RE: Shed of the Week: Ford Mondeo ST220
Discussion
I really like these. Never owned one, never driven one, never been in one, but they look very nice and reports are they handle well.
I looked at buying one several times over the last decade or so. Each time plumping for something else, sometimes stupidly. I was going to London from Hull each weekend and chose a Vectra C 3.2 Elite auto instead once, and then each other time considered as a second car but it was too similar to the car I already had.
If I had the space and the need for a second car (and you could argue that as an E60 M5 owner I have the need
) then I would consider one again. Either blue or black. The red interior looks a nice place to be.
It's a shame in some ways that these didn't get the 2.5 turbo that the Mk4 got.
I looked at buying one several times over the last decade or so. Each time plumping for something else, sometimes stupidly. I was going to London from Hull each weekend and chose a Vectra C 3.2 Elite auto instead once, and then each other time considered as a second car but it was too similar to the car I already had.
If I had the space and the need for a second car (and you could argue that as an E60 M5 owner I have the need
) then I would consider one again. Either blue or black. The red interior looks a nice place to be. It's a shame in some ways that these didn't get the 2.5 turbo that the Mk4 got.
Jimmy Recard said:
Yes, the mk3 Vauxhall Cavalier was the Opel Vectra A 
Irmscher bits on yours too! I think I liked that stuff at the time
but it hasn't aged too well
Yes I bought it like that, loved it at the time, thought I was the mutts! It even had a two tone plastic Irmscher steering wheel Irmscher bits on yours too! I think I liked that stuff at the time
but it hasn't aged too well
. Only kept it for 6 months as a baby came along and we needed some cash so I ended up in a MK3 Mondeo TDCi that was hateful!Bought an st220 estate (2005, 95k miles) in performance blue last august. Done 10,000 miles in it in 9 months.
Things to look out for if you are thinking of buying one:
1) I would ask to see documentary evidence of a clutch change (which mine had) on any car over say 80,000 miles.
If you need to get it done, its an engine out £1500 job with the dual mass flywheel.
2) The standard exhaust is really quiet. Ended up spending £750 on a JP exhausts (recommended) full cat back system.
Negatives:
The indicators. Just touch them and they flash 3 times. Really annoying. Wish there was a way of retrofitting 'normal' indicators.
The engine is a really tight fit in the engine bay. So some jobs that should be straightforward are not. This may be a problem in the future.
(I have not had major expenditure so far in 10,000 miles apart from the exhaust).
General:
The amount of attention that you get on the road is amazing (especially from fiesta and focus st drivers and passengers). Its a nice type of attention too. ie. many drivers have probably never seen one before. Good fun to drive something different to all the BMWs, Mercs and Audis out there.
I do lots of mixed driving and reset the dashboard fuel economy meter every 200 or so miles. The mpg always seems to settle to between 26-28 mpg, which I think is pretty decent for the type of car.
I think that the change of ecu when the model changed to the six speed gearbox must have made a substantial difference to the fuel economy (along with the sixth gear).
The power is developed high up in the rev range. Whilst you can enjoy really revving it and always being in the right gear, I find that in general lots of throttle at low revs in high gears really suits the car. Its a cruiser not a sports car.
It is not a slow car, but it is not a fast car.
Comfy seats.
Nice driving position with good visibility, excellent mirrors with wide field of view.
Light clutch. Quite long throw on the gear lever.
Light steering. Good handling for the size of car.
Average brakes.
Average headlights.
Good maximum lock on the steering makes parking etc easy.
Relatively easy to stall when pulling away from rest if you are not careful. I have seen other owners mention this. Maybe something to do with the ecu, as once moving the engine pulls smoothly from very low revs. eg. Pulling from 800 rpm in fifth gear on medium thottle is easy.
Very spacious interior with the rear seats either up of down, for carrying big things. Deals with heavy loads very well. Very little (out of view) storage space for bits and pieces.
Really eats up the miles in sixth gear on long motorway journeys.
I think it is the best looking estate car on the road, and I always look forward to driving it.
Things to look out for if you are thinking of buying one:
1) I would ask to see documentary evidence of a clutch change (which mine had) on any car over say 80,000 miles.
If you need to get it done, its an engine out £1500 job with the dual mass flywheel.
