1996 Ford Contour GL review from North America

Almost from the get-go this car went through brakes and wheel bearings. The front rotors warp very easily.

The rear door hinges were very noisy.

The serpentine belt developed a terrible squeal with the air conditioning on while idling. No one could ever fix the problem.

Like someone else here who reviewed their Contour, I too broke a coil spring at 80,000km or so.

The power doors locks stopped working at 120,000km.

The automatic transmission failed at 170,000km and required replacement. I needed to get my money out of it so I kept it for another year until I unloaded it cheaply, and bought a Mazda Protege5.

I also know that there were a couple of recalls that I'm forgetting, and other nickel and dime things.

This was my first "new" car (it was a demo) and my first front wheel drive car after owning a 1984 Buick Regal. It was faster and got better fuel economy than the Regal ever could hope to.

It was a good looking little economy car until about 50,000km when stuff started going wrong.

I wanted a 5-speed 4 cylinder with the sport package, but had to settle for an automatic without the sport package. I was really upset when the transmission that I didn't even want failed.

The body held up really well and had very little rust when I sold it. It was a nice royal blue metallic colour.

I used to think that It was fun to drive and handled well until I bought my Protege5.

I don't miss it at all, but I think that I just managed to barely get my money out of it.