New commuter hack Mondeo - petrol this time
Discussion
Good work. Mine hasn't done that in my ownership, but then it has done 20k miles in the last year, so a spring, a strut bearing, and a brake caliper after 135k miles is fair enough. It's a better car than it was 40k/3 yrs ago when I bought it, and I'm hardly mollycoddling it. It goes to show the benefits of just keeping up standard maintenance and basic, sound engineering. Well done Ford.
Good to hear you still have MondeoShed, charltjr.
As somebody said earlier, it's good to see some love for these cars. I'm not fanatical about them, and this is my first Ford, but I'm so impressed with mine. Like most PHers I've had all sorts of different cars over the years and feel well-placed to comment. It does the sensible stuff so well, plus it's genuinely such a nice thing to drive, at it's best on A/B roads where you're flowing along between 40 and 70. I find the slower B roads, 2nd and 3rd gear stuff you're better off just backing off and taking it easy. The steering is pretty much perfect - it's almost reason enough to buy Ford again. I really like the Germanic feel of it too (back when Germanic meant solid and sensible, not blingy), not surprising given it was built there, and seems like it was designed for the German fleet market as much as the British one. Perhaps why it's so good at long distance work.
Mine (2005 1.8LX) was bought in a hurry for a hefty commute, it was on 75k and in perfect condition (for £1295) in November 2014. It's now on 132k, and whilst it's needed the usual stuff it all seems pretty reasonable to me. My local indy is cheap and ex-Ford main dealer so it's in good hands. This makes a big difference as I'm rubbish with doing stuff myself and would likely break something if I got too ambitious. It's not mollycoddled at all (not enough money for that) but if something needs doing, it is seen to. I'd like to put it through a full service and refresh all the bushes, but there's always something else to spend the money on. Anyway, for what it's worth, here is my list of replacements:
NSF and OSF, OSR springs replaced
OSF strut mount replaced
1 x Track rod end
Rear discs and pads at 90k
2 x handbrake cables
Alternator replaced (bearings failed)
Thermostat replaced
Oil and filter at 90k, 103k, top up at 122k (due another)
Oil change at 126k
OSR and NSR wheel bearings replaced
Power steering reservoir tank replaced
A few bulbs and new battery.
I put on a set of Toyos at 90k, still plenty of life left.
It could do with a good clean, but in the meantime it consistently does my 130 mile commute without fuss, swallows my road bike whole, and the last few tanks have delivered 41.6, 41.2 and 41.5 mpg.
Can't argue with that.
As somebody said earlier, it's good to see some love for these cars. I'm not fanatical about them, and this is my first Ford, but I'm so impressed with mine. Like most PHers I've had all sorts of different cars over the years and feel well-placed to comment. It does the sensible stuff so well, plus it's genuinely such a nice thing to drive, at it's best on A/B roads where you're flowing along between 40 and 70. I find the slower B roads, 2nd and 3rd gear stuff you're better off just backing off and taking it easy. The steering is pretty much perfect - it's almost reason enough to buy Ford again. I really like the Germanic feel of it too (back when Germanic meant solid and sensible, not blingy), not surprising given it was built there, and seems like it was designed for the German fleet market as much as the British one. Perhaps why it's so good at long distance work.
Mine (2005 1.8LX) was bought in a hurry for a hefty commute, it was on 75k and in perfect condition (for £1295) in November 2014. It's now on 132k, and whilst it's needed the usual stuff it all seems pretty reasonable to me. My local indy is cheap and ex-Ford main dealer so it's in good hands. This makes a big difference as I'm rubbish with doing stuff myself and would likely break something if I got too ambitious. It's not mollycoddled at all (not enough money for that) but if something needs doing, it is seen to. I'd like to put it through a full service and refresh all the bushes, but there's always something else to spend the money on. Anyway, for what it's worth, here is my list of replacements:
NSF and OSF, OSR springs replaced
OSF strut mount replaced
1 x Track rod end
Rear discs and pads at 90k
2 x handbrake cables
Alternator replaced (bearings failed)
Thermostat replaced
Oil and filter at 90k, 103k, top up at 122k (due another)
Oil change at 126k
OSR and NSR wheel bearings replaced
Power steering reservoir tank replaced
A few bulbs and new battery.
I put on a set of Toyos at 90k, still plenty of life left.
