Tell me about the SVT Contour

I'm looking at getting one as early as tommorrow. Curious what i need to look for with know issues. I've heard the front ! arm bushings and the alternator is a PITA, anyone else, cause the price if def right!

I haven't been "over there" in awhile, but there was a website for Contour owners with lots of great stuff. It WAS called the Contour Owners Group (www.cog,org I think).

You will want the forums on http://www.contour.org

I had one for several years. A fun car to drive and probably the best seats ever put in an automobile. A road trip from Tennessee to Florida ie 24hr of Daytona is hardly noticed. Assuming you dont try to drag race the car, the motor/trans unit are quite strong. I did have a spark plug pull out of the head and that repair(mainly to access and pull the head) was fairly traumatic. Luckily I had a mechanic client who needed to barter his services. Part of the expense was having certain parts ie water pump replaced while the motor was accessible. As I recall, the radiator had to be removed just to remove maybe two bolts??? If you try to do too many standing starts, you will likely be replacing the trans on a frequent basis.
I purchased the car from its original owner who had kept the car for his teenage son who then decided he wanted a jeep. I bought the car for the book trade value which was more than the jeep dealer offered. I drove it for 3 years(approx 40k miles) and then sold it tlate this winter. There were several component failures ie broken interior trim, paint fading, fog light wiring, power antenna and then the rebuilt alternator quit working at Ga interstate speeds. I decided to get another car. I sold it for $3000 to yet another friend and he drives it daily and just praises it. The biggest problem is that the base is still a Contour. The SVT parts are getting rare and if you purchase the car, you need to add BAT to your favorites list on the internet. A parts car might be a good idea.
Having said all that, I dont regret my time with the SVT. I didnt learn my lesson because I bought another bastard child of a car: Pontiac GTO.

I owned one for 2 years, sold it to get my 328i. Occasionally I regretted that, which should tell you something. One of the best handling front wheel drive cars ever. Things to look for are the alternator, which is a bear to replace, and leaking water pumps. Other than that to the best of my recollection they're anvil reliable so long as one doesn't take too many long right-hand sweepers and spin a rod bearing due to oil starvation. Contour.org is the web presence for them, it's been a while since I've been there but it's a good site with all the info you could really need.

Remind me what the big problem with the base contours was, fastmiata? As I recall they were a decent chassis, just suffered from typical mid/late '90s Ford interiors.

The real problem in my eyes was that Ford no longer carried parts for the car. Everything was a special order with a long delivery time if available at all.

Had one for a couple of years, it was a great car. +1 on the seats, just fantastic, I've never had better. I did replace the front LCAs on mine due to the bushings going bad, it wasn't that horrible of a job. Never had to do the alternator, but Adrian Thompson on here has done his and says it's not that bad, I'm sure he'll chime in.

I autocrossed mine a couple of times and did one track event. They are a better track car than autocross car, they understeer quite a bit at autocross speeds, but become more neutral as speeds rise. They are quick, though not super fast, and will easily return mid-20s or better for mileage.

I bought that car in 2006 for $7000 with 35k miles and sold it in 2008 with 75k miles for $6200. No complaints from me!

The seats were very good and long-distance comfy but I always felt more like I was sitting on the seats/car than in the seats/car, compared to say the M3 seats I had in my 328i, or even the seats in my old Miata, which weren't great but improved after the foamectomy.

Some motors will spin rod bearings and will sound like a rattle can. I've owned 3 of them and they're nice cars. Two I bought with bad motors for under $1k and the third I bought and drove for about 2 years.

Alternators are a 4 hour job. The intake gaskets might need to be replaced but that's an easy job. If they were beat you might have a differential fail so pay attention to any gear box noises. A grinding 2nd or 3rd gear might be a simple $10 shifter cable gromet. It's true the SVT body stuff is long gone from the dealers but used stuff is always floating around CEG (Contour Enthusiast Group). There's tons of information on 3L duratech swaps on CEG and www.newcougar.org. Post some pictures up if you buy it.

My old car :(

I'm getting this one for $1300 and runs and drives! I'm excited to have a running/driveavle car again thats not an automatic also!!!!

I've got the Contour's 2 door platform-mate, the Cougar. It's a fun car, and really isn't that bad to work on. Changing the alternator is supposed to be manageable using the detailed how-to from contour.org (the article is currently down otherwise I'd link to it for you), but after trying for 3 hours to get the last of three mounting bolts loose I gave up - it just wasn't worth the aggravation to save the $450 my neighbourhood mechanic charged to do it (including parts). For some reason the mix of extensions and swivel joints that works on everyone else's car wouldn't work on mine. I've heard that the Contour's alternator doesn't fail as often as the Cougar despite being the identical engine because the Contour had a splash shield protecting the alternator but the Cougar doesn't - HOWEVER, that's going from memory of someone else's "heard it from another owner", so researching contour.org is probably a good idea.

Swapping the lower controls arms isn't bad. One of the drivers side bolts can be hard to get out (the trans doesn't leave enough space above it for the bolt to come out), but cutting out the stock bolt and bolting in from the bottom (nut on top instead of on the bottom) makes future replacements much easier. I've replaced all the suspension components (front and rear LCAs, front and rear struts, strut mounts, sway bar links, etc) by myself in a day, with a 2 hour break to hit the bar at lunch so I wouldn't classify it as a pain.

