Transmission problems? plus other ramblings

[indysvodave]

I've been looking at SVT Contours, and notice a lot of them have replaced or repaired transmissions. Is there a common problem with these? I may be taking a job that will be about an hour drive, and want to buy something good on gas, front or all wheel drive, 4 doors (for easier car seat intalling) but still not boring to drive. The finalists I think, are SVT Contour, earlier SHO Taurus (not the V8 one), Subaru Outback, or WRX. I also was considering the Ford Escape and Jeep Liberty, but we already have my Bronco and my wifes 97 Grand Cherokee, so I don't think we need another SUV.

I do have an SVO Mustang, which gets pretty good gas mileage, when I drive it easy, but it does not get driven in winter, and also tends to attrack to much attention from the law.

[Green SVT]

Not sure what you consider good gas mileage. I usually get 325-350 miles on a tank. Thats mixed city and highway driving and me winding it out about 75% of the time. (with the sound of the engine, it's pretty hard NOT to get on it.)

As for repairing trannies, like every other Ford its pretty hit or miss. I knew one guy whos car was at the dealership for over a month and a half because of the tranny. Never had any problems with mine.

Its pretty hard for me to suggest this car to people. I do love it but there are so many newer models that are better. Many cars take much better to mods than these cars. Unless you are going turbo or engine swap.

-R-

[indysvodave]

Well, My Bronco gets about 17mpg on the highway... I'd go broke driving it. I love it for long trips, because the room makes up for the mileage.
Anyway, I'm also not thinking about mods... I have my SVO for my toy. I just want something fun to drive, that gets around in snow, and gets good mileage. Also, I've seen these run in autocrosses, and it would be something to take the SVO's place while it's apart, which is often.

[SOBESVT]

Have you considered the SVT Focus? I had the Contour and now I have the Focus. I tend to favor the Focus in comparison which isn't fair anyway as my SVTC was used and I purchased the Focus brand new. I am doing about 28 mpg average and I also commute 1 hr, to work, one sweet hour in my SVTF i must ad.
And yes, the transmission in the SVTC gave up at some point.
Now that Ford is phasing out the SVTF you should be able to get a fairly good deal for a new one. I was checking the other day in eBay and used SVFs go for about 13K