Sometimes cars just don’t live up to their automakers’ expectations. The 1995-2000 Mercury Mystique was one of those such cars.
Introduced as a 1995 model, the Mystique and its Ford Contour sibling were North America’s variants of the “world car” CDW27, which was more commonly known as the Ford Mondeo in most other parts of the world. With fresh styling, competitive engines, well-appointed interiors, and abundance of options, the Mystique would’ve appeared to possess all the makings of a successful small sedan.
Unfortunately, its high price, cramped interior, and “tweener” size, sandwiched between the Tracer and Sable, made it an unattractive choice in the eyes of most buyers. Never living up to its expectations, the Mystique was soon dubbed as the “Mercury Mistake” by many automotive journalists.
In regards to this particular ad, “Destined To Make Waves” had dual meaning in both an overzealous prediction of the car’s success, as well as referencing Lincoln-Mercury’s sponsorship of team Dennis Conner (who raced with the sailboat “Young America”) in the 1995 America Cup sailboat race. A special Mercury Mystique Young America Edition was sold, featuring special badging, a body-colored white grille, unique wheels, and exclusive blue and white leather with embroidered shark logo. Mercury couldn’t have made many Young America Editions, but alas, that’s the mystique.
I do not recall this special edition being sold in Canada. It must have been a U.S. only model.
I remember wanting one of these when they came out but could afford only a used 1994 Altima at the time. I’ve only owned Nissans in the 20 years since.
I don’t know about the Mystique, but my wife had a ’98 V6 Countour when we met. I remember it being such a pain in the butt to work on that as soon as we could afford it, we went out and bought a Civic coupe. Unfortunately, that was another disappointing story.
The Contour/Mystique are really interesting case studies. They seemed to have all the right things: Good quality, good performance, lots of accolades from the press…yet they flopped.
I always thought the Contour turned out a little better than the Mercury version.
The initial 1995-97 Mystiques were almost offensively bland, then Ford overcorrected by grafting one of the all-time ugliest radiator grilles to the 1998 version. The Mystique did spawn the ’99 Cougar, though…arguably Mercury’s last aspirational car…so it wasn’t all bad.
Indeed the Contour/Mystique’s failure truly is an interesting study. At least partly, I think it was their price which did them in. While they started out at an affordable price point, once popular options were added, they were priced into similarly-equipped Taurus/Sable territory.
For ’96, the Mystique GS started out at just over $14K, not bad, but options were priced as such: A/C – $780, Automatic Transmission – $815, ABS – $570, Traction Control – $805, Rear Window Defroster – $690, Power Windows – $690, etc. And the V6 also added $3,150.
Still though, I feel like there’s a lot more depth to this matter. I agree about the 1998 grille being horrible too.
I think another reason for the Contour/Mystique’s failure is what it replaced: The Tempo/Topaz.
The Tempo and Topaz had become Ford’s Cutlass Ciera: They were dated, mediocre cars that they sold to people who were attracted by the size and price, didn’t care about the awful dynamics, and knew exactly what they were getting. These might not have been Ford’s “ideal” customers, but the Contour/Mystique’s high price, cramped interior, and completely equity-free names did nothing but spurn them away…and the Contour/Mystique’s virtues didn’t attract enough new customers to replace them.
These cara were squeezed from both sides and had been completely lost in engineering excess. Ford spent massive amounts of money to engineer a worls car-which ended up meeting requirements everywhere (at excessive development cost) but tailor-made for no one. It was closest in size requirements to Europe, where it ended up most popular, but included previously preemium-only features (lighted driver key hole, painted interior plastics, lighted visor mirrors) that, combined with cost over-runs, meant it was a slightly above Escort sized car that sold for more than the larger Sable/Taurus, killing it out of the gate in the US. Poor quality control (troublesome transmissions, underbuilt plastic intake manifolds and gaskets on the Duratec25, among many other things), weak engines (5-10% less powerful than the competition), and then very aggressive cost cutting (too little, too late) to try to sell them at lower prices and for a profit didn’t help. Heavy fleet dumping to clear assembly plant overproduction also had a major hand in high depreciation, leading to even lower residuals and low demand for new cars at high MSRP.
