Good/Bad Deal?

[BlackTigers]

I called the guy to see if he still has it, and he said he did.

Link

I'm not necessarily looking for a car, but that...that looks nice, especially for the sub grand price tag.

How reliable were those cars? Haven't really looked at any Mercurys before...

 

[TimeKeeper]

My advice to those who want to purchased an used car.
Ask the seller for you to take his/her car for check up.
Spend $150 at Dealership (depending on cars) for full inspection.

I assure you that $150 you spend/ or waste is the best investment for your used car purchases.

 

[sjwaste]

Same as the Ford Contour, right? I dont know much about them, but you should be able to google some information easily.

 

[TimeKeeper]

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Same as the Ford Contour, right? I dont know much about them, but you should be able to google some information easily.

I think it is escort.

 

[iamwiz82]

There is a reason he is selling it so cheap. Don't believe his story.

 

[Pacfanweb]

Tracer is the same as an Escort. Great, reliable cars. Take it to get checked out, if it checks out okay, then anything thing that runs and is safe is pretty much worth 950.

The sister car to the Contour is the Mystique. Or as we called them, the Mercury Mistake.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Its cheap because they aren't worth anything. My sister had the escort version and it was a good little beater till she wrecked it. After that it had suspension problems all the time but all that because the shop that "fixed" the wrecked damage didn't do it right.

 

[thomsbrain]

Check for oil leaks and things, but that price isn't like "impossible" low for the model and year, so it might make a good beater. Those cars were among the more reliable Fords from the era, IIRC.

 

[BUTCH1]

I drove a '94 for ten years, one weak spot was the valve seats sometimes will
drop on these cars, I fixed it myself though for $350. Just keep an eye on the
radiator, these seem to clog up quick and will certainly exasperate the valve
seat issue. Other than that though the AC, tranny, CV's, Alt, struts, bearings all
lasted to 170K. Ford wisely used the Protege platform for this car once they bought
Mazda, a big improvement from the previous gen. 'scorts. I averaged 30/39 MPG
with mine, it's a real gas sipper but with 88Hp it's slightly acceleration challenged.
Also fairly easy to work on for a FWD car..

 

[sniperruff]

yes the last generation of the escort/mystique was more refined than the previous generations (although that's not saying much). i rarely see any being sold with above 130k miles so my guess is their average lifespan would be around 150k miles.