2) The standard exhaust is really quiet. Ended up spending £750 on a JP exhausts (recommended) full cat back system.
Negatives:
The indicators. Just touch them and they flash 3 times. Really annoying. Wish there was a way of retrofitting 'normal' indicators.
The engine is a really tight fit in the engine bay. So some jobs that should be straightforward are not. This may be a problem in the future.
(I have not had major expenditure so far in 10,000 miles apart from the exhaust).
General:
The amount of attention that you get on the road is amazing (especially from fiesta and focus st drivers and passengers). Its a nice type of attention too. ie. many drivers have probably never seen one before. Good fun to drive something different to all the BMWs, Mercs and Audis out there.
I do lots of mixed driving and reset the dashboard fuel economy meter every 200 or so miles. The mpg always seems to settle to between 26-28 mpg, which I think is pretty decent for the type of car.
I think that the change of ecu when the model changed to the six speed gearbox must have made a substantial difference to the fuel economy (along with the sixth gear).
The power is developed high up in the rev range. Whilst you can enjoy really revving it and always being in the right gear, I find that in general lots of throttle at low revs in high gears really suits the car. Its a cruiser not a sports car.
It is not a slow car, but it is not a fast car.
Comfy seats.
Nice driving position with good visibility, excellent mirrors with wide field of view.
Light clutch. Quite long throw on the gear lever.
Light steering. Good handling for the size of car.
Average brakes.
Average headlights.
Good maximum lock on the steering makes parking etc easy.
Relatively easy to stall when pulling away from rest if you are not careful. I have seen other owners mention this. Maybe something to do with the ecu, as once moving the engine pulls smoothly from very low revs. eg. Pulling from 800 rpm in fifth gear on medium thottle is easy.
Very spacious interior with the rear seats either up of down, for carrying big things. Deals with heavy loads very well. Very little (out of view) storage space for bits and pieces.
Really eats up the miles in sixth gear on long motorway journeys.
I think it is the best looking estate car on the road, and I always look forward to driving it.
For those talking about their poor handling, were you driving the same cars? They must have been broken!
I've never driven an ST Mondeo, but I owned a 2.0 Zetec of this shape for a while.
On one particularly challenging set of twisties locally I drove it far harder than I've ever managed to in anything else. I'd had a blow up with an ex, so it was being driven in utter anger. Rather stupid I know, but it looked after me.
The thing was so well balanced, the steering so talkative.
I've never driven an ST Mondeo, but I owned a 2.0 Zetec of this shape for a while.
On one particularly challenging set of twisties locally I drove it far harder than I've ever managed to in anything else. I'd had a blow up with an ex, so it was being driven in utter anger. Rather stupid I know, but it looked after me.
The thing was so well balanced, the steering so talkative.
Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:
For those talking about their poor handling, were you driving the same cars? They must have been broken!
I've never driven an ST Mondeo, but I owned a 2.0 Zetec of this shape for a while.
On one particularly challenging set of twisties locally I drove it far harder than I've ever managed to in anything else. I'd had a blow up with an ex, so it was being driven in utter anger. Rather stupid I know, but it looked after me.
The thing was so well balanced, the steering so talkative.
Ford knew what they were doing when it came to handling at the time. Both of my Mondeos were absolutely brilliant on a twisty road, I'd say they humbled a few cars I've had for sure. My cheap Mondeos and Focus' actually almost ruined having a sports car for me, because they're so cheap, usable and fun to drive, and they're so throwaway too. I've never driven an ST Mondeo, but I owned a 2.0 Zetec of this shape for a while.
On one particularly challenging set of twisties locally I drove it far harder than I've ever managed to in anything else. I'd had a blow up with an ex, so it was being driven in utter anger. Rather stupid I know, but it looked after me.
The thing was so well balanced, the steering so talkative.
Edit: Is it just me, or are the clutches in MK3 Mondeos very low? Driven around 6 of them and they've all had super low clutches, I assumed for stop/start traffic.