Really, a perfect storm of engineering by committee, blindly chasing on-paper targets rather than producing products as demanded by the market, and then reactionary marketing and sales philosophies instead of a proactive approach.
The Mystique did spawn the ’99 Cougar, though…arguably Mercury’s last aspirational car…so it wasn’t all bad.
The CDW Platform also spawned the Ford Escape which was a huge success for Ford, remaining in production for nearly a decade. Also the Jag X-Type, possibly the stupidest car Ford developed during the 90s.
The Escape (and the Euro Ford Mondeo) were probably what kept that program from being a financial failure for Ford. It certainly wasn’t the Contour/Mystique/Cougar/X-Type.
X-Types were fairly common in my area about 10 years ago. Still some around, but far fewer than their heyday. I knew of this dirty little secret then, and wondered if the owners knew of the origins of their darling car. I would never tell them because they would probably go into denial, think I was jealous, or both.
I’d love me a rare X-type wagon personally.
You could match the subject car to the Villager Nautica in your garage.
I looked closely at the Villager/Quest twins when I bought my Trooper in 2001. They were a very close runner-up…perfectly sized and something we could use today. The Nautica was a unique package if you hankered for white trim. Which I did not.
I’ll second that. My wife and I were driving behind one a few months ago and she asked what it was. Even though she is not familiar with any Jaguar models, she thought the wagon was quite good looking. It would certainly fit our empty nest lifestyle.
The Escape is pure Mazda 626 under the skin, aside from the Ford drivetrains.
And the XType is related to the second generation Mondeo, not the first generation.
“Good quality”… I don’t know about that. Those cars had a boatload of recalls and I not-so-fondly remember lots of warranty issues. Steaming piles of EuroFord junk.
honestly Mercury had pretty much outlived its usefulness by 1976.
Mercury’s usefulness was giving Lincoln dealers an additional line of cars to sell. And giving old people an affordable Panther that wouldn’t be confused with a cop car.
I didn’t remember any of this. Looking back, it seems misguided for Conner and Mercury both to use the term “Young America”. It smells of the commercial establishment trying to bottle a credible idea of youth similar to what was parlayed in the ’60s with the “young generation” blather of the Mad Men. Still, the car isn’t a bad looking package.
In the second half of the 1990s, I remember that Mercury’s marketing department tried to boost sales by reorienting itself towards the youth market. Other than launching the ’99 Cougar and spinning off a cynically-named special edition or two, it came to naught.
And then in the ’00’s they tacked towards the ladies, bringing in Jill as their spokesmodel and going with ‘softer’ trim and interior designs. I thought the Mariner was the best looking of the Escape/Mariner/Mazda designs.
I had a 1996 Contour and loved it. Sweet drive, good economy, comfortable at least for front seat passengers, and reliable. Motor mounts were a weak spot but the neighborhood mechanic put in something heavy duty and they never were a problem after that, Wish I still had it.
Oh I remember these when new. The corner-cutting was blatantly obvious the moment you touched the car. Think Kia Sephia quality. I had them as rental cars and was aghast at how terrible they were as cars. Cramped and tiny, underpowered, and a NHV nightmare in 4-cyl form (the vast majority on the road). What finally killed the majority of them were the Mazda-supplied electronic automatics that, along with the 626 and MX-6 of the era, would spontaneously cease to function with a flashing “D” on the dashboard. Those transmissions were glass fragile and really caused headaches. The interiors were filled with glossy hard plastic that looked like it came from Fisher-Price and were actually worse than GM’s bad attempts. The sunlight would glint off all the smooth surfaces and blind you while driving. No love lost for those horrid tin cans.
Wow, and you even changed your user name just for this car 🙂
Actually, Ford designed, built and supplied the automatics – trans code CD4E. Mazda used them in many US market cars.
