Tuesday 21st July 2015

Ford Mondeo ST220: Spotted

Rare, practical, fast and cheap - what more do you need from a fast estate?

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Fast Ford values continue to amaze and entertain car enthusiasts. Seems like if it's rare enough and with the right badge then it's guaranteed to be worth a lot. If it's rare enough with the right badge and is actually a good car then the sky's the limit. But what if it has a fairly average badge (i.e. not an RS one), is a very good car and there aren't many either?

You want space? You've got it!

Step forward the Ford Mondeo ST220. A marvellous car, another of Ford's dynamic triumphs of the mid-2000s, and one that's very rare too because nobody buys sports saloons without a prestige badge. An estate as well is especially hard to come by. And it's four grand! You have to wonder if this was marketed as a special edition with the same numbers sold how that would affect the values.

Seeing a red ST220 hatch on the commute into PHHQ was a handy reminder of this often forgotten fast Ford hero. It's distinguished mostly by the wheels, badges and grille; to everyone else it's a Mondeo. They were the same identifiers used for the diesel ST also, making the 3.0 V6 even tougher to spot. Perhaps not Ford's boldest design, but it's handsome enough.

Red leather jazzes it up nicely

Of course buying a Mondeo ST220 will have its pitfalls. As a post March 2006 it will be very expensive to tax. That 3.0 V6 may provide plenty of power and a beautiful noise but it will use lots of fuel too, especially lugging round all that real estate (no shooting brake pretence here). Ignorant people will ask why you've bought an old Mondeo.

But as well as being a great car, it's a nice throwback to when blue-collar manufacturers could just about make sports saloons (and estates) feasible projects. This, the Mazda 6 MPS, Legacy Spec B and Accord Type R too if we're going further back. We won't see those sort of cars again because nobody wants saloons. Emissions legislation will prevent big engines going in them and this insatiable desire to buy premium brands means the mainstream manufacturers have to cut down on niche products.

So that's why the Mondeo ST220 is worthy of your attention. And if doesn't appeal as a do-it-all family wagon, we know a man who can make it ready for track...

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FORD MONDEO ST220
Engine: 2,967cc V6
Transmission: 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive
Power (hp): 226@6,150rpm 
Torque (lb ft): 207@4,900rpm
MPG: 27.2
CO2: 254g/km
First registered: 2006
Recorded mileage: 97,998
Price new: £24,740
Yours for: £4,425

View original advert here.

[MadDog1962]

That red upholstery would give me a headache.

Otherwise that looks like a lot of (nice) car for the money.

I like it. Price is likely to be fairly negotiable methinks.

[Krikkit]

Very nice bit of kit that! A passenger ride in one when new will stay with me for a long time, not because it was particularly fast, but a sonorous V6 in a Mondeo that handled really well?! Shocking after the first-gen horrors.

[Cookie338]

I loved the estate I had for 2 and a half years, miss it's load lugging ability but not much else (since it's replacement was an M3)

[neil-935ql]

These are great cars I had the saloon for a couple of years pretty quick for a big saloon , I made the most of the soundtrack and had a Milltek exhast put on sounded lovely ! Very comfortable car with a slick 6 speed gearbox , ford at its best

[3500rpm]

Great find, great article! Such a PH car!

[peter450]

I had a go in one of these (saloon) before going with a 159, it was a nice car and the V6 sounded fantastic. Your right about these kinds of cars disappearing hot versions just have more powerful turbos as opposed to more cylinders nowadays and you can't beat the soundtracks you get from a 5 or more multi cylinder power plant with a turbo 4.

Multi cylinder engines are getting pushed further and further up the price lists these days, their not even available on most mainstream models were as back in the 90s a v6 was at the top of every Ford/Vauxhall/Peugeot range

[Lordivanhoe]

I absolutely agree. The ST220 is a great car - I had a dark silver grey hatch with the red leather upholstery (which looks less vivid in reality!), and I loved it. I parted with it due to getting a new job which came with a company car, making it surplus to requirements (and it was rather thirsty for the long commute!), but I wish I still had it and occasionally still 'window shop' for a replacement. The mobile bordello (as my friends christened it) was great for surprising premium brand drivers, and that V6 was sooooo smooth.. one day, I'll have one again - I just hope this article doesn't start pushing these prices up to silly levels too!!

[Zammy]

I remember speaking to a traffic cop whose force had a couple of these in their fleet. He said they all hated them, were uncomfortable, seats were falling apart and they could not wait to get rid of them. Maybe not police car material then.

[corcoran]

I've been musing with one of these for a while -- KNIGHTS CARS near London seem to have a weirdly steady supply of them.

Anyone got any pitfalls/things to watch out for good info?

