The Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique were based on Ford's CDW27 platform, a confusing amalgam of acronyms, but it was a global platform that was used to build the Europe-only Ford Mondeo and later the Jaguar X-Type. Take a workaday chassis and add a dose of magic from Ford's Special Vehicles Team and you get a car that looks like the next econobox rental reject, but is actually a hoot to drive. Find this
1999 Ford SVT Contour for sale in Alameda, CA for $6,000 via craigslist.
Thanks to tip from Kaibeezy T!
The biggest complaint I have about this next car is the name. Say it out loud: I drive a Contour. An SVT Contour. Yuck. Contour. Blech. SVT Contour sounds like something you'd lookup in a medical encyclopedia and recoil in horror at the associated illustration. Ford should have kept the global name and called it the Mondeo...but at least we were able to get one in the USA with a 5-speed manual gearbox and some tuning from Ford's Special Vehicle Team. Find this 1999 Ford Contour SVT offered for $3950 in Altadena, CA via craigslist.
