disgusting. I am still a huge Ford fan, Countour fan, and CEG'er, but I am very dissapointed in what's happening to my car, which is not quite four years old yet. I love my car even with everything thats broke and falling apart, I was just shocked at the rapidly declining value of these cars, and the minor problems just make it depreciate even more. If I don't sell this car now I will be stuck with it forever.

It might be time for an SVT focus?

The SVT Focus will lose value just as quickly. If you want a car that depreciates slowly, get a BMW.

Dave Keller
1995 Contour SE
1999 Contour SVT

Originally posted by BURNTU2:
If I don't sell this car now I will be stuck with it forever.

Join the club, just get the paint retouched, get a LOUD sound system to drown out all the embarassing squeaks, and ignore everything else. . .

Funny story, I'm driving HARD on a smooth street, pop my '98CSVT into third and this things HITS me on my face. . .what was it?? Well, turns out the little vents on next to the "change" holder above the HVAC controls fell out because of my lighnting quick shifts. . .welcome to FORD. I love the design of the contour, but if I could design it all over again I would've done the following:

(1) Used better leather on the interior,
(2) Used better plastic on all the surfaces and MADE sure it all fits flush,
(3) Seam welded the entire frame to the chassis so all those bumps and rattles would've pop put 50+k later,
(4) Had bigger Wheels Wells,
(5) Better paint?? Hello, why is it falling off now?
(6) Better oil pump. Better Water Pump.
(7) Bigger radiator or more external vents to "cool" off the air clogged engine bay. . .

Suneil

Originally posted by ssmumich00:

(1) Used better leather on the interior,
(2) Used better plastic on all the surfaces and MADE sure it all fits flush,
(3) Seam welded the entire frame to the chassis so all those bumps and rattles would've pop put 50+k later,
(4) Had bigger Wheels Wells,
(5) Better paint?? Hello, why is it falling off now?
(6) Better oil pump. Better Water Pump.
(7) Bigger radiator or more external vents to "cool" off the air clogged engine bay. . .

Suneil

IMO the leather has aged well. I have done minimal care to it (maybe 1-2 leather care treatments in 3.5 yrs, 40K miles) and it looks pretty much new, even has a faint new car smell. A friend of mine with a 99 328i recently commented that my seats had aged better than his. And the steering wheel causing problems?? Not heard that before.

I agree plastics could be (much) better, dash rattles are a pain..mostly fixed by dash repair kit though..

Honastly not noticing any rattles related to chassis...seems stiff as new. Minor flex around sunroof going up driveway at angle only sign of weakness...but no worse than new. Even the 99 BMW flexes a bit here..

Paint = no problems, minor rock chips on hood and a few small door dinks, most of which did not chip paint.

Basically, dash & door panel trim a bit cheap looking but no worse than most American cars of the time at that price. The Germans are clearly much better at nice interior trim. Otherwise, pretty well screwed together for a 20K car from 99.

Also, used car prices are low in general..not just Fords/Contours. BMW/Honda/toyota better than average but you can find plenty of 3-4 year old 30-32+K 3 series BMWs available for around 20K. I was shopping them at that time & can say that they were not budging much off sticker and has signif higher maintence & insurance costs. So, I would have lost $10,000-12,000 this route...the SVT went for $18,400 and could probably bring $8,000 or about $10,000 lost. Higher % but same or less bux lost. Cars do suck as an investment but at least this one has been FUN...

Originally posted by mrspindlelegs:

The SVT Focus will lose value just as quickly. If you want a car that depreciates slowly, get a BMW.

Dave Keller
1995 Contour SE
1999 Contour SVT

Thats very true about the focus SVT losing value...however I feel the build quality is greatly improved since the Contour days and over all the car is much more durable than our contour SVT.

Originally posted by BURNTU2:

Originally posted by mrspindlelegs:

The SVT Focus will lose value just as quickly. If you want a car that depreciates slowly, get a BMW.

Dave Keller
1995 Contour SE
1999 Contour SVT

Thats very true about the focus SVT losing value...however I feel the build quality is greatly improved since the Contour days and over all the car is much more durable than our contour SVT.

Focus already has more recalls than the Contour and a worse Consumer Reports record.....Trim looks better but build quality seems same to worse..

I had a 99 Mustang GT and that car squeeked and rattled 100 times worse then the csvt. The door panel was just one giant solid plastic shell and the seats were terrible!

If you want good resale value get a Honda, the 99-00 civic si's have ridiculous resale value. With average mileage I have seen them go from $12-15k in my area, yet the car only cost $17k brand new!! An 02 Focus sold close to $20k fully equiped, and now you can get one for $14k, what does that say about there resale. Percentage wise I bet its worse then the contour!

