RE: Shed of the Week: Ford Mondeo 2.5 Ghia X
Discussion
steve-5snwi said:
I had this car on my watch list, it was up for around 2 weeks and disappeared thursday evening. I'm looking for a shed and this had a good spec but the 2.0 seems to offer better value for money, its not much slower but better on fuel.
The 2.0s aren't any slower but i'm betting they're feeling their age now. I got rid of my 52 plate 2.0 ghia 4 years ago and it was feeling very tired then with a surprising amount of rust. It was always fairly reliable but some bits if bought from Ford where excessively expensive. I was quoted ~£150 for the aux belt tensioner and wheel bearings were about £200. It was never exactly fun to drive but could maintain a decent pace with very little effort, and was considerably better than the competition I drove (Vectra, Laguna and an utterly hateful Avensis)Personally if I wanted the space and pace of a V6 Mondeo with the Ghia X trim I'd go for a 6-speed manual 3-litre version with 200bhp. Still as anonymous as the 2.5 v6 but you'll certainly notice the extra 33bhp and appreciate the extra cog plus it's barely any thirstier rather in the manner of the BMW M52/54 sixes as you go up in capacity
Still in shed budget, a bit newer, if more miles
https://www.gumtree.com/p/ford/2005-ford-mondeo-gh...
Still in shed budget, a bit newer, if more miles
https://www.gumtree.com/p/ford/2005-ford-mondeo-gh...
s m said:
Personally if I wanted the space and pace of a V6 Mondeo with the Ghia X trim I'd go for a 6-speed manual 3-litre version with 200bhp.
These were on my radar early last year when I was looking at swapping my 330i, I absolutely love the rarity of them and I've always appreciated a V6 Mondeo. I was looking at the ST220 at first and then one of these popped up in my search, a seriously rare car.
Car in the ad was overpriced but the mk3 Mondeo was a cracking car that offered great value for money. My dad has owned countless Mondeo’s over the years from the 2.5 V6 Zetec-S to the 3.0 Titanium X and I am on my second ST220. I really miss the old 2.5 and 3.0 V6 offerings that are so smooth in the Mondeo and sadly trying to find a mk4 or mk5 with a decent petrol engine is like a needle in a haystack and they are outnumbered 9-1 by crappy diesels for every 10 advertised.
BFleming said:
njw1 said:
Also, there's no such thing as a 1.8 tdci mk3....
For us non-initiated Dagenham Dustbin Dodgers, what are the various mk's? Mk1 was obviously the 1993 first gen Mondeo. But is the facelift of that the Mk2? Is this shed the Mk2 or the Mk3? Even wikipedia calls this shed the Second Generation (Mk3) which confuses the hell out of me!cerb4.5lee said:
s m said:
Personally if I wanted the space and pace of a V6 Mondeo with the Ghia X trim I'd go for a 6-speed manual 3-litre version with 200bhp.
These were on my radar early last year when I was looking at swapping my 330i, I absolutely love the rarity of them and I've always appreciated a V6 Mondeo. I was looking at the ST220 at first and then one of these popped up in my search, a seriously rare car.
Although like you say, there is always the ST220 3-litre with an extra few bhp
SOTW said:
As noted earlier, the amount of power you got from your schmancy-sounding 24-valve 2.5-litre V6 wasn't that great - just 168bhp. It didn't even break into single figures on the 0-60.
Always intrigues me where they get their performance test figures from? Assumed it would be Autocar
If Ford catalogue, I can only assume it was tested in the snow
Bone Rat said:
Plus points - it had a cavernous boot and was one of the few cars on the market that could take a 4 ft fish tank sideways in the boot. Sounds weird but when taking pets to pet-sitter it was the critical factor. It would swallow 2 full sets of diving equipment without dropping the seats. Vectra, BMW, MB could not beat it at that time.
Wow, Troy McClure is on PH. Who would have guessed?Its funny, I've just come back from Iceland where it was refreshing to see the majority of cars being hacked around in the snow and ice were old Subarus, Toyota Landcruisers and Mitsubishis of various descriptions with very few modern Audis, BMWs and Mercs....reading PH this morning, its like "welcome back to badge snob Britain" judging by some of the comments on here.....
That said, the V6 Mk3 2.5 was always a mystery to me. Contemporary road tests showed that the manual version struggled to beat the boggo 2 litre petrol to 60 MPH and was about 2 secs faster to 100 MPH. In gear acceleration inferior to the 130 BHP TDCI, never mind the 2.2 TDCI....so aside from the "creamy V6" not sure why you'd want this particular motor....