They are notorious for failure, even in ridiculously understressed 120-ish hp 4 cyl applications, and even if maintained properly (many failed at or before the first 60k scheduled maintenance interval).
I don’t remember this “special edition”, either. I guess I shouldn’t have let my subscription to Popular Yachts lapse?
Seriously, when the Contour/Mystique first went on sale I remember them as setting a new record for most recalled car in it’s 1st year on sale. And while the auto press extolled it’s many virtues, they also made sure they told potential buyers about the absence of rear seat legroom. As the Focus would strongly demonstrate, the packaging of the Mondeo was pretty poor.
For those who may not be aware, the Mondeo is now a “badge-engineered” Fusion. In Europe, the “new” Fusion/Mondeo is available as a station wagon and also with a choice of 2 diesel engines. These diesels and the gas engines in the Mondeo are all available with manual transmissions.
Ford introduced an upscale version of the Mondeo, called the Vignale.
The Mondeo has to fight many competitors in the crowded D-segment. That is: especially Volkswagen plus Renault (new Talisman), Peugeot, Citroën (2 models), Opel~Vauxhall, Mazda, Toyota, Volvo, Seat and Skoda. And then you also have Audi, BWW, Mercedes, Lexus and Alfa Romeo (new Giulia) with their D-segment cars.
It looks like today’s version of the U.S. Ford Fusion. Any possibilities that its the same car with only a different name?
It is.
MT is correct. It’s a high-end (upscaled) Ford Mondeo / Fusion. Like Citroën’s DS-label, which is now presented as a separate brand in the price lists.
THX. MT & Johannes, it seems as though that this version of the U.S./Canadian Ford Fusion is not highly regarded in Europe due to the Volkswagen Passat. Anyway here in North America, the 2G Ford Fusion as shown here is one of the most common and popular cars that it gives the Toyota Camry a run for its money. Here in the U.S. Government Agencies have fleets of those and they are common cop cars which the NYPD also have in their police vehicle fleet.
Note that the Euro-Passat is not the same car as you have, as Davis rightfully mentions below. Volkswagen, Audi, BMW and Mercedes dominate this segment. It’s not just Ford having a hard time, all the others have to deal with that fact just as much.
The current Euro-spec VW Passat:
THe Mondeo “competes” very very poorly against the Passat in Europe, where the Ford is considered a decidedly lesser alternative. The Mondeo has a fraction of sales compared to the Passat even though the Mondeo is largely sold to fleets.
The Euro Passat is not the one here, it’s the one here:
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2015-volkswagen-passat-euro-spec-first-drive-review
Also over the Mondeo here:
http://www.topgear.com/car-news/geneva-motor-show/europe%E2%80%99s-car-year-%E2%80%A6-vw%E2%80%99s-passat
Agreed. Volkswagen’s Mighty Rise in the D-segment started with the introduction of the B5 Passat in 1996. It was so much better than the contemporary Ford Mondeo.
…I forgot the new Jaguar XE. Clearly a D-segment car.
Below the interior of the Ford Mondeo Vignale.
Those seat textures look like what you’d throw on a shower stall floor to keep from slipping. Or those aftermarket seat comfort covers with the nodules that massage while you drive.
I think it’s the first. For high speed cornering.
Geez….Kia, Hyundai and Infiniti also offer D-segment models. It’s just too much, too much…
Much to my surprise I can’t find the Honda Accord anymore on Honda’s Dutch website.
Much to my surprise I can’t find the Honda Accord anymore on Honda’s Dutch website.
The Accord is now gone from their UK site too. It was still there less than a year ago. UK range now composed of Jazz, Civic, CR-V and HR-V (new dinky CUV also available in US)
I had heard that the Accord was having a very rough go in Europe. Seems people that can afford the running costs of a car that large prefer a Bimmer, Merc or Audi.
Meanwhile, in the Japanese market, Accord and Legend are only available as hybrids and there is no Civic at all.
