Faults:

I purchased the Mystique...er...MISTAKE.. in 1996 as a replacement car for my mom's BELOVED 1989 Pontiac Grand AM SE (with the infamous Quad 4 Engine). I pay $15,000 for a Champaigne mist 2.o liter Mystique, which had no traction control or ABS, but pretty much had the essentials. I was happy until the summer of 1997 when the car had it first of many stallouts. In October of 1997, one my stallouts resulted in an accident- lucky for me I wasn't injured, but $1,200.00 worth of damage to the rear bumper was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back. I had the unfortunate plight of having the car for 3 and a quarter years. I traded it in for A Subaru Legacy Outback Wagon in 2000 and, except for a head gasket/ engine rebuild, which was thankfully covered by an extended warranty, and those annoying Daytime Running Lights, I AM HAPPY WITH MY SUBARU!!!

General Comments:

If you are looking for a new or used car, REMEMBER this acromyn...

FIX

OR

RECALL

DAILY!!!

Faults:

It would be easier to list what hasn't gone wrong!

Driver's window doesn't work.

Front-passenger's window goes off track.

A/C no longer works.

Control for the vents doesn't work.

Various interior plastic panels are falling off.

The car stalls after starting first thing in the morning.

Tail/brake lights don't work and it's not the result of burnt light bulbs.

The driver's seat power adjustment works when it wants to.

The airbag warning light in the instrument cluster always flashes at me.

The remote release for the gas door doesn't operate.

I THINK that covers everything!

General Comments:

As you can tell from reading above, this car is a total unreliable piece of junk. That's really sad because in my opinion it is a very attractive little car inside and out, is very well designed in terms of how it drives, and it has a reasonably solid structure. Like a lot of popular cars out there, it's a great design, but unreliable. Honestly, it's probably one of the best driving cars I have ever experienced. It's great on gas, is sexy looking, and has all the features you could possibly want. Maybe had it been a Honda or Volvo it would have been a fantastic car. Being a Ford product, it looks and drives great, but sucks in the reliability department.

A friend of mine had a 2000 Ford Contour (same car) that she bought with about 20k miles on it and experienced many troublesome problems. Luckily, she totaled her car in an accident.