What's the word on Ford Contours?

[Fudgieghost]

Looking to buy a used car for a 2nd car.  Looking at the usual Altimas, Corollas, etc.  

Someone is selling a 1999 Ford Contour SE with only 24K miles on it.  He claims it was a police seizure.  

Ran the Carfax on it, nothing alarming, but the history stops at 20K, three years ago.  If the seizure thing is true, not sure how long it sat.  Looked very clean, oil good, inside of head cover looked good, etc. body is clean and clear, hoses and belts looked good. .

Are these decent cars?

[grampster]

Any older car is a good car is the price is right.

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

If it has a V6, there's probably a major cooling system recall on it. SWMBO's oldest bought a used one. The auxillary cooling fan failed, causing a short which incinerated the plastic intake system and everything else between the bumper and top of the engine. The recall covered it, after the fact, but it would have been over 2k to pay to fix.  His was a 1996 model IIRC, maybe a '95.  He sold it last summer for $800 and felt very good about the price he got. Incidentally, it was about to require a major front end rebuild on the suspension, including CV's.

As much as I like Ford products as a whole, the Contour was not their shining moment.  I'd rather have a NissYota or something else.

[BryanP]

Here's an interesting/useful writeup of the 99 Contour's issues:

http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/reliability.aspx?year=1999&make=Ford&model=Contour

Occasional problems with this vehicle are failure of the Variable Camshaft Timing Actuator and Sprocket, 2.0L only, the Flex Plate, 2.0L Automatic Transmission only, and the Water Pump, 2.5L only. The cost to repair the Variable Camshaft Timing Actuator and Sprocket is estimated at $300.00-$900.00 for parts and $195.00 for labor. The cost to repair the Flex Plate is estimated at $110.00 for parts and $650.00 for labor. The cost to repair the Water Pump is estimated at $125.00 for parts and $97.50 for labor. All prices are estimates based on $65 per flat rate hour and do not include diagnostic time or any applicable sales tax.

[Fudgieghost]

Yeah, I decided to not go after this car after reading several forums on this car. . . . seems a bit of a loser, especially since they don't make them anymore.  Too bad, good looking car.  

Back to craigslist. . . .