Question (not trying to be a jerk). Did you buy the car new 4 years ago? If so, how on earth do you still owe $10K? Balloon payment? These cars are not investments. If your plan is not to lose money, simply drive it into the ground. I'm at 115K and have had it paid off for over a year now. Could the car have been better built? Probably, but it didn't cost BMW prices either. And BMW doesn't offer the lowball financing that Ford does anyway. In any event, sure there are a lot of cars that catch my fancy, but not enough to sway me back into making payments again.

Originally posted by Dan Nixon:

Originally posted by BURNTU2:

Originally posted by mrspindlelegs:

The SVT Focus will lose value just as quickly. If you want a car that depreciates slowly, get a BMW.

Dave Keller
1995 Contour SE
1999 Contour SVT

Thats very true about the focus SVT losing value...however I feel the build quality is greatly improved since the Contour days and over all the car is much more durable than our contour SVT.

Focus already has more recalls than the Contour and a worse Consumer Reports record.....Trim looks better but build quality seems same to worse..

SVT Focus has 0 recalls.

Originally posted by Yankees25:
Question (not trying to be a jerk). Did you buy the car new 4 years ago? If so, how on earth do you still owe $10K? Balloon payment? These cars are not investments. If your plan is not to lose money, simply drive it into the ground. I'm at 115K and have had it paid off for over a year now. Could the car have been better built? Probably, but it didn't cost BMW prices either. And BMW doesn't offer the lowball financing that Ford does anyway. In any event, sure there are a lot of cars that catch my fancy, but not enough to sway me back into making payments again.

I think this guy nailed it. You will lose money on a car 99 times out of 100. They are DEPRECIATING ASSETS. If you owe $10K on a car that is 4 years old, you either paid too much for it to begin with or you didn't put enough down.

Resale value is the mantra of the overextended and upside-down. If you don't want to lose money on a car, buy a bus pass.

Originally posted by 00SVT:

They are DEPRECIATING ASSETS.

Hell, I call them liabilites.

Originally posted by 00SVT:

Resale value is the mantra of the overextended and upside-down.

Well put!

Buy an Enzo, they should have good resale value

Hey honkeytonk,Aspires are worth more....

Originally posted by 00SVT:
If you owe $10K on a car that is 4 years old, you either paid too much for it to begin with or you didn't put enough down.

I didn't put anything down when I bought my SE Sport new, and I only owed
a little more than $4500 in the last year of payments.
How do you figure $10,000 ?

Just bought my CSVT a few months ago, and when I got it, it was trashed. Some smoker/stoner kid owned it before me. Dirty leather, stickers and fingernail polish on stuff, and mechanically... But with a touch of TLC, it's as good as new! Don't give up on your Contour.

Originally posted by RoadRunner:

Originally posted by 00SVT:
If you owe $10K on a car that is 4 years old, you either paid too much for it to begin with or you didn't put enough down.

I didn't put anything down when I bought my SE Sport new, and I only owed
a little more than $4500 in the last year of payments.
How do you figure $10,000 ?

I bought the car 1/05/2002 for 12,995 with zero down and it had 28K miles on it. Yes I have put a good amount of miles on it since then...but even with 78K miles on it, I think its worth more than $7,000-8000....all the problems it currently has is what hurts the resale value the most.
Cars are a losing proposition anyways...but I am really stuck with this one for a long time, which isn't totally a bad thing. Hopefully I can refinance my loan in a few years, because the montly payments suck!

Sounds to me like you bought more than you can afford. I'm a strong believer in the "car buying rule" proposed by a radio talk show financial/legal advisor guy named Bruce Williams (don't know if he is still active these days). Bruce's rule for car buying was "If you can't pay off the car in 3 years, you do not have the income to afford it". Looks like you bought at least a 48 month contract? And your putting 50K miles per year on the car? If the high miles are largely work related, that's one thing, but if you are just joy riding, you are wearing the car out faster than you can afford to pay for it.

It looks like you should review your lifestyle expenditures here. At least this is my impression based on limited information within this thread.

Dave Keller
1995 Contour SE
1999 Contour SVT

I know I spent too much on my car, well when I bought it I was making only about 38K/year and I got shafted on the trade in and since I bought it new in 00 the APR was 12%, I was paying $430/Month on a five year contract for my tour and that was with my trade in !!!, granted I bought the extended 60K mile warranty and also the upgraded Ford Security system but still, I got the shaft...

I ended up getting a bump in salary to 51K/year and I refinanaced through my companies credit union as they were offereing a 6% APR on used vehicles which dropped my monthly to $300, I planned on paying the old payment towards the new lower rate and getting it out of the way early but I had to leave that job because my fiancee got something in another state, now I am back to making about 40K and I can only afford to pay $300/month on it due to my other travel expenses...I think I still owe 9-10K on the car, not sure though...

