opinions?

[PaleBlue90]

soon ill be looking at a small car, i was thinkin a escort,escort zx2, contour SVT or contour. whats everyones opinions on these. im not fond of jap cars, and cant afford a vw golf or jetta.

heres the 4 styles ive been lookin at

 

[Shran]

My buddy had a ZX2 and loved it. My sister has a 99 Tracer and she loves it, and my grandparents have had two Contours. I think the only major issue with any of them has been timing belts.

 

[cargs]

not fond of jap cars

that being said.... my wife has a 2002 protege 5. its a great little car, comfortable to drive and has lots of power with the 5spd. much better than a focus IMO.

 

[Rifleman]

My wife and I had a second hand 2000 ZX2 for two years and put just over 50,000 miles on, it was a great car until someone ran a stop sign on my wife and totalled it. We replaced it with a second hand 2000 Cougar V6 (same thing as the contour) that ended up having the least overall cost of ownership of any car we've owned over 5 years we had it.

The Cougar ate a deer and we were in search for either another ZX2 or Cougar. Turns out we picked up (less than a month ago) a NICE low milage 35th anniversary edition Cougar (#188 of 3000). In my area the Cougars can be had slightly lower than book, and the ZX2 are a good bit over book, this is mainly due to the fuel economy of the two vehicles (which is mainly due to driving type).

The ZX2 is geared for a very powerful bottom end pull for fast take offs, and the 4 cylinder makes for good economy when doing such in typical city driving. The Cougars have less take off, but are geared and designed more to have outstanding long term high speed highway usage.

The ZX2's optimal speed for fuel economy was about 65-70MPH in fifth gear. The Cougars hit their optimal fuel economy at between 75 and 85MPH. The Cougar spins less RPMs at the higher speeds are are better built for it on the long term.

With the ZX2's snappy take off and the Cougars somewhat boring take off, the ZX2 gets better fuel economy in city type lower speed driving.

For us the Cougar is the better choice as most trips are over 20 miles with 95% at freeway speeds.

 

[Nhaz]

Hondas are about the most reliable hunks of junk ever invented. cheap to fix too. they tend to be rust buckets if they see salt.

 

[crawlin91]

they tend to be rust buckets if they see salt.

shouldnt be a problem here in Denver. Ive always liked escorts. I owned a nice v6 tempo back in the day. It was my first car, never gave me a problem but unfortunately i totalled her out. I like the escorts.

 

[Mac]

I really loved my 2000 Focus wagon, had the bigger motor, lots of zip, good mileage and room to haul stuff in, never a bit of problem.
Dave

 

[daniel3507]

my mom has a Focus ZX3 that gets really great mileage and its a fun little car. out of the ones you are looking out, Contour SVT. Mainly because i am a huge SVT fan haha

 

[Jay FX4]

ZX2 FTW!!

If I wasn't hellbent on getting a Ranger, I'd still have it. I loved that car.

 

[kunar]

<< this guy's rockin an escort gt. my last highway trip averaged 33 mpg, and normal driving for me keeps me in the high 20's. the zx2's should be able to do just a little better, and are maybe a hair quicker too. no matter what you decide on though make sure it's got a manual trans!!

 

[PaleBlue90]

My buddy had a ZX2 and loved it. My sister has a 99 Tracer and she loves it, and my grandparents have had two Contours. I think the only major issue with any of them has been timing belts.

i kinda figured the timeing belt would be a big problem. how hard to are they to fix

my mom has a Focus ZX3 that gets really great mileage and its a fun little car. out of the ones you are looking out, Contour SVT. Mainly because i am a huge SVT fan haha

im leaning towards the contour SVT, it looks real nice

<< this guy's rockin an escort gt. my last highway trip averaged 33 mpg, and normal driving for me keeps me in the high 20's. the zx2's should be able to do just a little better, and are maybe a hair quicker too. no matter what you decide on though make sure it's got a manual trans!!

oh i already kno, manual trans always. i heard nothing but horror storys about the autos

 

[joecool85]

ZX2 FTW!!


If I wasn't hellbent on getting a Ranger, I'd still have it. I loved that car.

Agreed. Before I got my Ranger I had a 2001 Ford ZX2 w/MTX, drove it for 4 years. I loved that thing. Pretty quick for a little econo-box, good on gas (27mpg bumper to bumper city driving, 35-37 highway depending on how fast you drive). It helps they come with 4.11 in the diff and only have 24" tall tires lol. The only issue I had is that the stock 185/60/15 tire size is pricey and hard to find, so I ran the Focus size: 195/60/15 - cheap, a little wider and just a hair taller.

**edit**
btw, timing belt isn't a big issue - just change it every 60k miles on any of the DOHC cars, every 100k on a SOHC car. (The ZX2 is DOHC). It's not a hard job.

 

[JohnnyO]

The Contour SVT is kinda rare, but they were a great sporty car back in the day and vastly underrated. I have a 2004 Focus wagon, Ztech motor, and it goes like stink. I had cruise control added on because I was honestly afraid of getting speeding tickets with it. On the highway you'd glance at the speedo and see yourself doing, like 90 mph, and it was stone quiet at that speed.

 

[Mark_88]

The newer ones are nice...but if I could find an 89-92 Tempo in good shape I'd buy it...they are a tad heavier than the newer ones but are good reliable cars and easy to fix...in most cases...

The one thing I didn't like was the position of the heater rad...easy to get at if you have a lift though...