As mentioned, the differential fails due to wheelhop and quite often puts parts through the trans case. I've had some wheelhop and mine is still in one piece, but I haven't abused it. I'm still on the original clutch with almost 320,000 km (200,000 miles).

When they were new, it was common for the SVT to be included in comparison tests against the BMW 3-series and Audi A4's and score very, very well (i.e. not finish 3rd). The back seat was usually criticized as having little legroom, and the interior materials were not up to the German cars' standards, but the handling and engine were high points. If you want more power, 3L swaps are fully documented on www.contour.org, www.newcougar.org and www.fordcontour.org, as are numerous turbo builds.

Another part that often fails is the 'intake manifold runner control' that shuts the short intake runner until 3500RPM, using just the long runner at low RPMs for added torque and both runners at high RPMs when more air is needed. When it fails, the car loses a lot of power above 3500RPM because it's only breathing through half of the runners. Replacing it is pretty easy, though mine hasn't failed yet.

Take it for a drive, I'm sure you'll like it.

Bob

Even regular old V6 stick Contours are pretty good little cars. I would like one eventually for a project (but that says nothing does it?)

I would like a debadged 1996 Mercury Mystake V6 stick in blue with tan leather, SVTC suspension and brakes, 3.0L swap, light flywheel, single 3" exhaust, FRPP Focus Euro 17" wheels powder coated bronze.

They dont do well is side impact crashes, but they are quick and handle very well. Fun cars until you slide sideways into a small tree at relatively low speed, and it bisects your vehicle

would rather have a faster/more reliable 5sp maxima

belteshazzar wrote: would rather have a faster/more reliable 5sp maxima

Have you ever driven a CSVT? I drove a 5sp Maxima the same day when I purchased my CSVT. The CSVT handled much, much better, felt faster to me, sounded nicer, the interior was nicer overall, the seats were better, and the shifter and clutch felt better to operate. And other than 1 bad water pump my CSVT was anvil reliable and looked much better.

If you do get a CSVT look for a Quaife for it. There was a guy on the CSVT boards who worked for Quaife's parent here in Rochester and developed the Quaife for MTX-75 trans in the CSVT and others. It's supposed to work very, very well.

Sat in, repeatedly out-accelerated (with my automatic transmission example), but never driven.

The CSVT may very well out handle the Maxima. But the bottom line for me is that the Nissan handled good enough for it's purpose in life (dd duty), and since neither one was ever going to be great (fwd), the difference is not substantial to me.

Individual anecdotal evidence aside, the Maxima will be a more reliable car on average.

belteshazzar wrote: would rather have a faster/more reliable 5sp maxima

Heck, a recent Accamry V6 is probably faster and certainly more reliable. To each his own.

I'll say one other thing about that car, I never had so many compliments on a car as I did on that one, and I've owned some very nice Mustangs, a 944 Turbo, my current BMW, etc. It was weird, there was something about that car people liked. I even had someone leave a note on it in a grocery store parking lot asking if I was interested in selling it. Maybe it's because they are somewhat rare, or maybe it was SVT fanboys who couldn't afford Cobras, I dunno.....

I was somewhat trying to stay in the same price range in my comparison though you're right. How many did they make?

belteshazzar wrote: I was somewhat trying to stay in the same price range in my comparison though you're right. How many did they make?

11,445

Well I just went to look at it. Quite a disappointment really. The engine did sound good, but upon test driving it it wasn't really what i thought... It was priced for $1800 and I talked the guy to $1300. During the test drive i noticed that when 3500rpm was met it didn't seem to want to go higher willingly. I read earlier today that the stepping motor for the intake runners go bad and this is a sign of that. The drivers side was missing the rocker molding and the interior plastics were broken and missing lots of parts. The AC was a NO Go as were the sunroof and the vent selectors. I passed on it and I'm eyeballing to Miatas now. I had 1 i liked really well and they are cheap and easy to maintain!!!

belteshazzar wrote: would rather have a faster/more reliable 5sp maxima

Having gone from a 2000 Contour SE Sport (V6 5spd) to a 1999 Maxima (V6 5spd) I'd have to disagree on both accounts - just MHO.

dansxr2 wrote: Well I just went to look at it. Quite a disappointment really. The engine did sound good, but upon test driving it it wasn't really what i thought... It was priced for $1800 and I talked the guy to $1300. During the test drive i noticed that when 3500rpm was met it didn't seem to want to go higher willingly. I read earlier today that the stepping motor for the intake runners go bad and this is a sign of that. The drivers side was missing the rocker molding and the interior plastics were broken and missing lots of parts. The AC was a NO Go as were the sunroof and the vent selectors. I passed on it and I'm eyeballing to Miatas now. I had 1 i liked really well and they are cheap and easy to maintain!!!

If the drivetrain seemed healthy otherwise, and the body was straight, i think i would have still bought it. That's a pretty good price for these things.

no kidding, for so little dollars I might have been swayed too. hard to say since we weren't there.