Rumor has it that, for the first time in years, the UK Civic and North American Civic will be on the same platform and, for the first time in years, Civic hatchbacks will be available in the US, imported from the UK plant as it has so much unused capacity.
Odd that Honda, which has had so much success in North America seems to be on the brink of failure in Europe.
Honda sold only 17 Accords here in 2014…No wonder it’s gone now.
In Europe, it’s very tough for Accord-size cars from non-premium brands to succeed.
Other way round actually the Fusion is a rebadged Mondeo and yes they feature the Peugeot/Ford diesels, I had a play in one last week a 2.0 TDI it went really well.
Sometimes it seemed that America had an inferiority complex to paraphrase Lee Iococca. If we could just give American buyers what we give our Euro customers, the riches will flow to us. Look at the Mondeo, DOHC four and V6 instead of those embarrassing high torque pushrod Falcon based 4 and Vulcan V6 and Euro manual and new electronic 4sp auto. To get this car in production and the Topaz canned was quite an achievement.
Not so fast, during the long gestation, the Japanese moved up a size. The engines were not up to the American level feature weights so felt sluggish on the vast majority with automatics. The Euro nineties minimalist interior decoration leaves little to hide the cheap plastic dashes with lots of cut lines for the different versions. I thought the Mercury was upscale. Well it’s upscale in a German way, remember Merkur.
Would it be too much to ask that instead of rehashing the parts bin, Ford had actually designed a car for those that might have bought it in America?
When I first saw these cars in the mid 90s my response was “Meh” and it’s still the same response today! I never warmed to the styling and never saw the point of these things. If you wanted a small car you bought a Mercury Tracer or Ford Escort, eminently more practical with the wagon and hatchback body styles; if you wanted mid-size you bought a Taurus/Sable. Sorry, what was the market Ford was aiming these cars at again?
Still a boring car.
I had a 2000 Contour Sport and it was pretty much a perfect summary of Nasser Era Ford cost cutting. I had problems on nearly every major system including:
Power Train – Clutch cable breaking and almost stranding me before a vacation trip.
Brakes – Recall for corroding fittings on the calipers.
Steering – Couldn’t hold an alignment, needed tie rods replaced (twice!) before 36,000 miles.
Body – Sunroof failure (Naturally in the Open position)necessitating replacement of motor assembly.
Fuel – Had a strange run-on effect which was quite irritating in a manual trans car (I suspect this was a design feature meant to game emissions).
The interior was also the horrible grey velour every base Ford of that era had, seemingly as a punishment for not ordering leather.
Luckily I sold it just before the warranty ran out, ditching it on a Ford employee who wanted a cheap car for a kid going to college.
Sad thing is that you could tell that there was once an attractive, ergonomically pleasing, fun to drive compact car in its place, before the Material Cost Reduction knife whittled away all the durability.
Jac the Knife.
The same thing happened to the 1st gen Focus of that era, and the 1st gen-in-the-US Escort of the early 80s. What was a decent car in Europe was cynically cost-cutted for the American market into unreliability and mediocrity. Ford’s world car disease.
A co-worker had one of these from new, following a long and terrible run with a POS 83 Olds Omega she also bought new. She called it the Mistake because it was in the shop constantly and not just for motor mounts – electrical gremlins, transmission issues, you name it. Once the Merc was traded for a new Camry, no one in the family ever bought an American car again. OTOH my cousin still owns her Contour though it is driven very few miles per year. Inconsistent quality definitely contributed to the decline of the US auto industry. BTW, never heard of or ever saw one of these special editions.
Not too many Contours around the Portland, OR area and even fewer Mystiques, cannot think of when I last saw one.
There were so few Contours left five years ago when my fiancé had one that she couldn’t find a replacement taillight for hers. She actually drove around with a note from the insurance company that affirmed the scarcity of parts in case she got pulled over by the cops.
Her Contour was the quintessential economy car that screamed CHEAP in every regard. Everything was made of failing plastic, and I never felt she was safe in it. It was the last American car her parents ever bought before going Japanese, and they haven’t looked back. She eventually replaced the Contour with an Accord that now has twice as many miles as the Contour did when it bit the dust.
