Forgotten Cars: Ford Contour SVT

"LJ909" (lj909) 06/25/2018 at 11:17 • Filed to: None

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The Contour was probably one of the few times a vehicle was brought to the American market virtually unchanged from its home market. It was essentially a renamed second gen Mondeo brought over from the European market. Many people even forget it was here for 6 years, from ‘94 until ‘00. For a brief 2 years, ‘98 till ‘00, Ford let SVT get their skunkworks hands on the Contour to turn it into something special.

It didn’t really handle..

Debuting in ‘98 and produced in Kansas City, SVT restyled the Contour to be in line with the refresh of the whole Mondeo line. Everything was enhanced. It received upgraded suspension and brakes, stickier tires, new body work with unique lower front and rear fascias, and special sport seats and white SVT gauges.

The centerpiece of all of this was the SVT tuned 2.5 V6. It put out a whopping 195 horses and put the power to the front wheels through a proper 5 speed manual. With 165 lb/ft of torque on tap, the Contour SVT blasted (sort of) to 60 in an ok by today’s standards 7.5 seconds. Bigger brakes brought the car to a stop from 60 in 129 ft. The upgraded tires, which we re Goodyear Eagle GS-C’s, help the car lay down a not bad .85g’s on the skidpad as well.

Why does the radio head look like an aftermarket unit?

Inside like I mentioned before, it received upgraded SVT white gauges similar to the ones used in the Cobra from this era.

And sport seats with bigger bolsters for cornering. But ultimately those bolsters were just for show...

Pushed to the limit, the Contour proved to be a letdown. In a summer ‘97 comparison test from Car & Driver called the Best Handling Cars for under $30 grand, the Contour placed 5th out of 6th, just ahead of the Eagle Talon TSi AWD. They wrote:   !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Only available through 726 SVT certified dealers and with a starting price of less than $25k, Ford aimed to sell 5000 initially, but if the production numbers I had to dig for are believed, for the 2 years it was on the market, a total of 11,445 were produced, with the bulk of that being produced in the first year it was on sale. Ford seemed to position it for people that lusted after a Cobra, but who’ s pocketbooks said you can’t even get a Taurus SHO. Largely forgotten, I wish we had something like it around today in their lineup.

fintail > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 11:34

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I saw a SVT on the road not long ago. When I was a student back around 2000, I knew a guy who had a V6 Mystique - with a 5-speed. That’d be seriously rare today.

I think the Contour debuted in 94 as a 95 model. Same design as a Mondeo, but I recall reading that the body panels aren’t identical. I remember these well, the Tempo replacement, I liked them for their somewhat bland Euro modernity . My sister’s second car (replacing a Dodge Rampage) was an off-lease blurple 96 Contour. Admittedly, she wasn’t easy on cars, but it was in rough shape when she traded it in on a Focus ZX5 in 2004.

LJ909 > fintail 06/25/2018 at 11:40

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Wh en I was in high school in the late 00's, a guy there had a Contour SVT (admittedly , a few kids at my school somehow had some hot performance cars. I remember along with this SVT there was a Focus SVT, an Evo and a Neon SRT-4, all brought new). I thought it was one of the greatest and rarest cars when I was younger.

I always appreciated the Mondeo because it seemed that Ford actually tried to go contemporary and European with it.

Klaus Schmoll > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 11:43

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a. It was a frist gen Mondeo.

b. Calling it virtually unchanged is a bit too much.

LJ909 > Klaus Schmoll 06/25/2018 at 11:49

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Yea you’re right my bad. I thought that the one you posted was the first gen and then they did a mark II and that was the Co ntour we got. At least we got the better looking version.

MM54 > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 11:49

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Not just the SVT, I often forget the Contour even existed, and my sister briefly had a secondhand base one . It was purple and miserable.

LJ909 > MM54 06/25/2018 at 11:51

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Its one of those cars that kind of weirdly disappeared the last 20 years. I rarely even see them on the roads or for sale.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 11:52

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I had a 98 contour sport which was the step below the SVT with the V6 and I loved it, right up until I skidded into a parking lot curb and bent a whole bunch of suspension components and cracked a wheel. Then the transmission failed (again, it was on it's 3rd rebuilt unit by the time my dad handed it down to me) shortly after

LJ909 > Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero 06/25/2018 at 11:54

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Damn. I never really knew though, were they crappy?

