Ford Mondeo ST220: Spotted
Rare, practical, fast and cheap - what more do you need from a fast estate?
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.
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...
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.
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
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!
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.
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.
These still look great to my eye and I think the almost Q car approach is a big part of that.
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).
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...
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