In October of 1997 my husband(boyfriend at the time)and I decided to look into buying a new car. We new that we wanted a Ford Vehicle and that the compact sized car would well fit our needs, but we both wanted something that handled nice and appeared sporty! The first vehicle we looked at was the Escort, but being before their new designed body it just didn't appeal to us. On the other end we glanced at the Mustang, the all time favorite of every Ford enthusiast. The Mustang was more than either of us where ready for and neither was our wallet. Then we spotted the Contour.

At first sight I feel in love with this car! A white, 2 liter, V4, Sports
edition that drove as well if not better than it looked. That afternoon we took her home and my husband let me drive. Pulling out on the highway, I gently accelerated, merging into traffic, very proud! I was cruising along and soon realized, "wow everyone seems to be going really slow" then I decided to see how fast I was really going. Yiks! I had reached 78 mil/hour and was easily creeping up on 80. I really had thought that I was doing about 60mph, I was shocked at how confident the contour was and how well it handled.

Now, if that wasn't good enough for me, after exiting the highway and rolling down some windy back roads on the way home, I found that she cornered really well too! This car was great! Driving go-carts for most of my younger years, I decided to "play". I pushed the car as hard as I felt I could handle and she just flowed! As if I was boring!

Needless to say I Love My Contour! We have now owned it for three years and it still looks beautiful. Gas mileage is great for both highway and city travel. We have been back and forth on trips that average about 550miles round trip and have achieved 75,000miles. Only minor repairs have been made to it like a recall on our wiring in the dash and a defect in the power steering line. Neither were very threatening, but more precautionary.

Recently we have had a beautiful baby boy and I finally discovered one of this cars slight disadvantages. The back seat is too small and the car seat base doesn't fit in the middle buckle, which means the baby has to ride next to one of the doors. The only other thing we have found in our ownership of the Contour is that in hard rain the trunk leaks around the seal causing dampness and a musty smell!

All in all the pros out weight the cons and I would highly recommend this car to any aged couple, but maybe not with kids.