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > MM54 06/25/2018 at 11:55

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My grandmother had a ‘96 in gold.

It was so miserably slow and awful, but it was an upgrade from the Topaz she had.

Ash78, voting early and often > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 11:56

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Sadly, this thing died because of its no-mans-land sizing in the States. It was on the small end of the midsize scale, but equipped and priced like a true US midsize.

Basically the same thing that happened a few years later with the 1st gen Acura TSX. A full sized car in the European market doesn’t always translate perfectly to a midsize here.

fintail > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 11:56

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The mid 90s were an era when Euro cars seemed light years ahead of US offerings.  The Contour replacing the ancient Tempo was a revelation, even if the car wasn’t perfect.

LJ909 > Ash78, voting early and often 06/25/2018 at 12:06

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Right. It was too small to be really midsized, but for tried to push it for people that didn’ t want an Escort but didnt want a Taurus either, when it was just barley bigger than an Escort.

You see this same inbetween thing happening again now especially with the crossover craze. Look at the new Blazer. Its a weird gray area between the Equinox and Traverse. Vehicles like that arent really needed.

LJ909 > fintail 06/25/2018 at 12:10

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Yea this is was one of the few times in the 90's where an American automaker actually tried. 

Svend > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 12:20

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I think the most recent incarnation of a performance Mondeo is the Second Gen (MkIII) Ford Mondeo ST-220, 224bhp , 3.0V6 up to 2007.

Liftback

Estate

MM54 > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 06/25/2018 at 12:21

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Prior to the C ontour, my sister had a Tempo (in gold/be ige) so that’s a very familiar ‘upgrade’

LJ909 > Svend 06/25/2018 at 12:23

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I wish we had gotten this gen here in the US. I actually saw one of these for sale back in 2010 in downtown LA:

Ash78, voting early and often > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 12:30

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I’m the biggest cheerleader against excessive models. If something isn’t 20% different (size, power, style)  than the next model in the lineup, then what’s the point? 

Svend > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 12:32

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Surely that car won’t be legal?

It was okay I guess.

Get the diesel and they go forever. 

LJ909 > Ash78, voting early and often 06/25/2018 at 12:37

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Money and playing off the stupidity of consumers is sadly the point. Thats how we ended up with stupid gray area vehicles like the CX-3

LJ909 > Svend 06/25/2018 at 12:38

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That’ s a good question I wondered myself. But it with it being LA, no one cared and I’ m sure that car is probably still being driven

Cé hé sin > Ash78, voting early and often 06/25/2018 at 12:39

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Interestingly, the current and previous Mondeos got bigger because they were also sold in the US as the Fusion and, guess what....sales have plummeted. That’s also down to the trend against traditional cars, but even so.

Ilike_cougars > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 12:40

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I used to have the C ontour’s sister car, the Cougar V6 . I had the vented brakes from the SVT and a bunch of other mods. G reat car, until it started spewing all its fluids. Still miss it though. 

Klaus Schmoll > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 12:42

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Definitely, the better looking one. There’s a reason the European facelift mimicked the US version.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 12:45

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i mean as a 16 year old it was a fun ride, its been over 12 years since i had it though so i dont really remember the driving experience anymore. mid 90s fords always had transmission problems though, and since it was my dads daily driver it saw 60 mile round trips every day for a good 8 years before i got it

DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 12:46

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I remember an automotive publication (maybe it was Motor Trend, I’m not sure) who drove one and gushed about how it was the closest America could get to building an M3, and they said it wasn’t even that far off.

I believe the spirit of the SVT Contour lives on in the Fusion Sport, though I wish the Sport’s suspension was a bit firmer.

LJ909 > Ilike_cougars 06/25/2018 at 12:56

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That’s another one I forget about, the Cougar with that New Edge styling. 

LJ909 > DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! 06/25/2018 at 12:59

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Yea MT did praise it’s handling but Car &Driver trashed it. It was a good effort though.

The Fusion Sport does live on with the Contour SVTs sport. But compared to it it’s a damn supercar. I wish more people bought the Fusion Sports. They have huge discounts right now. 

MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > LJ909 06/25/2018 at 23:36

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Agr ee one hardly ever sees contours any more. Back in the late 90’s I worked for a small company ( <5) where most of the people were car guys to some degree. 2 of them had manual V6 Contours and loved them.

Also saw a mint Ford Tempo recently.