Ford Contour SVT or Taraus SHO

[Heath]

Okay, does anyone have any experience with either of those two cars... I'm finding Contour SVT's with >50K miles on ebay for around 8K... Most of the SHO's are higher mileage of course... Anyway, the car search continues for me... There two cars I'd like to add to the list if I can get some good feedback about them... Looks like they have pretty good online support in th form of forums that I can get info off of for fixing them and what not...

So have at it folks, blast em or praise em....


TIA,

Heath

 

[agoric875]

i'd go with the contour, it looks alot better. only problem you need to look for is warped rotors.. on the contour. SHO? it's a taurus, not a sports sedan lol. good luck finding something.

 

[Hokie]

the contour was a great handling/driving car. It was killed b/c of its poor interior dimensions. Ford took a small car and somehow made it feel even more cramped on the inside. The Taraus SHO with the V8 would probably be a sweet car. Our neighbor up the street had the older version (with the Kawasaki V6) and it drove/handled GREAT! You wouldn't believe it was a soccer mom mobile when you got it.

There's an SHO forum ~ you should look into that.

 

[Premier]

Well, my cousin had an SHO. What year ya looking at Heath? His was pretty damn fast... Was a definate sleeper car for sure. If I remember correctly, the tranny went bad in it... Not sure if it was a bad design, but he sure beat the hell outa that car.

 

[jimbo74]

my friend has a contour nothing special but other than a hard shifting tranny, it was ok...... a bit small for me though, i dont think it would fit well for you....

 

[Alec]

If you need space, go for the SHO. If you want more fun, go for the Contour.

 

[Heath]

I like the SHOs from about 93 to the end... But I understand that the V8 ones aren't as good as the V6's...

 

[Heath]

I NEED reliability... But I was hoping that these would offer that and the fun...

 

[Alec]

The Contour and V6 SHO will be more reliable than the V8. But it's always the Ford tranny. Definately get a stick.

 

[expo5.0]

i vote neither... if your gonna get a ford svt thats not big or expensive you got to get the focus.

the sho taurus is not a sleeper... any more than a stock escape is a sleeper. It also handles like crap, is likely to be falling apart etc.

the contour is actually pretty sweet in the overall scheme of mediocre wanna-be "family sports cars" until you realize it has less space inside even than the focus which is faster, handles better, and is far more reliable.

just my opinions

 

[Alec]

Then there's the GTI

Mmmm, mk2 with a VR6 swap <drool>

A friend of mine has one that beats on Vettes and Vipers all day long And it's a DD.

 

[Heath]

You find a 4 door focus SVT in my price range and I'll buy it then...

 

[expo5.0]

thats a problem- i think the solution may be to ditch the ford family if you need a car of this type

 

[wilson_nick]

no, and no

 

[jobunn]

I know most here are partial for Ford, as am I, but how about other cars in that class which from what I've have experienced are more reliable and would just give you more options. Like the mid 90's Nissan Maxima - great engine and tranny. Two other cars that many people might think are too expensive but I've seen at incredible prices but still in awesome condition after 100,000 miles are the early 90's Acura Legend and Infiniti J30.

But to answer your question I've always loved the V6 SHO (he V8 was slower) but aside from the engine I've only heard bad reviews. A friend of mine has a Contour SVT and loves it, no problems.

 

[Michigander]

Originally posted by Hokie
Our neighbor up the street had the older version (with the Kawasaki V6) and it drove/handled GREAT! You wouldn't believe it was a soccer mom mobile when you got it.

There's an SHO forum ~ you should look into that.

That was a yamaha joint venture actually.

I love my Contour SVT. You should be able to find them for under 8K with reasonable miles. all are leather, most have a sunroof. Only reliability flaw is the plastic impellor in the water pump (replace it with a metal one at the dealer). I would vote for the CSVT over the FSVT beacuse of cost alone, and the 4 door FSVT really isn't that much more "sporty".

As far as CSVT vs SHO.... a stock SHO will beat a stock CSVT in a line, but not in the twisties. A few mods to the CSVT (exhaust/intake) and its even with the SHO in a line. As far as size... the SHO is obviosly bigger inside and out. The CSVT rear seatbacks fold down which helps some.

check out www.contour.org

I have a thread about 5 below this one that has a few pics and my mod list on the CSVT that I own...

 

[etc]

My sister had 96 countour, v6 . That thing was sweet. I would love to have an svt countour. That car was fun to drive. I found the inside fine, excep that back seats. Those were tiny.

 

[Michigander]

the back seats are upholstered to have lumbar and side bolsters, which most people aren't used to seeing in a rear bench seat, so they feel small, but it's to keep you from flying around

 

[terdrocket]

I don't mean to offend any Contour drivers, but I wouldn't get one.

I went to go buy a Contour SVT in 1999. They were on the lot, stickered @ $23-24k. I went to our salesman who has sold us now over 40+ company vehicles. (Our company is a construction company, 99% F-150,F250 and F350s)

My salesman told me not to buy one, he then said he sold a couple to some of his friends and wished he hadn't.

So, I went and got an A4 quattro. The 1.8T is a great engine.

 

[X~FACTOR]

My brother-in-law had the previous gen of Taurus SHO and he had to replace the tranny twice in 5 years. If Ford have not improved the tranny, I would stay away from Taurus. IMO, Contour looks butt ugly except maybe in black where it could hide a lot of its ugliness. On the other hand, Taurus is awesome looking in all black.