I had a 1995 Contour; the first year. A complete and total piece of junk ... so many things went wrong with that car. The 2.5L v-6 was great, but everything else was garbage. A true lowpoint. I bought it new and traded it away two years later for lease on a Grand Marquis.
Oddly enough, by the end of the CDW (Contour/Mystique) platform run, they actually had things sorted out fairly well. A buddy of mine bought a lightly used 2000 Contour SVT with a manual, and drove that thing for over 300k miles, and only had to change a water pump once. Everything else in that car was fine. The SVT ran fast, handled decently, and it never gave him a moment's trouble. Go figure.