Early in the product offering, Ford had a real winner on their hands with the Contour model. Car & Driver magazine had it as one of their Top 10 models for the 1995 model year, its first year in production.
The magazine and online tests spoke highly of the vehicle and all Ford needed to do was make incremental improvements to keep it competitive against Accords, Camrys, and Altimas. My experience with my enhanced (suspension/tire) Contour has been nothing less than great. This vehicle only goes to the shop for oil, filter, brake, and tire changes. It saddens me that I have to look to a foreign manufacturer (the VW GTI) this time around to obtain the enthusiast features I seek.
~ Blue Jays ~
Yes, they did, and you got lucky.
But the fact remains that an absurd number of Contour/Mystique had warranty repairs before they were ever sold. My friend went to buy one new and when he pulled on the glove box to open it, the entire dash fell off. That's just one of many examples.
The design was great. The execution by the UAW was abominable.