I have been complaining on and off for the past few months on the poor build quality of my tour, performance is ok but man it is a major piece of junk...I really wish I could get out of it but I feel that I would take too great of a hit, and I am better off just riding it out and trying to pay it off before I hit 60K miles, the only good thing is I only have 35K on the car and it is a 2000 since I take the train in to work and also maintenece costs have been low...but other than that I want out and I want out soon, I just want to buy something used for like 15K that is nicer and call it quits.

oh well.

Originally posted by imnotted:
Just bought my CSVT a few months ago, and when I got it, it was trashed. Some smoker/stoner kid owned it before me. Dirty leather, stickers and fingernail polish on stuff, and mechanically... But with a touch of TLC, it's as good as new! Don't give up on your Contour.

Good man!!

I am new to the site, and I am sorry if I step on anyones toes, but my god I have been working around cars for a while. This guy should buy some gloves, if your steering wheel is peeling then you might want to wear some. I play a lot of sports and everytime i get into my 99 I put down a towel or something.

I have never seen any one person who believed that there is a spot on the exterior of a car that could not be hit by road trash. Wind, sand, water, and the rate of speed in which you travel have such a impact on paint. How can you blame a car company for things that are beyond their control.

Originally posted by Loch:
I am new to the site, and I am sorry if I step on anyones toes, but my god I have been working around cars for a while. This guy should buy some gloves, if your steering wheel is peeling then you might want to wear some. I play a lot of sports and everytime i get into my 99 I put down a towel or something.

I have never seen any one person who believed that there is a spot on the exterior of a car that could not be hit by road trash. Wind, sand, water, and the rate of speed in which you travel have such a impact on paint. How can you blame a car company for things that are beyond their control.

Ok now that we've heard from the Lochness Monster, I think you need to stick to your natural enviornment, underwater automobile repair.

Quote:

Ok now that we've heard from the Lochness Monster, I think you need to stick to your natural enviornment, underwater automobile repair.

That has got to be the dumbest thing I've ever seen posted on these boards.

Originally posted by cthomp21:

Quote:

Ok now that we've heard from the Lochness Monster, I think you need to stick to your natural enviornment, underwater automobile repair.

That has got to be the dumbest thing I've ever seen posted on these boards.

I'll second that. That was CORNY!! Man, if your e-thug somebody, at least make a solid attempt at it!

Originally posted by cthomp21:

Quote:

Ok now that we've heard from the Lochness Monster, I think you need to stick to your natural enviornment, underwater automobile repair.

That has got to be the dumbest thing I've ever seen posted on these boards.

Actually...I think this was the dumbest thing I've ever heard, not only that but it's irrelevant to my post...

******I have been working around cars for a while. This guy should buy some gloves, if your steering wheel is peeling then you might want to wear some. I play a lot of sports and everytime i get into my 99 I put down a towel or something.******

Originally posted by Loch:
I am new to the site, and I am sorry if I step on anyones toes, but my god I have been working around cars for a while. This guy should buy some gloves, if your steering wheel is peeling then you might want to wear some. I play a lot of sports and everytime i get into my 99 I put down a towel or something.

I have never seen any one person who believed that there is a spot on the exterior of a car that could not be hit by road trash. Wind, sand, water, and the rate of speed in which you travel have such a impact on paint. How can you blame a car company for things that are beyond their control.

I wouldnt blame ford for causing those problems but i would blame them for not anticipating them.

Its obvious to any idiot that the car is gonna get hit with road sh!t, the least a respectable car company could do was renforce the car materials to stand up to it.

See if this explains it better: What if you got a new roof for your house. Then a year later it starts to leak. you call the roofers up and say "hey, this b!tch is leakin, fix ur crappy roof" and they respond "we built a good roof, how can you blame us for the rain & snow"....

Originally posted by BURNTU2:
Ok now that we've heard from the Lochness Monster, I think you need to stick to your natural enviornment, underwater automobile repair.

OK, I wouldn't have even posted if that is all I could have thought up. Lochness monster?

Even making a simple change like calling him the "lochness [censored]" would have been an improvement. Can we say [censored] in here?

edit: I guess not.

How on earth can you be surprised about the steep depreciation? You bought the car in January 2002. Were you living in a cave? Didn't you know that Ford had already decided to discontinue the Contour and that it was a lame duck car? Is it not common sense that when a car company pulls the plug on a car because of disappoiting sales, that depreciation for that model will be a serious problem?

People here seem to have little regard for Consumer Reports, but if you had perused a Consumer Reports Used Autombile Guide in January 2002, you would have learned that Contours, especially SVTs are great cars that handle beautifully but that they are not reliable and likely to suffer from severe depreciation in the future. Sounds like they hit the nail on the head. Just what did YOU expect?

