I did not make fun of one I owned one... a total pile of C22P.... It was advertised as a world class car with quality job one....neither was true....
Not Happy with GM right now... (light rant)
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Originally Posted By: javacontour
Those who make fun of the Contour probably never saw, let alone DROVE an SVT Contour.
That is still one of the sweetest sounding engines I've ever had the chance to own and take to the rev limiter.
The Contours one saving grace, the SVT. You are so right, it was another great car from the SVT team.
Did you ever drive a SVT Focus, talk about a fun little car that loved to rev. The twin shaft Gertrag was a sweet piece to row!
Those who make fun of the Contour probably never saw, let alone DROVE an SVT Contour.
That is still one of the sweetest sounding engines I've ever had the chance to own and take to the rev limiter.
The Contours one saving grace, the SVT. You are so right, it was another great car from the SVT team.
Did you ever drive a SVT Focus, talk about a fun little car that loved to rev. The twin shaft Gertrag was a sweet piece to row!
Originally Posted By: javacontour
Those who make fun of the Contour probably never saw, let alone DROVE an SVT Contour.
I checked out the SVT Contour, but decided to pass- in large part due to the fact that the Louisville area Ford dealers refuse to hire any techs with opposable thumbs. Lest anyone think that I'm only bashing domestics, I'll note that the local Mazda and VW dealers have similar employment policies.
Those who make fun of the Contour probably never saw, let alone DROVE an SVT Contour.
I checked out the SVT Contour, but decided to pass- in large part due to the fact that the Louisville area Ford dealers refuse to hire any techs with opposable thumbs. Lest anyone think that I'm only bashing domestics, I'll note that the local Mazda and VW dealers have similar employment policies.
Originally Posted By: rszappa1
I did not make fun of one I owned one... a total pile of C22P.... It was advertised as a world class car with quality job one....neither was true....
My experience was mostly the opposite. But I think there was a wide variation from model year to model year. I had a 99 with the v6 (not the svt). It was rock solid. It had that "tight" feel people always talk about with the German cars. Never a rattle.
And the hydraulic clutch combined with the cable driven shifter was as tight after 130,000 miles as it was on day one. (It was the "good" kind of cable driven, like an accelerator pedal. Not the bad kind like the old FWD shifters with pulleys and pivots and all that [censored].)
It stickered at 19,999 or so. I got it for more like $15k, as the dealership (inexplicably) had 4 of them sitting there, and I happened to show up at Auto Show rebate time. It was an excellent value. At the time, I was going to buy a Neon R/T, and I'm really glad I didn't.
(On the other hand, the SVT was quite a bit more expensive- I'm not sure it was as good of a value. They should have been able to get more useful power out of that engine for the price they were charging.)
One of the reasons I ended up getting it was that a friend's dad had a 198? Tempo that was set up similarly. I forget if it was the high output 4 or the 6. But it was torquey as heck- I think the guy could get it up to 40 without touching the gas. It wasn't pretty, but it was reliable and long lasting.
However, I think I had two things on my side- the manual transmission was awesome, the auto was a dog. A friend had the same car as I did, but with the auto. It was not fun to drive. I can only imagine that the I4 version with the auto was doubly tired. And I think the 1999 was a sweet spot for the model run, where they had refined some of the earlier weaknesses, but hadn't yet cut out some of the nicer things.
My only issues with quality were this:
-the interior was cheap looking, seats weren't "driving all day" comfortable.
-I did not like the exterior styling at all. I liked the first generation's styling better, even though it was boring. The second generation was just silly. It was like a genetic accident between the first gen's oval styling and the Focus "angular" styling. They really dropped the ball on the headlamp design- what they did with the last generation Taurus was much, much better. Although I thought the rear end was sharp.
-some of the plastics in things like the headlamps and other exterior pieces were brittle and broke easily. I had to replace the whole headlamp assemblies because almost all of the mounting and adjusting tabs broke. But @ $2xx over 8 years and 130,000 miles, that's not bad.
-the dual runner intake used an electric servo to actuate the short tubes. It was very unreliable. I never could figure out what its problem was. But when it worked, it was like a turbo kicking in.
