Which Mk3 Mondeo?

[evian]

Hello people,
I'm just looking for some advice.
I'm considering getting a comfy 02/03 Mondeo, for commuting and the occasional drive to France. I'm looking at spending around £5k, but can't decide whether to go for a 130PS TDCi or 2.0L petrol. I'll only be doing around 9-10000 miles per year, so I'm not sure whether it's worth getting the diesel option. Seem to be able to get a newer/lower mileage petrol for the same money. I'm also guessing that the diesel will have more to go wrong with it...turbo etc. If I can get 35 mpg out of the 2.0L petrol I'd be happy with that.

Any buying advice, things I should look out for?

Thanks in advance

[Podie]

The TDCi is a better long distance cruiser in my opinion.

[andy_quantum]

Turbo wont be top of your checklist of things to look out for on the TDCi. Rear subframe bushes, dual mass flywheel, injectors and fuel pump are what'll cost you big time if they go. Bit of a lottery unless there's full history with receipts backing up any warranty / out of warranty work thats been done

Very little experience of the petrol, although looking at the MEG forum (fordmondeo.org) there seem to be a similar amount of problems which would cost less to fix on the petrols

Depends whether you want the diesel vs petrol arguments thrown around again I suppose

Edit - with your budget you'll be able to go past 02/03 plate cars, you should be able to pick up higher miled 54'ers for that sort of money and should have had most of the problems looked at or sorted

Edited by andy_quantum on Tuesday 1st January 20:17

[dern]

We had the same choice for the wife's car and went for the petrol. For us is was partly a matter that she didn't do enough miles to justify the higher price of the diesel, partly that we'd heard plenty of expensive issues with the diesel that I didn't really want to have to deal with and partly because the petrol had been around longer and therefore the choice would be greater. We went for a 2001 ghia-x estate in dark met red with tan leather for 5k from an independent dealer with fsh, mot and 44k miles. She's very happy with it but its lack of pace gets on my tits a bit.

[evian]

Thanks everyone. Looking very much like the petrol makes sense....