Originally posted by 96RedSE5Sp:
How on earth can you be surprised about the steep depreciation? You bought the car in January 2002. Were you living in a cave? Didn't you know that Ford had already decided to discontinue the Contour and that it was a lame duck car? Is it not common sense that when a car company pulls the plug on a car because of disappoiting sales, that depreciation for that model will be a serious problem?

People here seem to have little regard for Consumer Reports, but if you had perused a Consumer Reports Used Autombile Guide in January 2002, you would have learned that Contours, especially SVTs are great cars that handle beautifully but that they are not reliable and likely to suffer from severe depreciation in the future. Sounds like they hit the nail on the head. Just what did YOU expect?

Actually, I thought I landed a sweet deal in Jan of 02.
Contour SVT, very limited production, nothing else like it on the road, leather seats, sport tuned suspension, all the bells and whistles, not to mention a nice looking car...a touch of luxury with a sporty attitude...only 29K miles on the car for $12,500...seemed like a hell of a deal to me at the time...
BTW,consumer reports opinions are worth about two cents to me...they are very biased and pro imports.

Well, the Consumers Reports opinions might not matter to you, but in this case they were dead-on. Plus, if you choose not to listen to CR, then ANYONE on these boards could've told you that the resale value on these cars sank like a rock before you even bought it. I, for one, couldn't give a squirt of piss about resale value. #1, I could still sell it for more than I owe on it. #2, I love the car to death and don't plan on selling it. Haven't had any major problems yet (just little nagging things here and there that I can live with) and I still enjoy driving it daily.

I'm not quite sure where you're coming from, exactly... You've spent the better part of a month completely trashing anyone who dared say a negative thing about the Contour or Ford in general, and now you're getting a sandy vag because people might post a differing opinion than you have.

Originally posted by BURNTU2:
seemed like a hell of a deal to me at the time...

That's just it. It is a hell of a deal. The contour is imo the best deal out there. Even the VW guys have said many times that you cannot get better performance/fun for the dollar than a Contour SVT. A car is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and unfortunately the general public tends to stick with what the magazines and appraisers say. Don't hate your contour because of its value as it has nothing to do with what kbb says. Hate your contour if it is a pos. If you didn't research what these magazines and appraisers said about resale value before you bought, then you must blame yourself.

I for one knew about the bad resale value and bought the car anyway because it outright kicks ass!

Originally posted by BURNTU2:
BTW,consumer reports opinions are worth about two cents to me...they are very biased and pro imports.

Biased and pro imports??? CR gave rave reviews to the Contour, especially the SVT version. If more peole read and relied upon CR, Ford would probably still be making the Contour today.

CR's only major knocks on the 'tour were poor reliability and steep depreciation. What were your complaints again? Oh yeah, that your car is falling apart and that it had depreciated steeply. Maybe it would be worth 2 of your cents to look at a Consumer Reports before you buy your next car.

Andy by the way, steep depreciation is not a bad always a bad thing. If you want to buy a particular model and know that its value will drastically plummet in the near future, this gives you lots of leverage to negotiate and get a great price. Make the seller pay for the anticipated steep depreciation so that you won't have to.

I recently choose getting my csvt over an srt-4, evo and all of the other new sport compacts on the market. While performance wise they might be better, when it came down to it dollar for dollar I could not get a better car for daily use!!!

I want to buy another SVT tour,I love this damn car. It's the best feeling when you bust a modified Camaro or Mustang's ass. You dont act like you have ever done that. sell the car and buy a Hundai you might like it better

.

/Mike

Consumer Reports gave rave reviews to the Contour/Mystique even as late as the 1999 model year. Their review of the Mystique as the best of the domestic mid price cars swayed me to buy mine. But a couple of years later, as used cars, the same cars are on Consumer Reports lists of 'cars to avoid'.

I used to accuse CR of being biased against ANYTHING I owned...be it cars, TV's, or whatever. Never depended what I bought, CR didn't like it. I almost wrote a letter to their editor, asking them when they were going to relocate their offices to Japan, since they obviously were in bed with anything Japanese.

But in all honesty, the numbers seem to support their opinions. The Camry is the most popular car in the US. My next car will probably be Japanese, because reliability and durability are going to be my number one priority. I feel betrayed because I bought my Mystique because of CR's recommendations, then the next thing I know, they are trashing it. I've owned Fords all my life, but everything I'm hearing about them lately scares me off from buying another one.

I'm still not seeing the point on the depreciation. He's upset because it cost him $5k (assuming the car is worth $7-$8K) to drive 50K miles, as opposed to the $2.5K he thinks it should have cost him to drive 50K miles. Either way, I think it's a helluva bargain.