Faults:

Timing belt and gears at 130000, dealer only on the parts.

Cam Position Sensor at 125000, A $300.00 Dealer only part, didn't fix.

Throttle position sensor at 125000, dealer only part.

Drivers door window regulator at 150000, $237.00 dealer only part.

General Comments:

The yellow check engine light came on at 125000, and I bought an OBD 2 tester to check the computer error codes. It told me that the Cam Position Sensor was defective. The problem could be a warn Cam surface and the best price I have found to get in there to measure the cam is $150.00. The bottom line is that I can replace the sensor and it won't fix the problem if the cam is worn.

The most frustrating thing about this car is that I can't buy the parts at the auto parts store, they are dealer only. There are a lot of dealer only parts on this car.

Overall it has been a reliable car, but it is expensive to fix.

Faults:

Fist problem I noticed was it would occasionally shift really hard upon acceleration from a starting position. Ignored this for awhile, but then it wouldn't shift into its highest gear, resulting in 4000RPM's while driving 50MPH. Coasted $1700 in transmission repairs.

Ran good for awhile, until the transmission went out again at nearly 80000. This time it would've coasted 3000 to fix, the car was barely worth that. The crooks at Ford charged me 900 bucks just to tell me what was wrong with it. They of course would've cleared that charge if I got it fixed through them, but there was no way I was going to do that.

General Comments:

Good gas mileage.

Good power with the V6.

Fairly sporty looking on the outside.

Faults:

The transmission blew up.

Alternator went out.

Engine has lost power.

General Comments:

This car is a money pit. If one thing is not wrong, another is.

It has nice power output above 4000 RPM, but it is doggish below in any gear.

It has the sloppiest shifting transmission I have ever driven.

The suspension complements the car well.

Ford should have done a better job on R&D with this car. The so called "hi-output" V-6 could have put more horsepower down than Ford, Cosworth, and Roush put through the motor.

Faults:

Nothing really has gone wrong with the car, per-say. However, there is a problem that's been occurring since I bought it. It's having problems starting. But it sounds like it's having initial fuel delivery problems. Is anyone else having this issue?

General Comments:

This car is great! It's quick, comfy, and has great handling. It's quick enough to be a compact car, but it rides like a regular, full size sedan. All the bells and whistles come with it. And my friends love it too.

Faults:

We are wondering if anyone else out there is having as many problems as we are with our Contour. It seems as if we can't even go a year without getting the check engine light go on. It always seem to be a "hugo" sensor. We still take the car to the dealership to get the oil changed on a very regular basis. The last time we got the check engine light on was a not even a year ago. It was in June, low and behold we get into the car.. and there it is again. Now it seems to be something with the fuel sensor. If there is one. We can't go 2 weeks on a tank of fuel. The car has 86000k on it. I take it to work at home, with the odd road trip. Have there been any recalls on this vehicle I missed?

General Comments:

The car handles well.

The Check engine light always on is costing me lots of cash and is very annoying.