Edited by aaron_2000 on Sunday 28th April 19:24
I ran a 2006 ST220 Estate as my family transport for 11 years. Purchased with 12k on the clock and sold it at 130k. My wife and I always enjoyed driving it - The torque was great, you could be very lazy around town and trickle about in 3rd/4th or could load it to the guwales and cane it across Europe in 6th. But if you wanted to enjoy the 6 cylinder howl, stiring the gearbox was a joy. It truly met the brief as a performance car that could also meet the needs of a growing family (there aren't many performance cars that you can drop a 2m x 1m solid oak table straight into the back of should you ever need to!). The Fuel consumption was truly shocking - Local use never exceeded 15 mpg and on long easy runs I occasionally saw 24 mpg! I've also been running a 2.5 litre Impreza WRX wagon for the last 10 years and this consistently gives 24 -27 mpg. I was always conscious of the sheer weight of the ST220 and this must have contributed to the poor MPG. It also liked to drink plenty of oil. When I first owned it this concerned me, but that's just how it was. However, it meant that using quality oil was unusually costly. Be aware that ST220's registered after March 2006 are liable for the highest rate of car tax - I was paying about £535 per year when I sold mine!
In 10 years it was very reliable and for what it offered was cheap to service. It had a new clutch at 75k, so I had the dual mass flywheel replaced at the same time (It's staggering, but the manager of the local Ford repair workshop argued with me that that the ST220 didn't have a DMF!). Besides that I went through 3 rear wheel bearings and 2 sets of brake discs all round in 130k miles. It was generally heavy on tyres, but also frequently picked up nails and if you were unlucky with London pot holes it would also wreck tyres - Again I suspect the weight combined with the low profile tyres was the issue. The lacquer on the alloys was rubbish - I had 2-sets of alloys and both were destroyed by winter salt (presumably that's why the ST220 shed in question doesn't have ST220 alloys fitted?).
The ST220 estate is a rare beast and in graphite metallic mine was something of a Q-car.... which suited me just fine.
In 10 years it was very reliable and for what it offered was cheap to service. It had a new clutch at 75k, so I had the dual mass flywheel replaced at the same time (It's staggering, but the manager of the local Ford repair workshop argued with me that that the ST220 didn't have a DMF!). Besides that I went through 3 rear wheel bearings and 2 sets of brake discs all round in 130k miles. It was generally heavy on tyres, but also frequently picked up nails and if you were unlucky with London pot holes it would also wreck tyres - Again I suspect the weight combined with the low profile tyres was the issue. The lacquer on the alloys was rubbish - I had 2-sets of alloys and both were destroyed by winter salt (presumably that's why the ST220 shed in question doesn't have ST220 alloys fitted?).
The ST220 estate is a rare beast and in graphite metallic mine was something of a Q-car.... which suited me just fine.
Anyone who says that an ST220 Mondeo doesn't handle well is...what's the word I'm looking for........oh yes - wrong. It baffles me how anyone could criticise the chassis. With about 150k, original dampers and creaking bushes, mine was still a fabulous thing to hustle down any road.
Bit confused about the fuel consumption criticism too to be honest. A turn-of-the-century 3.0-litre V6 was never going to do much more than that, was it?
Bit confused about the fuel consumption criticism too to be honest. A turn-of-the-century 3.0-litre V6 was never going to do much more than that, was it?
apc321 said:
The indicators. Just touch them and they flash 3 times. Really annoying. Wish there was a way of retrofitting 'normal' indicators.
Virtually all cars do this now. It's for changing lanes and is really useful, isn't it? How is it negative? Am I missing something?Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:
For those talking about their poor handling, were you driving the same cars? They must have been broken!
I've never driven an ST Mondeo, but I owned a 2.0 Zetec of this shape for a while.
On one particularly challenging set of twisties locally I drove it far harder than I've ever managed to in anything else. I'd had a blow up with an ex, so it was being driven in utter anger. Rather stupid I know, but it looked after me.
The thing was so well balanced, the steering so talkative.
Mine wasn't broken it just didn't live up to the hype! Talkative steering? Twitchy and prone to Torque Steer would be a better way of describing it.I've never driven an ST Mondeo, but I owned a 2.0 Zetec of this shape for a while.
On one particularly challenging set of twisties locally I drove it far harder than I've ever managed to in anything else. I'd had a blow up with an ex, so it was being driven in utter anger. Rather stupid I know, but it looked after me.