It could do with a good clean, but in the meantime it consistently does my 130 mile commute without fuss, swallows my road bike whole, and the last few tanks have delivered 41.6, 41.2 and 41.5 mpg.
Can't argue with that.
Edited by paulmaurice99 on Monday 5th June 09:34
Edited by paulmaurice99 on Monday 5th June 09:35
Lovely write up on an old mondog.
Im on my second with my first being the 2.2 ST TDCi and my current being the 3.0 ST220
I bought first thinking it would be a nice family car, unfortunately theyre about as reliable as a micheal fish weather report, cue the aux belt and bottom pulley 3 times, turbo 4 times and several other annoying issues. In the end i put a hybrid turbo on it and was so scared it was going to blow up again i did a straight swap for the ST220.
It sounded like a bad idea at first as i got into the high mpg, but after a few months of running
Its turned out to be a great decision. I love the sound and performance (yes a fast mondeo)
Other than a few bushes and normal mk3 mondeo issues its been sweet. Just turned 100k and still running like clockwork. Soon needs rear subframe bushes and a rear shock, but as you proved, thats pretty much par for daily mondeoing.
Good luck in your endevours!!
Im on my second with my first being the 2.2 ST TDCi and my current being the 3.0 ST220
I bought first thinking it would be a nice family car, unfortunately theyre about as reliable as a micheal fish weather report, cue the aux belt and bottom pulley 3 times, turbo 4 times and several other annoying issues. In the end i put a hybrid turbo on it and was so scared it was going to blow up again i did a straight swap for the ST220.
It sounded like a bad idea at first as i got into the high mpg, but after a few months of running
Its turned out to be a great decision. I love the sound and performance (yes a fast mondeo)
Other than a few bushes and normal mk3 mondeo issues its been sweet. Just turned 100k and still running like clockwork. Soon needs rear subframe bushes and a rear shock, but as you proved, thats pretty much par for daily mondeoing.
Good luck in your endevours!!
s
t 
I'm fine. Someone exited a junction without looking ahead of them, as you do, and hit my rear door. Could have been a lot worse.
Hopefully it'll be a straightforward non-fault claim through the 3rd party's insurers, if not and they start to play silly buggers then such is life, not worth getting stressed over. I will kick myself for not putting the dash cam in though
Clearly it's going to be a write-off, needs a new door/door skin, rear arch panel beating and paint etc. On a car worth what this one is that's just not going to happen. Plan is to keep the car and fix it myself as long as the damage is just cosmetic.
t I'm fine. Someone exited a junction without looking ahead of them, as you do, and hit my rear door. Could have been a lot worse.
Hopefully it'll be a straightforward non-fault claim through the 3rd party's insurers, if not and they start to play silly buggers then such is life, not worth getting stressed over. I will kick myself for not putting the dash cam in though
Clearly it's going to be a write-off, needs a new door/door skin, rear arch panel beating and paint etc. On a car worth what this one is that's just not going to happen. Plan is to keep the car and fix it myself as long as the damage is just cosmetic.
That's a shame, looks so clean in that picture too!
Mines ticked over 153k and still proving to be a simple, reliable and comfortabl mode of transport. I toy with finding an immaculate low mileage one, fitting LPG and basically running it as my daily for the next 5 years but wonder if I should instead find a good 2.0 mk4 as it has a better ncap, esp etc etc
Mines ticked over 153k and still proving to be a simple, reliable and comfortabl mode of transport. I toy with finding an immaculate low mileage one, fitting LPG and basically running it as my daily for the next 5 years but wonder if I should instead find a good 2.0 mk4 as it has a better ncap, esp etc etc
charltjr said:
Insurance claim is in, other party hadn't contacted their insurer yet. Hmmmmmmmm. Hope I'm wrong but that's got the spidey senses twitching that this might not be as simple as I'd hoped. Oh well, time will tell.
I wouldn't worry too much about that. They probably hope that you're not going to make a claim. You could have been coming back from the mistress's or just having robbed a bank! It's worth a try! 
This did once happen to me. I was backing out of the drive and failed to see a car on the other side of the (narrow) street. Yes, I know. I dinged the rear wing. I went knocking on doors and the owners were just leaving. "Don't worry about it mate, these things happen" they said. As they drove away leaving me feeling very relieved I reflected on the fact that old bangers like theirs weren't always insured. I did wonder.
Good news! Liability admitted and the car has been assessed as "beyond economic repair".