The funny thing about the Contour/Mystique is that even though supposedly sales weren’t so great, I remember these cars being all over the place. To this day I still see some running around Rhode Island. Perhaps older folks drove them and then they were handed down to the later generations that seemed to drive them into the ground.
In fact, I worked with a kid at Lowes that had one his grandmother gave to him. When he got it, it looked like new. It was a loaded model, too – it had leather interior, alloy wheels, all power options and even a sunroof. He beat the crap out of that car until it was dead and eventually he junked it. He used to brag about not changing the oil and how it still ran. I told him once he was stupid for not changing the oil and he just looked at me with a blank stare.
Though I have moved elsewhere for school currently, I have seen very, very few Contours in Rhode Island in the last few years. It’s always an older person driving. They did not seem to take as well to beaterdom as their GM and Nissan contemporaries.
Edit: ah, I misread your comment. Yes, Contours seemed to be everywhere when they were new, but they dropped like flies.
I always wanted a Contour SVT. I still kind of do.
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/ford/112_9703_1998_ford_contour_svt/
Nice. In 1999 Ford Europe introduced the Mondeo ST200, 205 hp from the 2.5 liter V6.
Same here! They were always hard to find. Now probably hen’s teeth as I imagine most either self-destructed or were hooned to death.
I like them too and I’ve seen a few for sale in and around Edmonton, Alberta for the past two or three years. From what I saw in the ads the cars had low kms and appeared
to be well cared for. When I bought my used 98 Contour with V6 and 5-speed I later regretted not looking nice out for an SVT model instead.
Future collectable to be sure.
Small rear seat, etc etc etc but people forget how noisy these cars were as well. Car rags at the time commented about it and my cousin’s Mondeo confirmed it. My brother’s Contour was loud, rode hard and was noisy cruising, going down city streets or hitting bumps . And troublesome.
Perfect size though and the looks have worn well… at least until that hideous facelift. Easily as bad as an 03 Saturn L or 03 Cavalier.
Same with the Cougar V6 my friend rented: hard ride, noisy. And the engine sounded very similar to the Geo Metro three. Nasty vehicle, that Cougar.
Try to find tires for a Cougar with 16″ alloys. Non existent tire size now. I suppose it doesn’t matter, as I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw one on the street.
Relatedly, my favorite u pull it is full of all three models. Every color, trim, engine, even a loaded Contour SE V6 5-speed. I don’t know why they keep so many. The parts can’t be in demand.
Perhaps I should feel lucky about the ’96 I had–140K+ and reasonable upkeep costs and mileage, with no real bad-news surprises.
Ford did what they could to improve rear-seat room; making a bigger “dent” in the backs of the front seats, changing the roofline, and (I think) even lowering that back seat a bit.
It was reported somewhere that the Contique’s production cost wasn’t all that much less than the Taurus’s, which made it hard to set its price “enough to matter” (to customers) lower.
In England I got to ride in the wagon version, and still dream of importing one sometime after its 25th birthday:
The 2.5 liter V6 in these were rather impressive looking, but oh my god, they were difficult to work on. A girl i dated back in 2006/2007 had a gold 95, and it made you hate yourself everytime something needed maintenance.
It’s similar to the northstar engines, in that there was not enough room for a waterpump in the engine bay, so there is a second set of belts on the back of the engine running additional accessosries.
The Contour also had a nasty crash test at the IIHS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2kVSxSJpFw
I always thought it looked like a tweaked up Escort.
Waves? More like, barely a ripple in the pond.
Those and the Contour were notorious for their bad transmissions.
Although, I have to say, I occasionally see a few SVT Contours, and wouldn’t mind getting one on the cheap.
With a 5 speed, and a few tuning mods, they’d surprise the Honda ricer crowd.
