Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Contour fleet aging, interest waning yet?

I have been wondering as more Contours diassapear off the roads, the effect on this forum. I am seeing many more of them now in the wrecking yards. And many of those I see are not in accidents but are there because owners dont want to spend large sums on them. I would also expect as the values continue to drop, they remaining cars will attract more interest from younger inexperienced people and the knowledge and understanding of the posts will decline. I quess this will happen until finally most of the cars are gone, not neccessarily a bad thing. If anyone remembers what the Vegas were, this car has a similar feel to me.

The real CEG'ers will remain here. THey are the ones that will pay the money for the repairs. They will not give up when there tranny gives out, they'll have it rebuilt by Terry. They will not give up when they spin a bearing and kill their engine, they'll drop a 3L... I mean of course as the years pass alot of these cars will be forgotton or sold to ricer kids... Shoot I forgot where I was going with this!

I think the SVT Contour will remain for quite some time. I would doubt that too many of these would turn up in junkyards. However, the Zetec or SE models will likely turn in to more of a junkyard car.

For most people, if a car starts breaking down, it is time to get rid of it. The people that bought regular Contours are typically "most people". The SVT, on the other hand, is more of an enthusiasts car. Therefore, I wouldn't classify the owners as "most people". When an SVT has problems, it is more likely to be cared for and repaired. I plan to have my SVT on the road as long as it is possible (or until I have enough money for an M3 ).

This question comes up all the time (but I'm not telling you to search... )

Interest of the masses will wane, but there will always be a few dedicated (or, insane?) people who want to keep them going. It's the exclusivity of age. The few remaining good examples are pretty rare. Anyway, there's still a community out there for the Merkurs, and for the Mk1 Capris, so I can't imagine the Contique fading completely.

In my mind, as more Contours appear in the junkyards, more grassroots hot rodders will consider them for wild projects. I think we're already seeing this. The cost of entry for a GL shell has come down considerably, making the total cost of a blown, 3L screamer more affordable for the backyard tinkerer. At that point, it doesn't matter whether it started as an SVT or not.

As far I as I can tell, my Zetec is bulletproof. Yeah, I've had to replace some stuff but as long as I take care of her, she'll take care of me. I'm right around 130K and I'd like to run her to 240-250K. Easy to work on and with a resource like CEG it's not really a problem if you can't figure something out.

I'll be running my baby until the doors fall off, which with the current state of my door-seam rust, which hopefuly won't be before 3 years... depending on how much sandblasting I do. I'll throw in a new clutch when she needs it, but wouldn't be able to justify a 3L, especially with the rapidly growing rust.

I'll never sell the contour.

My 1999 Contour LX Zetec is about to enter a new phase of life. It has 130K miles, and I just paid $550 to have the AC condenser replaced, and the rear brake shoes replaced. I wouldn't have paid that much had I not misheard my mechanic's quote over the phone. I am going to upgrade to a Volvo S60 by the end of the week hopefully, and then the Contour will be put up for private sale. Can't justify keeping it anymore when it is going to need new tires, timing belt, etc real soon.