..Also I agree with some comments re the Mk3 Mondeo in general. I always thought it was an over-rated car. A very competent family car, but absolutely not the BMW chasing class leader the motoring press would have you believe. Yes, it steered sweetly and had a typical snickety Ford gear box, but the brakes were absolutely awful and the diesel version really did feel very nose heavy, even in comparison with other TDIs of the same vintage. Then there was the TDCI engine itself, which suffered a very peaky power delivery. They did go well mind.
I've always had a soft spot for big Fords and Vauxhalls however. Maybe because they are so unappreciated in the UK where the badge is everything. My favourite used to be the old Vauxhall Carlton CDX from about 1990/91. Such a comfortable roomy car, you could pick up for peanuts for many years. The Ford Mondeo Mk1 2.5 V6 was my favourite of the Ford Mondeo V6s....understated and pretty quick in its time. Who remembers Kenny P from Performance car running one for years? He (and Performance Car) really rated it as I recall.
So I find myself somewhere between the badge snob Ford haters and the Mondeo fans. This particular model is not for me, but if it were an ST220, I'd be very tempted.
Lots to like about this Shed, depending on what you are looking for.
If an older car still performs well enough in its preferred environment then it's doing a good job IMO - in this case, providing ample performance with more refinement than the thrashy four cylinder Duratecs.
Facelift model too which has better seats and driving position than early Mk3s.
In my experience even leggy Mk3s can feel surprisingly together - this one does seems a little pricey though, and I'd want a manual, otherwise a fine Shed.
If an older car still performs well enough in its preferred environment then it's doing a good job IMO - in this case, providing ample performance with more refinement than the thrashy four cylinder Duratecs.
Facelift model too which has better seats and driving position than early Mk3s.
In my experience even leggy Mk3s can feel surprisingly together - this one does seems a little pricey though, and I'd want a manual, otherwise a fine Shed.
RumbleOfThunder said:
HardMiles said:
daveco said:
Why so little hp when other manufacturers such as Honda and Toyota were making the same from 1.6 NA units??
Because Ford make non-aspirational, cheap, under-developed motors for the type of mr Mondeo. He sits in the third lane, because that's easy for him, regardless of travelling at 51mph to conserve fuel.They're utter b
ks. You could buy an e38 / e39 that's been to the sun and back that'd be 1000 x better than this utter bag of wk.C'mon Shed! You can do better than that! I'd rather tread in dog turd!
Onwards sweet Concorde!
EDLT said:
s m said:
Always intrigues me where they get their performance test figures from? Assumed it would be Autocar
If Ford catalogue, I can only assume it was tested in the snow
More like 9 seconds dead in reality. The manual was 8 seconds flat
That's from actual performance tests with timing gear
They stifled the manuals with long gearing compared to this shape 2-litres ......although the V6 revved nearly to 7k whereas the 2-litres was set at 6400
The 2.5 is no ball of fire though but the 60 run and top speed is broadly comparable to BMWs E46 with the 2.5 litre 170bhp six
Car-Matt said:
This was a superb car in its day, probably better to drive than the equivalent model Audi A4/BMW 3 IMO, a very good chassis IMO
Top shedding
For all the children slagging it off, I imagine one day you'll grow up and learn something about actual cars rather than your dads or ones you've read about.
I've got a Mk3 Ghia X sat on my drive now (2006, 100k, paid a grand for it two years ago), also ran another one a few cars back for about four years. They are good handling cars for sure, but not a patch on a similar age 3 series in my opinion (I've had three 3s). Top shedding
For all the children slagging it off, I imagine one day you'll grow up and learn something about actual cars rather than your dads or ones you've read about.
paulmaurice99 said:
I was reading the comments and thinking much the same thing as Alex P.
I also get rather annoyed when people rubbish certain cars because of the badge. I had never run a Ford until I bought a 2005 1.8 LX as a stop-gap winter commuter. It was a 'part-ex to clear' at the garage I'd visited to view what turned out to be a disappointing V70. It seemed a good buy and I needed something quickly, so that was that.
Over 3 years later I still have it, during which time I've put another 70k miles on it.
Do I boast about it to friends? Nope.
Do I get envious glances at the traffic lights? Very funny.
Did I buy it to make people think I'd 'made it' in life? Err, definitely not! (What the hell was that comment about?!).
