Earlier this year, my household's 2000 Ford Contour got wrecked in a crash. I have felt crummy about losing it. During the time that me and my parents had it, the Contour ran good. However, my dad did have to fix things such as the two front doors. Was the 2000 Ford Contour really that reliable? How much more reliable was a Toyota Camry of the same vintage? It's my understanding that the particular 2000 Ford Contour that my household had was assembled in Mexico. People who have followed Scotty Kilmer over the years will likely know how highly he has thought of Toyota in general and how lowly he has generally thought of vehicles assembled in Mexico. Scotty has indicated that vehicles assembled in Mexico have had issues concerning quality control. For the record, the 2000 Ford Contour had less than 109,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the crash. It had an automatic transmission.
109K miles isn't all that much and a sample of one car doesn't really tell us much about the reliability of the model overall. There are so few Contours left at this point that most people likely have never even heard of them.
Still, if the thing lasted 26 years that's not too shabby.
@chucktobias Well, Mr. Tobias, it's my understanding that the 2000 Ford Contour that me and my parents lost earlier this year had a CD4E automatic transmission, which had a not-so-good reputation for reliability. I know that our Ford Contour had a V6 engine.
Ford discontinued that model due to low demand for it. Back in 2001, my mom's 1999 Ford Taurus lease was coming to an end and she wanted to slightly downsize. She specifically mentioned trying to get into a Contour. The salesman told her that the Contour had been discontinued the prior year.
I have not seen a single Ford Contour in years. When an auto manufacturer discontinues a model, there's almost always something inherently "wrong" with the design, whether it's stylistically odd, like what happened to the Ford Edsel, or a possible long-term reliability issue. The Big Three were never any good at designing small, front-wheel-drive sedans and coupes. They were way out-sold by Toyota and Honda.
Case in point, my good friend recently sold his '99 Camry. Its timing belt snapped and he didn't want to mess with it anymore, so he sold it. The Camry had over 300k miles on it. That more or less blows the Ford Contour out of the water at 109k miles.
Until more recently, Ford's baby was front-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles like their body-on-frame trucks, and the Ford Crown Victoria. I still see Ford trucks from the mid-90s driving around.