[CalNaughtonJnr]

I apologise profusely for lowering the tone, but what is the diesel ST like?

[DaveyBoyWonder]

My old diesel ST was flippin brilliant. Miss it to this day despite owning some 'better' cars since. Did 55mpg no matter what you did to it and made a 120 mile a day round trip commute for a year an absolute pleasure.

Can only imagine the same car with a V6 would be brilliant (if you weren't doing silly miles!).

I'd have that car in the article in a heartbeat. if only it was in performance blue!

[Lukey-C]

CalNaughtonJnr said:

I apologise profusely for lowering the tone, but what is the diesel ST like?

I wanted a diesel STs for ages (saloon in blue, obviously) but when it came to drive it was very, very underwhelming. 155Bhp from a 2.2 lump wasn't exactly stellar- it's neither fast, torquey nor particularly economical for the performance, plus it sounded pretty bad too.

I decided to save and look at something German as most of their 2.0 litre diesels put 180-190bhp and those arn't even the "performance" models. The ST just wasn't going to cut the mustard as anything more than a pretender. Of course you can look at remaps but the 2.2 is supposed to be quite fragile (timing belts IIRC).

Oddly like Peter450 I ended up with an Alfa 159 - 210bhp (standard) from a characterful 2.4 5 pot was too good to resist.

[anonymous-user]

CalNaughtonJnr said:

I apologise profusely for lowering the tone, but what is the diesel ST like?

Gruff, slow, troublesome like most diesel engines of that era. It only has 150bhp so diesel WHOOSH factor aside it's more comparable to a 2 litre petrol engine but with more soot.

[mull1974]

Love these and IMHO this shape Mondeo is one of the best Ford's of the modern era, the new ones don't have a patch on it and I currently drive one of the all new ones.

I had lots of these in various spec and engine tune over the years as company cars but after watching the Clarkson Top Gear review on it and it's rarity I bit the bullet and ordered a Black hatch 220 with red and black leather.

Took it on a family holiday on its first run down the M5 and had my pride crushed as I saw 3 others :-( that said it was glorious but very thirsty, nearly burned the clutch out at a Safari Park down Dorchester way in it crawling stop start.

Great memories and have often tried to convince my wife to chop her SAAB 9-5 for one of these.

[jason61c]

If it was priced right ideal SOTW.

[HB2K]

Another fan here, though I've never been in one. Just like the look of them and the Q-car factor. IMHO a rare example of where the saloon looks better than the estate. I might be alone in that, though...

[Fastdruid]

I considered one but ended up with the even rarer and even stealthier Mondeo Titanium X Turbo Estate (ie the Mk4).
Quicker than the ST220, better on fuel and while not a V6 still an interesting 5-pot turbo.

[morgs_]

Lordivanhoe said:

I absolutely agree. The ST220 is a great car - I had a dark silver grey hatch with the red leather upholstery (which looks less vivid in reality!), and I loved it. I parted with it due to getting a new job which came with a company car, making it surplus to requirements (and it was rather thirsty for the long commute!), but I wish I still had it and occasionally still 'window shop' for a replacement. The mobile bordello (as my friends christened it) was great for surprising premium brand drivers, and that V6 was sooooo smooth.. one day, I'll have one again - I just hope this article doesn't start pushing these prices up to silly levels too!!

Top lurking!

These still look great to my eye and I think the almost Q car approach is a big part of that.

[Bladedancer]

"nobody wants saloons".
The fact the car in the ad is an estate aside, I think that is just not true.
Cupra R estate, Golf R estate, Focus ST estate are what I'm hoping is return of (relatively) cheap performance estate (and hopefully saloons too) as people wake up from the SUV nightmare.

Sure SUV market will grow because there are plenty of people who think they need one because everybody they know has one.
That lemming-like group aside, you still have plenty of people who would like something practical that drives nice.

I find myself in need of an estate car and behold, my choices are mostly limited to diesels of various makes. And if you want something that can shift, you're stuck with the Germans and various 3-ish liter diesels they made. Odd petrol powered car does come along but they are severely outnumbered by the clonk-clonk crowd.
So going beyond that, odd Mondeo ST220 or 2.5T, V70R, Saab 95 Aero or Insignia VXR do come round, but they are few and far between. And most of them approach their 10th or so birthday (apart from Insignia obviously).

[Witchfinder]

Don't worry about the red leather, I had it in my ST220 and it looks nowhere near as garish in real life as it does in photographs. Everyone loved it. I had the hatchback, and it was a wonderful car, if a tad thirsty.

Early, pre-facelift cars with the 5-speed gearbox are best avoided. Other than that, it's the usual Mondeo stuff - water ingress inside the doors leading to rust, rear subframe bushes, etc...