1998 Ford Contour SE review from North America

I have had to replace the battery (as of tomorrow) five times. Clearly, there is some as-yet unidentified drain on the battery very much in spit of the several times that this total heap of junk has been in various repair shops.

I have had to replace the alternator three times.

The check engine light comes on and goes off, again, without the benefit of any rational explanation for this most unsettling alert.

This car has died in traffic three times due to the apparently undiagnosable electrical problems.

The gas mileage is atrocious. I am not a lead-foot by any stretch of the imagination. My friends make fun of me for how cautiously and slow I drive. And 15MPG is all it seems good for.

Finding an ad for a used Ford Contour for sale? Don't walk. Run. Fast. In the opposite direction.

I would not wish this car on any of the small handful of people I like least.

I nearly cried when Ford announced that they were discontinuing the Escort. I owned a 1989 hatchback, and a 1997 wagon. Both of these performed like champs, and were good for 140K miles -- and still running -- when I traded them in.

They should have kept going with the Escort (particularly with that just-try-to-kill-me Mazda Protege/323 power train and just-like-butter 5-speed manual gear box! Flawless!) and pulled the plug instead on the nightmare that is the Ford Contour.

The Contour is a complete and total lemon. I hate this car with the white hot fury of a thousand suns.

I have read and re-read largely good things about the Focus. Having had such positive experiences with Ford products twice previously, I am willing to give consideration to another Ford purchase.

But I will proceed with extreme and thoroughly researched caution, given the suffering that this untrustworthy heap is still visiting upon me.