-gas mileage should have been better. No matter how I drove it, it always got less than a car of that weight and engine size should have gotten. I get better mileage in my Grand Prix GTP...
-inexplicably, I accidentally got a model that didn't have the rear seat trunk pass through. that really chapped my hide that Ford couldn't make that standard, at least for the SE Sport version.
I did not make fun of one I owned one... a total pile of C22P.... It was advertised as a world class car with quality job one....neither was true....
My experience was mostly the opposite. But I think there was a wide variation from model year to model year. I had a 99 with the v6 (not the svt). It was rock solid. It had that "tight" feel people always talk about with the German cars. Never a rattle.
And the hydraulic clutch combined with the cable driven shifter was as tight after 130,000 miles as it was on day one. (It was the "good" kind of cable driven, like an accelerator pedal. Not the bad kind like the old FWD shifters with pulleys and pivots and all that [censored].)
It stickered at 19,999 or so. I got it for more like $15k, as the dealership (inexplicably) had 4 of them sitting there, and I happened to show up at Auto Show rebate time. It was an excellent value. At the time, I was going to buy a Neon R/T, and I'm really glad I didn't.
(On the other hand, the SVT was quite a bit more expensive- I'm not sure it was as good of a value. They should have been able to get more useful power out of that engine for the price they were charging.)
One of the reasons I ended up getting it was that a friend's dad had a 198? Tempo that was set up similarly. I forget if it was the high output 4 or the 6. But it was torquey as heck- I think the guy could get it up to 40 without touching the gas. It wasn't pretty, but it was reliable and long lasting.
However, I think I had two things on my side- the manual transmission was awesome, the auto was a dog. A friend had the same car as I did, but with the auto. It was not fun to drive. I can only imagine that the I4 version with the auto was doubly tired. And I think the 1999 was a sweet spot for the model run, where they had refined some of the earlier weaknesses, but hadn't yet cut out some of the nicer things.
My only issues with quality were this:
-the interior was cheap looking, seats weren't "driving all day" comfortable.
-I did not like the exterior styling at all. I liked the first generation's styling better, even though it was boring. The second generation was just silly. It was like a genetic accident between the first gen's oval styling and the Focus "angular" styling. They really dropped the ball on the headlamp design- what they did with the last generation Taurus was much, much better. Although I thought the rear end was sharp.
-some of the plastics in things like the headlamps and other exterior pieces were brittle and broke easily. I had to replace the whole headlamp assemblies because almost all of the mounting and adjusting tabs broke. But @ $2xx over 8 years and 130,000 miles, that's not bad.
-the dual runner intake used an electric servo to actuate the short tubes. It was very unreliable. I never could figure out what its problem was. But when it worked, it was like a turbo kicking in.
-gas mileage should have been better. No matter how I drove it, it always got less than a car of that weight and engine size should have gotten. I get better mileage in my Grand Prix GTP...
-inexplicably, I accidentally got a model that didn't have the rear seat trunk pass through. that really chapped my hide that Ford couldn't make that standard, at least for the SE Sport version.
Originally Posted By: javacontour
Those who make fun of the Contour probably never saw, let alone DROVE an SVT Contour.
I have. Decent engine, but [censored] wiring harnesses like all Contours. But they were tight/solid feeling cars for the most part.
The Contour ranks about one notch above the 6.0 PDS as one of the worst products to wear a blue oval in the last 20 years. Yet I've talked to happy owners of both, FWIW.
Those who make fun of the Contour probably never saw, let alone DROVE an SVT Contour.
I have. Decent engine, but [censored] wiring harnesses like all Contours. But they were tight/solid feeling cars for the most part.
The Contour ranks about one notch above the 6.0 PDS as one of the worst products to wear a blue oval in the last 20 years. Yet I've talked to happy owners of both, FWIW.
Actually the Contour (actually the Mondeo) and design of FoE was an excellent product the only thing that let it down was the dumbing down it received when it was "decontented" for the US market.
Probably the two best products to have come from Ford during the past 30 years have been the Focus and Contour.
Probably the two best products to have come from Ford during the past 30 years have been the Focus and Contour.
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