cmdrstask

I don't need to trust you on this; you're wrong. I have also lived in England, and have owned 2 Contours (1 Contour and 1 Mystique) in the US. The Mondeo is not in the same class as the Taurus; the platforms are different; the engines are different; the sizes are different. As of now, the closest similar US Ford car is the Fusion, although the two are not virtually identical as the Mondeo/Contour were since the Fusion is built on a different platform than the current Mondeo.

Why do you think the Mondeo and Taurus are equivalent? If you're using equivalent to mean that they're both 4 door family cars, then sure they are. But in any other sense of the word, no. The Mondeo has always been a midsize car; the Taurus has been a full-size car. If you compare generations of each car, you'll find the Taurus usually comes in about 10-12 inches longer, and a few inches wider.

In reality, the Ford Scorpio was the closest to the Taurus, but it's no longer being produced. The current Mondeo is close in size to previous generations of Taurii (190.7" L), but is not close to the current Taurus (202.9"L)

gone postal

The Taurus isn't even in the same ballpark as a Mondeo. The Mondy and the Contiques share the same underpinnings (CDW-27 chassis) and most of the sheet metal.

The Mercury Cougar shared the same CDW27 platform for the years it was a 2 door FWD sporty coupe.

The Taurus shares NOTHING with the CDW27s, though taking a 3.0L duratech out of a taurus and shoehorning it into a Contour/Mystique makes one hell of a sleeper.

The Contour/Mystique/Mondeo handle like they're on rails, the Tauri handle like they're mush.

The Contour wasn't killed by poor build quality, they were killed because they were too close to the Taurus in price point. Given the choice between a Taurus/Sable for 18-19K nicely equipped after rebates vs the Contour/Mystique for 18-20K with no rebates, which one are you going to buy?

The build quality didn't help, Contours had issues (1st gen wiring harnesses are miserable failures, thanks to European wiring standards for decaying insulation), but they didn't sell to many beyond enthusiasts because of the pricing issues.

D94R

Wow... I didn't mean to incite so much debate over contour vs mondeo vs taurus. I was simply making the mondeo-taurus connection based on the fact I forgot about the contour, and knew it obviously wasn't the same as anything "new" (IE Fuzion).

Anyhow my point was, after all the complaining about how much they bashed a beat up and obviously well-used F150 Lightning, they ranked a Ford as a number one car. That is all.

cmdrstask

No problem on my end...you didn't insist you were right for some unknown reason, then disappear after you were proved wrong.

rob28

Anyway... back on topic..

I've just seen the first installment of the Top Gear UK Christmas special - a road trip to the USA in a Ferrari 458, Porsche GT3 RS and Merc SLS AMG. There were a few digs but Americans got off pretty lightly in comparison to previous visits.

NYsprint#09

where'd you see it?

rob28

Somewhere I shouldn't have.....

All my mates back in th UK were on about it so I had to search it out online

SchuLace

Clarkson bashes every car and every country on the show. It's what he does. Watch a couple shows and you will see how much of it he does. The UK version of Top Gear is a great show and probably my favorite. The US version is terrible compared to the UK.

wakonako

Hahahaha. I disappeared because I haven't had internet, the Bright House guy is here checking it all now and got it working again. I'm still pretty positive the mondeo and the tauraus are the same, thats not to say the contour is too. You search on google for a mondeo and a tauraus and itll show the same picture

gone postal

You're wrong, but remain as positive as you wish.