Ford Mondeo V6 | Shed of the Week
The Ghia with the Duratec 30 was a thinking man's ST200. Does it make for a thinking man's shed in 2023...
A quick one for the petrol-swiggers this week, one of the very last second-generation (or mark three, if you insist) Mondeos with a daft-sized engine. Don't dismiss it just yet though, this one is a bit special.
First, some basic facts. It's a Mondeo hatchback, so you get that car’s highly desirable boot hugeness. The Duratec 30 legend on the engine cover tells us it's the big daddy 2,967cc V6, which in non-ST200 Mondeo spec means 201hp and 206lb ft of torque.
That makes it good for nearly the same mid-7-second 0-60 time and not far off the same top speed (149mph vs 155mph) as the ST200, a car with 21 more horsepower but the same torque. The 3.0-litre’s combined fuel consumption was old-school at 27mpg. You could doubtless swap that 2 for a 1 without too much effort and without making much difference to your journey times.
The Ghia X badge tells us it's the top spec, which means leather, wood and all the usual toys including heated front seats plus in this particular case a sunroof. Most if not all Mondeos of this vintage had Ford's Quickclear windscreen too, which is one of the greatest unsung benefits any car can have.
These facts suggest that the 3.0 Ghia X was a car for the person who liked the idea of the ST200 but maybe not the marketing profile. Sixteen years after the build they don't necessarily tell the story of a great car, but this Steel Blue Ghia X with ebony leather looks like an absolute credit to whoever owned it. Apart from the obvious spangliness not just inside and out but also in the often neglected underbonnet area, it's a low-miler at 89,000. Just 3,000 of those have been done in the last four years.
The care that appears to have been lavished on it is reflected in the fact that the only MOT advisories in the last fifteen years have been for worn tyres (rears 2012, fronts 2015) and a blown bulb and slack handbrake in 2019. In all of his time poring over MOT histories Shed can't recall seeing a better one, and never for a car in this sub-£2,000 price bracket.
As stated by the garage it comes with a squeaky-clean new MOT, a bundle of paperwork and brand-new GoodYears all round. They've done a video on it here which shows an equally immaculate boot space and a thrown-in dash cam. That video suggests the price might be £2,795 with warranty, but as you can see here the published asking price is £1,995, which perhaps is the price without the warranty.
Warranties don't really enter into Shed's life anyway, not at these prices anyway. And certainly not since Mrs Shed tried to claim on the one that went with the vacuum cleaner, not realising that Shed had had an unfortunate accident with it while dry-cleaning the hamster.
While it is not as exciting as your T5 Volvo or as prestigious as your 7er BMW it is just a very nice car, good colour combination, with a very nice interior that looks to have been cared for really well (the most important bit buying a used car, imho). Does it like a drink? Yes, but you'd be surprised to find out it is actually not that much more than your 1.8 4-pot and it sounds nicer and is more civilised.
Dare I say it: certainly one of the finest shed of this year!
This one looks really clean, and I love the spec too. This is a bit of me for definite, however I'd probably moan about the mpg/performance mix in this nowadays though. I didn't like the mpg/performance mix in my E90 330i either for example.
I've also always been a fan of the heated windscreens in Fords too, and weirdly even the Caterham that I have now has one too!
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