Does it do exactly what you would want from a car of its type extremely well? Yes. It's a comfortable, reliable, spacious daily driver. It will cruise motorways at 75-90mph all day long, totally stable - it was designed to do that. The Ford chassis and steering also mean it's enjoyable to drive on any decent road. The 1.8 is not exciting, but it's quick enough, does 40mpg, seems durable (mine has 145k on it) and is ideal for the car, partly because these are daily drivers. With the exception of the (non-) heated front screen, everything works. The only other cars I've owned to match this level of durability have been Hondas. The interior on mine is utterly solid, incidentally. I never seem to have a full complement of working headlight/tail-light bulbs though...
Is it my favourite car of all time? Of course not. Does it mean all Fords are good? No. But I have a real soft spot for it because it's served me incredibly well, and I still genuinely enjoy driving it.
Would a 1.8 LX feature as SOTW? I somehow doubt it - even though it's this sort of hard-working do-it-all car that costs nothing to buy that lets many of us justify something else tucked away in the garage. The only reason this one is here is because it's a 2.5 and it's got low mileage, and Shed could attach some sort of narrative to it.
So a bit of a poor showing, Shed, but that doesn't make the Mondeo a bad car.
^ThisI also get rather annoyed when people rubbish certain cars because of the badge. I had never run a Ford until I bought a 2005 1.8 LX as a stop-gap winter commuter. It was a 'part-ex to clear' at the garage I'd visited to view what turned out to be a disappointing V70. It seemed a good buy and I needed something quickly, so that was that.
Over 3 years later I still have it, during which time I've put another 70k miles on it.
Do I boast about it to friends? Nope.
Do I get envious glances at the traffic lights? Very funny.
Did I buy it to make people think I'd 'made it' in life? Err, definitely not! (What the hell was that comment about?!).
Does it do exactly what you would want from a car of its type extremely well? Yes. It's a comfortable, reliable, spacious daily driver. It will cruise motorways at 75-90mph all day long, totally stable - it was designed to do that. The Ford chassis and steering also mean it's enjoyable to drive on any decent road. The 1.8 is not exciting, but it's quick enough, does 40mpg, seems durable (mine has 145k on it) and is ideal for the car, partly because these are daily drivers. With the exception of the (non-) heated front screen, everything works. The only other cars I've owned to match this level of durability have been Hondas. The interior on mine is utterly solid, incidentally. I never seem to have a full complement of working headlight/tail-light bulbs though...
Is it my favourite car of all time? Of course not. Does it mean all Fords are good? No. But I have a real soft spot for it because it's served me incredibly well, and I still genuinely enjoy driving it.
Would a 1.8 LX feature as SOTW? I somehow doubt it - even though it's this sort of hard-working do-it-all car that costs nothing to buy that lets many of us justify something else tucked away in the garage. The only reason this one is here is because it's a 2.5 and it's got low mileage, and Shed could attach some sort of narrative to it.
So a bit of a poor showing, Shed, but that doesn't make the Mondeo a bad car.
I had a 2006 2.0 Zetec manual for about three years, bought for a year or so, but I really struggled to find something better to replace it, unless I was spending much more cash. Took her to just over 100K with more or less no unexpected maintenance (still had a full Ford history when I sold her on as the servicing was so cheap at the main dealer and included RAC cover), she was economical(ish) on a long run, plenty quick enough for most round town driving, and handled really well for the size.
The one thing I had to do which utterly transformed the handling, was replace the s
te tyres that were fitted when I bought her. Replaced with some Bridgestone all-seasons and the difference was night and day.I also enjoyed never having to worry about the bodywork, which was already in a bad way, very refreshing to just not care if you get the odd extra bump or scrape.
steve1965 said:
I've got a Mk3 Ghia X sat on my drive now (2006, 100k, paid a grand for it two years ago), also ran another one a few cars back for about four years. They are good handling cars for sure, but not a patch on a similar age 3 series in my opinion (I've had three 3s).
SubjectiveSee the vid posted where the 143bhp mondeo trounced the 146bhp e36 by 2 seconds?
s m said:
Personally if I wanted the space and pace of a V6 Mondeo with the Ghia X trim I'd go for a 6-speed manual 3-litre version with 200bhp. Still as anonymous as the 2.5 v6 but you'll certainly notice the extra 33bhp and appreciate the extra cog plus it's barely any thirstier rather in the manner of the BMW M52/54 sixes as you go up in capacity
Still in shed budget, a bit newer, if more miles
https://www.gumtree.com/p/ford/2005-ford-mondeo-gh...
That's one very smart looking motor, almost timeless in looks. Car badge snobbery in reverse - love it. Red paint not faded either which is unusual. Rather have that on my drive than any BMW. Still in shed budget, a bit newer, if more miles
https://www.gumtree.com/p/ford/2005-ford-mondeo-gh...
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