If I was in Portland, needed transportation, and a mechanic OK’d this one, I’d happily spend the two grand:
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/cto/5152100570.html
During one Summer in 2006, I was doing an unpaid co-op work term for college at a cheap company that was about 42km (26 miles) away. I borrowed my dad’s black ’97 Grand Am which pretty much had a V6 engine, A/C, power door locks and crank windows. Another student who didn’t live as far away drove a gold Mercury Mystique sedan with a transmission that was rebuilt after a failure. To me it looked like an old car that you’d pick up for cheap. He was rubbing it in that he had power windows. “Grand Damn that’s an ugly car!” was his line aimed towards me. I would say to him, “Time to go on a mystical journey!”
Mercury Mistake? Hahaha! That’s what on of my buddies ex g/fs called hers. My ex had a ’96 Contour. With a wheezing moaning 4 cyl working thru a slushbox and an interior that creaked like the hold of a ship, 4 years hadn’t been kind to that P.O.S. Her taste in cars was stupifyingly bad. When the Contour croaked, I tried to get her to buy an ’87 Daytona which was so clean you could’ve ate off it and was tight as a drum even with 110K on the clock. But she refused to learn to drive a stick. The ’85 Civic she picked sheared a key on the cam after a month and futched every valve in the head…
This Contour/Mistique cars get no love. The first generation were pretty dull, improvements were made but as everyone else has posted, these two models simply lost out on buyers on many fronts.
In 1996 my mother-in-law was in the market for a new car and the Contour was among the models I had her consider. In the end she got a better deal on a new Cirrus. A few years later I bought used a 98 Contour with V6 and 5-speed manual transmission. It was a great highway car, comfortable and was very good on gas. It would still be in the family, but my oldest daughter was given the Contour and a few months later after not checking the oil level in the engine, cooked it on a highway trip home.
Not only were these cars too expensive for the target market, but they had another fatal flaw – a VERY cramped back seat. The rear seat was very tight in these cars, which was another nail in their coffin.
yep, with 6’2″ me and a 6′ coworker, that was a 4 door, two passenger car. as the seats were up against the back seat cushion.
I sat in the back seat of one once and was shocked how little room there was
A coworker had a Contour or Mystique, I forget which. I asked him about it once and he said it had expensive repairs, most notably that it regularly ate alternators.
I had a Mondeo as a rental for a week while in Germany in 2005. It had a turbodiesel and 5-speed stick. It was a beautiful car to drive. Turned in the keys because we were going to spend a couple days in Munich and wouldn’t need a car. After that we got a basically identical Opel to drive. I stalled it twice just trying to get out of the rental parking lot. The engine in the Opel had a feeble amount of torque, surprising for a diesel. Wished I had the Mondeo again.
My father had a first year 4cyl / 5spd Contour. I drove it as much as I could. Much nicer than the ’88 Ford Tempo we also had.
I had a 2000 Contour for a year. The little 2.0 four was a willing partner, and like others said the CD4E transmission was a major weakness. I never had an issue with it, other than being incredibly dim-witted and slow to downshift.
I had the famous peeling/warping dash that Ford fixed by stapling the cover back down, I learned quickly that the 3rd brake light was best left with bulbs burned out or removed completely as the plastic for it disintegrated as soon as you looked at it. On my commute to work, it rivaled my 95 Explorer for city mileage at 18mpg, the highway mileage was awesome, once you got to the 3rd fill up, otherwise It matched the Explorer at 23mpg, after that 3rd fill up, it was a consistent 38-40mpg till you got back into town. However, it was a very unpleasant highway cruiser, it was LOUD, compared even to my 76 Chevelle’s notorious lack of sound deading and windproofing.
It handled well and was fun to drive on a winding road, but it also had a weird issue of dying randomly on the side of the road, always on the return leg of a road trip, and not restart for about 10 minutes. I never did figure that one out.
I got it after it had sat for 2 years, and it had 80,000 miles on it. I put a timing belt on it, new tires, and drove it for 10,000 miles, and sold it for more than I bought it for, and was not sad to see it go away.