The thing was so well balanced, the steering so talkative.
I had one of these some years ago! Great car, only problems I had were the rims would corrode or deform, meaning I went through several tyres when I didn't watch the pressures with reasonable regularity. Otherwise everything else was rock solid on mine.
Good torque made it punchy enough to enjoy, the hatch was vast so it had plenty of space for mountain bikes and the like, the seats are excellent, and a well featured interior, it did everything for me for what was at the time already an inexpensive car (I bought mine around the £6k mark in I think 2008 or 2009). Also really quite good to drive for a saloon of its size, with sporty suspension and a nice sound - though it did understeer if pushed harder, and the fronts would struggle to put all the power down so it wasn't the best off he line!
Good torque made it punchy enough to enjoy, the hatch was vast so it had plenty of space for mountain bikes and the like, the seats are excellent, and a well featured interior, it did everything for me for what was at the time already an inexpensive car (I bought mine around the £6k mark in I think 2008 or 2009). Also really quite good to drive for a saloon of its size, with sporty suspension and a nice sound - though it did understeer if pushed harder, and the fronts would struggle to put all the power down so it wasn't the best off he line!
Assuming that the ST TDCi is the same suspension as the ST220, I would have liked it to be a bit lower and stiffer than it was. The ST version should be less boat like than it was. The handling was still good, very comfy.
Not an ST220 but I had the the ST TDCi, the brakes are rubbish for the weight of the car. Focus ST Mk2 front brake bolt straight on and just upgrade the disks / pads on the rear.
apc321 said:
The indicators. Just touch them and they flash 3 times. Really annoying. Wish there was a way of retrofitting 'normal' indicators.
Average brakes.
The indicators are most likely the same on all Fords, it is on my Mk2 Focus. It just a light flick on the indicator stalk for 3 flashes or push the stalk up as normal for the 'traditional' constant indicate. They have 'normal' indicators so no need to retrofit anything.Average brakes.
Not an ST220 but I had the the ST TDCi, the brakes are rubbish for the weight of the car. Focus ST Mk2 front brake bolt straight on and just upgrade the disks / pads on the rear.
TheAngryDog said:
I really like these. Never owned one, never driven one, never been in one, but they look very nice and reports are they handle well.
I looked at buying one several times over the last decade or so. Each time plumping for something else, sometimes stupidly. I was going to London from Hull each weekend and chose a Vectra C 3.2 Elite auto instead once, and then each other time considered as a second car but it was too similar to the car I already had.
If I had the space and the need for a second car (and you could argue that as an E60 M5 owner I have the need ) then I would consider one again. Either blue or black. The red interior looks a nice place to be.
It's a shame in some ways that these didn't get the 2.5 turbo that the Mk4 got.
Now here's an odd one. I have the 2.5 Turbo with my Mk4 TXS and while it's a very civilised engine under light throttle it has the oomph when you give it some. But it taps out early. Power keeps coming to redline but you never get there most gears as torque dies after 5,000 rpm quite quickly. It isn't quite diesel-like, yet not as smooth as the 3.0 V6.I looked at buying one several times over the last decade or so. Each time plumping for something else, sometimes stupidly. I was going to London from Hull each weekend and chose a Vectra C 3.2 Elite auto instead once, and then each other time considered as a second car but it was too similar to the car I already had.
If I had the space and the need for a second car (and you could argue that as an E60 M5 owner I have the need
) then I would consider one again. Either blue or black. The red interior looks a nice place to be. It's a shame in some ways that these didn't get the 2.5 turbo that the Mk4 got.
Compare their curves:
All in all, I do love the I5 purr and calm turbo sound (no fancy valves and such my way), but the V6 would have still been magical to have. Shame I slept on the ST220 but I couldn't resist the TXS for its modern wily ways.
I've owned I4s, an I6 and an I5... V6 and V8 yet to come, V12 an unlikely scenario for me...
thebigmacmoomin said:
Assuming that the ST TDCi is the same suspension as the ST220, I would have liked it to be a bit lower and stiffer than it was. The ST version should be less boat like than it was. The handling was still good, very comfy.
Most ST TDCi's had the same suspension set up as all the other diesels, there was a 'special' suspension option which was lower and stiffer.
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