They didn't even bother looking at it. There was a long pause on the phone when I explained it needed a new rear door and the wheel arch was crumpled, then they said they'd pass it to the team that deals with settlement figures. They're going to contact me next week to discuss a valuation. No surprise, I was sure it was done for as soon as I saw the damage. I've told them throughout that I'm keeping the salvage and they've been fine with it.
In the meantime I've been on eBay and got a matching rear door from a breaker. Wasn't quite as easy as I expected, it's not the most common colour or the most common spec and needed to be a facelift part too - luckily there was one available and it was only about an hours drive away so that's sat in the garage. It's certainly not perfect, but for £47 I'm not quibbling. A job for next weekend.
They didn't even bother looking at it. There was a long pause on the phone when I explained it needed a new rear door and the wheel arch was crumpled, then they said they'd pass it to the team that deals with settlement figures. They're going to contact me next week to discuss a valuation. No surprise, I was sure it was done for as soon as I saw the damage. I've told them throughout that I'm keeping the salvage and they've been fine with it.
In the meantime I've been on eBay and got a matching rear door from a breaker. Wasn't quite as easy as I expected, it's not the most common colour or the most common spec and needed to be a facelift part too - luckily there was one available and it was only about an hours drive away so that's sat in the garage. It's certainly not perfect, but for £47 I'm not quibbling. A job for next weekend.
Glad you and the car are OK. When I glanced at the pic I wondered if the sill was pushed in as well, but clearly not too bad. Good news. Not enough to set off the curtain airbags then - also good news.
I'm not surprised they wrote it off. However I was extremely surprised when - about 10 years ago now - my shed of the moment (Honda Accord) was NOT written off when a massive van piled into the back of it whilst I was sat in a line of traffic. The impact was enough to push me into the car in front even with the handbrake on, to the extent that he then got pushed into the car in front of him. So a pretty big impact. The Honda must have been worth all of £750 in the seconds before the impact. The repair bill was close to £2k and the insurance company paid it! Never did quite understand that, but it meant I could run the car a few more years.
Stories like this remind us it's not a bad idea to run around in fairly cheap but still very solid cars. That's the only reason I don't run a Singer Porsche as my daily, obviously.
I'm not surprised they wrote it off. However I was extremely surprised when - about 10 years ago now - my shed of the moment (Honda Accord) was NOT written off when a massive van piled into the back of it whilst I was sat in a line of traffic. The impact was enough to push me into the car in front even with the handbrake on, to the extent that he then got pushed into the car in front of him. So a pretty big impact. The Honda must have been worth all of £750 in the seconds before the impact. The repair bill was close to £2k and the insurance company paid it! Never did quite understand that, but it meant I could run the car a few more years.
Stories like this remind us it's not a bad idea to run around in fairly cheap but still very solid cars. That's the only reason I don't run a Singer Porsche as my daily, obviously.
Thanks 
The sill is undamaged thankfully, one of the few advantages of being run into by a SUV I guess.
Anyway, the outcome is a £1900 payout which given I bought the car for £1850 has to count as quite a result. Retained the salvage for the princely sum of £475.
Started the process of getting the door off earlier today but it was too bloody hot to work on cars so gave up.
Looks like it'll be a pretty easy job, drive the door pins out having removed the circlips and the bolt which holds on the check strap. I want to swap over the door card from my door to the replacement as mine is in much better condition.
Definitely something to leave for a cooler weekend.
The sill is undamaged thankfully, one of the few advantages of being run into by a SUV I guess.Anyway, the outcome is a £1900 payout which given I bought the car for £1850 has to count as quite a result. Retained the salvage for the princely sum of £475.
Started the process of getting the door off earlier today but it was too bloody hot to work on cars so gave up.
Looks like it'll be a pretty easy job, drive the door pins out having removed the circlips and the bolt which holds on the check strap. I want to swap over the door card from my door to the replacement as mine is in much better condition.
Definitely something to leave for a cooler weekend.
Had the assessor out today, it's going to be a cat C which means I'll have to surrender the V5 to the insurance company and then apply for a new one. Random, but there you go. Guess it's so they can add the marker to the V5 or something.
On the plus side that's final confirmation I can keep the car, if it had been a cat B then they have had to take it. Hugely unlikely it was ever going to be a B, but it needs tyres so I've been holding off on that until I knew for sure. I can move forward and get the tyres and door done now.
