Contour died after starting - 3 times total - kept foot on gas until I got out on highway - ran fine. Car has started and run fine for the last 4-5 days, approximately 24 starts.

Did u have a check engine elight? had you just recently gased up?, u may have had some water in the fuel, i would have a Autozone parts store test the system for trouble codes, tell them u need an OBD 2 test run, it is free, if anything is failing it should have set a code in the cars computer.