Overview & Reviews
Designers sculpt and adjust interior seating to make more leg- and headroom in the backseat. Five new colors are available and improvements to shift effort on manual transmission models make the 1996 Contour more competitive.
User Reviews:
Showing 11 through 20 of 68.00-
96 contour - 1996 Ford Contour
By ptemplin7 - July 15 - 2:00 amTo many repairs plus the dealership is as bad as they come. Way to many warrenty repairs. Selling tires and others had to be replaced only 30K miles in. As someone once rated this this is a poor quality car. Hopefully they have corrected in later models.
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Fun car as long as its running - 1996 Ford Contour
By Charles Derdiarian - March 25 - 2:00 amI have owned this car for two years now and have thoroughly enjoyed its handling and power. The V6 provides strong accelaration despite its low horsepower rating. The build quality and cars reliability is terrible, though. I have gone through 3 water pumps in the last year ($250-400/pump). My first blown pump almost cost me my engine, as there is no temperature warning light and blown pumps often dont trip the coolant warning light. I have also had frozen valves ($400), gone through 3 catalytic converters (luckily covered by CA emissions), and a busted dimmer switch that shorted out my dash ($150). I will never buy another Ford.
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Good for the first 86,000 miles... - 1996 Ford Contour
By schumah1019 - July 8 - 2:00 amMy wife and I have had the Contour for 3 years now and have had no major problems. Oil changes every 3,000 miles, and a tuneup and injector cleaning about a year ago. It has been quite dependable, and my wife often puts on 300 miles a week of highway driving. But now its getting to the point where it seems like things will start to go wrong. Its losing power, dies occasionally after starting it up first thing in the morning, and the shifts from the automatic transmission are not nearly as smooth as they used to be.
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First, last & only Ford I will ever buy - 1996 Ford Contour
By CouldaBeenBetter - July 5 - 2:00 am1996 V6 LX. Bought mine with the Ford 100,000 mile warranty and I am sure glad that I did. I estimate that I had about 12 to $15,000 worth of repairs under that warranty. Hood, roof & trunk painted twice. 4 Catalytic Converters. A/C, Power Seats & Right Power Window all failed. Just about every sensor in engine has been replaced at least once. Constant thump from rear suspension that was never fixed. Persistent stalling problem. Finally at 110,000, I dumped $2500 into it to try to fix the stalling problem to no avail. Traded it in for $1500 and bought a Camry.
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Life of a V6 Automatic - 1996 Ford Contour
By Ryan M. - March 27 - 2:00 amThe ride comfort is the best part. I work 63 miles away from home and when I get out of the car after the trip I feel like Ive been sitting on a couch for an hour and a half. Ford mechanics are poor on the V6 design. Oil changes will leave your exhaust covered in oil, the catalytics plug up after 40k miles, the waterpump uses a plastic propeller that breaks after 30k miles, the rotors warp easily, the plastic components including door handles (inside and out) came loose at 75k, other little things like a melted alternator, wires shorting out, wheel bearings, automatic transmission take away a lot of V6 power.
