The Contour was supposed to be Fords 'World' Car when it first came out back in '95. Its the Mondeo overseas which is a really awesome car, but never caught on over here in the states, so they've made the ####us the 'World' car and are pushing it like crazy!!!! But the Mondeo still lives overseas.
The only reason the Contour never took off over here is because they never marketed it... You see hundreds of Focus commercials, but never one Contour. They can't sell something nobody knows about.