Not too bad all in all, just got to finalise the details with the insurance companies and get the claim closed off.
On the plus side that's final confirmation I can keep the car, if it had been a cat B then they have had to take it. Hugely unlikely it was ever going to be a B, but it needs tyres so I've been holding off on that until I knew for sure. I can move forward and get the tyres and door done now.
Not too bad all in all, just got to finalise the details with the insurance companies and get the claim closed off.
The mondeo just ticked past 75k miles and I’ve had it for nearly 18 months now - that puts it in the top five cars I’ve ever owned for length of ownership so it must be doing something right.
A set of new tyres and an alignment session really improved the drive of the car, the toe was way off so with that corrected the car feels much better.
Versatility continues to be it’s real strength, this week it’s transported a couple of loads of fence posts, dealt with the usual commuting duties and also knocked off a 250 mile motorway trip loaded with people and luggage.
Only on that last bit did it occasionally struggle a bit, fully loaded you really miss the torque of a turbo or large capacity engine. It turns out that certain passengers think you’re driving like a loon if you rev an engine above about 4k, despite the fact that you’re just trying to get down a slip road safely without holding up the two litre turbo diesel brigade too much
I’ve not had the rear door fixed yet, my door pin remover kit doesn’t work on the mondeo pins, I think they need a puller or something, and frankly I can’t be arsed with DIYing it any more. The door is perfectly secure and the window still works, the only functional problem is that it doesn’t open on the external handle but the internal one is fine. Meh. I’ll get it done before the next MoT rolls round as I’m pretty sure that’s a fail.
I’ve been in a two year old Mondeo occasionally recently and can’t believe how much bigger they’ve got, they are a huge car now. Also it showed how far things have come in terms of NVH since the Mk3, by comparison mine is a very noisy car at typical UK motorway speeds.
Obviously after having had any car for so long.... ..... the wanderlust does set in. With my mileage being so low now and also being partially shared with the M3 I keep looking at all sorts of big engined luxo-barges and 4x4 type stuff (I live in the countryside now, don’tcha know, so clearly that’s perfectly justifiable )
Despite all that though I can’t make any sort of case for changing the mondeo for something else, it’s completely carefree motoring - leave it anywhere, drive it anywhere, do anything with it.
A set of new tyres and an alignment session really improved the drive of the car, the toe was way off so with that corrected the car feels much better.
Versatility continues to be it’s real strength, this week it’s transported a couple of loads of fence posts, dealt with the usual commuting duties and also knocked off a 250 mile motorway trip loaded with people and luggage.
Only on that last bit did it occasionally struggle a bit, fully loaded you really miss the torque of a turbo or large capacity engine. It turns out that certain passengers think you’re driving like a loon if you rev an engine above about 4k, despite the fact that you’re just trying to get down a slip road safely without holding up the two litre turbo diesel brigade too much
I’ve not had the rear door fixed yet, my door pin remover kit doesn’t work on the mondeo pins, I think they need a puller or something, and frankly I can’t be arsed with DIYing it any more. The door is perfectly secure and the window still works, the only functional problem is that it doesn’t open on the external handle but the internal one is fine. Meh. I’ll get it done before the next MoT rolls round as I’m pretty sure that’s a fail.
I’ve been in a two year old Mondeo occasionally recently and can’t believe how much bigger they’ve got, they are a huge car now. Also it showed how far things have come in terms of NVH since the Mk3, by comparison mine is a very noisy car at typical UK motorway speeds.
Obviously after having had any car for so long....
..... the wanderlust does set in. With my mileage being so low now and also being partially shared with the M3 I keep looking at all sorts of big engined luxo-barges and 4x4 type stuff (I live in the countryside now, don’tcha know, so clearly that’s perfectly justifiable )Despite all that though I can’t make any sort of case for changing the mondeo for something else, it’s completely carefree motoring - leave it anywhere, drive it anywhere, do anything with it.
700 miles travelled in the Mondy since the last update, a lot of it on give-and-take Welsh roads which did leave me wishing for a chunk more grunt and a lot more driver feedback. Then another long trip back from a holiday made me really appreciate it’s mile-munching ability, and transporting around 400kg of tiles in only two loads made me appreciate the versatility again.
Must give it a clean at some point, it’s not been touched since the crash.
Must give it a clean at some point, it’s not been touched since the crash.
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