Another car that would have been great if Ford NAO had done the right things with it. I can remember seeing these cars at the Atlanta Car Show, back when they were still held in the Omni. I was a fan of the Chrysler Cloud Cars at the time and this was a direct shot at them. I climbed into a Mystique (having grown up in Mercurys, this seemed natural) and yes, this thing was miles ahead of my old Topaz. However there was one thing I didn’t like about it which was the cup holder. IIRC, it was a rather flimsy plastic set of rings that popped up from the console, I could imagine those getting damaged rather easily in routine usage due to their placement.
FoMoCo had brought in members of the UAW who worked in the assembly plant and as some sort of weird PR stunt they were tasked with answering questions about the car, it’s design and assembly. God bless them, they were some of the nicest people I’d ever met (seriously!). They also got all the oddball comments from folks, too. In the spirit of Kaizen, I thought I would voice my opinion about the cup holder rings, but they acted as if no one in their right mind would ever have a problem with this arrangement. Needless to say, I don’t think the word went up the line to management about this suggestion, but I get the feeling it wouldn’t have mattered what management was told.
This car was a overpriced, underpowered, expensive replacement for the Fordson grade Tempo/Topaz. I don’t think that management really wanted to hear it, but it seems that sales charts eventually told the tale. The real nail in the coffin of the Contour/Mystique was the release of the Focus, that car was big enough to cover 85% of what the C/M did and even had a wagon version too!
Even here in SaltCountry©, I still see early cloud cars and L, J and N body GMs. I haven’t seen a Contour or Mystique in years, now. I’ll have to keep a look out for one…
I bought a 96 Coutour SE V6 auto in 2000 with 35000 miles on it. It handled great and ran strong but besides the weak trans the early Contours/Mystiques had wiring harnesses with insulation that started falling off within a few years. By 2010 the car had 150000 miles but everything electrical was failing and the check engine light was always on. I finally gave it to a friend who needed a car but had no money.
At least the Contour looked good with the oval grille. The Mystique was the dumbed-down version looks-wise, to avoid offending anyone, and also to avoid being noticed amongst the sea of jellybean shapes that was the late 90’s. So much promise, such poor execution.
As others have noted, I wouldn’t mind an SVT contour though as a cheap bomber. But try to find one that hasn’t been beaten to death or self-destructed…
I still wanting one of these mid-’90’s Mystiques… After owning a 1993 Tracer (Base) and a never liveuped 1994 salvage Tracer Trio… A lad and his family still uses a Contour as a daily driver in our neighbourhood. This Contour had served years ago as taxi cab and after a while it became a family car…probably IT changed its owner too. That’s the only Contour among the dozens of old (and new) Mondeos here in my town. The Contour and especially the Mystique has a nicer rounded tail than the same gen Mondeo…
I(unfondly)recall the Contour & Mystique, from when I shuttled, for AVIS. They were two of the least-comfortable vehicles, ever, I’ve driven. I’m not sorry they’re gone.
I bought a new loaded Mystique off the lot because it had a 5-speed manual and a strange dark red checkered cloth interior and very dark red clear coat exterior. Except that clouds began to form in the clear coat within the first few months. After two visits to the dealer, the clouds continued to return and the dealer repainted the car. It was an awesome job, so I kept it. Then an engine cylinder failed and I got a new engine at 20,000 miles. Before that, in putting the driver’s power seat forward, the power motor’s wires were sheared, keeping the seat in this position. The lights in the doors that illuminated the door handles constantly burned out and were extremely labor intensive to replace. I loved driving the stick, and the body was tight, but it was almost a blessing when I blew up the 2nd engine at 60,000 miles on my quirky and strange little sedan by driving the hot car through a cool and unexpectedly deep flooded street in Michigan City Indiana. I remember we were en route to see a movie about a great racing horse on a Sunday before the days of UBER and LYFT. In any event, I still have dreams that I am going back to the shop to pick up this car after its been repaired; although in fact, I never saw it again.