Ford Contour
Ford Contour (1994-1997)
The Ford Contour was produced in North America by the Ford Motor Company between 1994 and 2000 midsize sedan.
When Contour it was the American version of the Ford Mondeo of the first generation. His largely structurally identical sister model was the Mercury Mystique.
The Contour was largely identical to the European Ford Mondeo in technical terms. Instead of curving, raised rear of the Mondeo but the Contour had squarer tail lights that had been taken over by the last U.S. Escort series. The design of the front end has been aligned with that of the Mondeo in 1997.
The Contour was available only as a saloon. For hatchback and station wagon of the European Mondeo, there were on the North American market no comparable models, such as is rarely any demand in the United States in this class.
Model history
In early 1994 debuted the Contour offered exclusively as a saloon in the versions GL and LX with two-liter Zetec four-cylinder engine ( 16V ) and as an SE with 2.5 -liter Duratec V6 engine (24V ), each with MTX75 five-speed manual transmission CD4E or four- speed automatic transmission available.
1997 Ford took a cheaper new base model (without additional name) into the program.
Also in 1997, the Contour received a facelift with a larger, oval chrome-ringed grille and larger headlights. The new front end corresponded to the European Ford Mondeo manufactured in 1997, but was not identical. 1998 accounted for the base model just introduced and the GL, it debuted the 145 kW, 235 km / h Contour SVT as a sports version with five-speed transmission and a distinctly sporty appearance and equipment, limited to 5000 copies per model year.
Since the U.S. manufacturers increasingly involved in the late 1990s to the growing and profitable SUV and pickup segments, the normal passenger car segment in the United States declined overall and was also dominated by Japanese manufacturers, the model remained after the end of production in summer 2000 first without successor. With the setting of Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique also ended Ford's world car concept. In six years, about one million copies had rolled off the production line.
In Europe, a completely self-contained, new generation Mondeo was developed for model year 2001, which was not offered in North America. Instead, put Ford in the U.S. on the larger Taurus, which was offered as cheaply as possible. Only in 2005 there was the Ford Fusion back a successor of this magnitude, which had nothing to do with the same name, but smaller model in Europe.
Swell
- Flammang, James M / Kowalke, Ron. Standard Catalog of American Cars 1976-1999. Krause Publications, Iola 1999, ISBN 0-87341-755-0.