RE: Ford Mondeo ST220 | Shed of the Week

[BJH_1997]

I have one of these but in diesel format and I absolutely love it. Some people have issues with the TDCIs but over 20k miles mine has been spot on. Boot is huge and rear seats can fold down flat. Handsome in my opinion, fast enough and handles better than other similar sized, FWD cars I've driven. I'm always looking at other cars to replace it with but I can't really think of anything that'd be better for the price.

[J4CKO]

Find that more appealing than I thought I would. It looks really well in black on those wheels, got a quiet purposefulness about it.

These model Mondeos are now out of the shed realm by and large as they have largely died off as the youngest example is 15 years old, still see the odd one but are a comparatively rare sight. I had a 1.8 LX in about 2000, about as dull as they get but it was so competent and nice to drive, stupidly sold it to get a Fiat Coupe Turbo which turned out to be a poor example.

Wont be super fast by modern standards, like I said last week about the BMW 523i, these old school N/A sixes, though pleasant are a relic of a bygone era but this will be a bit pokier than the BMW being more powerful, lighter and not saddled with an auto box.

Yeah, good shed this, though looks too good to be called a shed, on the cusp of being a classic really, if folk go mad for ropey old Cortinas then this deserves its place in the sun.

[SteveStrange]

"It's only done 104k miles"

Photo literally shows 105,005 miles.

[Al U]

With this car when looking at the saloon and hatchback version from the outside, is the only visible difference that it tells you it's a hatchback the fact it has a rear wiper and rear washer jet?

[Dombilano]

Al U said:

With this car when looking at the saloon and hatchback version from the outside, is the only visible difference that it tells you it's a hatchback the fact it has a rear wiper and rear washer jet?

Saloon has a pronounced boot, classic 3 box

[Richard-390a0]

Certainly one of the better SOTW's

[cerb4.5lee]

Tiglon said:

Numeric said:

Some of the Fords of this era were just such good cars.

I used to drive a lot of different stuff and I often used to lament that people would rather a poverty 318i that could barely accelerate (low powered BMW never make sense to me) with sad M badges cos they had the M-pack rather than something like this, or if the diesel you could get say the Ghia x estate which was a another great car rather than the seemingly ubiquitous low powered A4 Avant.

But they did and here we are with Ford seemingly giving up in so many areas. Shows I knew little about motivations I guess.

With you on this - if you can't afford 6 cylinders, it's a waste of money getting a BMW.

Decent shed this, I'd be tempted.

I'm another one who prefers a higher spec Ford with a nice engine, rather than a low spec BMW with a crap engine. My 520d taught me that you're wasting your money on a BMW if you don't buy one with a decent engine in it as well.

[cerb4.5lee]

Dombilano said:

Al U said:

With this car when looking at the saloon and hatchback version from the outside, is the only visible difference that it tells you it's a hatchback the fact it has a rear wiper and rear washer jet?

Saloon has a pronounced boot, classic 3 box

I was going to say the same and you can see the difference between the two I reckon. I'm personally not much of a saloon fan, and I prefer a hatchback. The Mondeos I've had were great all round cars for me, and I'd happily have another one.

[dunnoreally]

I'm rather partial to this gen of Mondeo as an anonymous motorway cruiser. Mine would be a Ghia X auto, though, for maximum discrete long-range comfiness.

[greenarrow]

Tiglon said:

Numeric said:

Some of the Fords of this era were just such good cars.

I used to drive a lot of different stuff and I often used to lament that people would rather a poverty 318i that could barely accelerate (low powered BMW never make sense to me) with sad M badges cos they had the M-pack rather than something like this, or if the diesel you could get say the Ghia x estate which was a another great car rather than the seemingly ubiquitous low powered A4 Avant.

But they did and here we are with Ford seemingly giving up in so many areas. Shows I knew little about motivations I guess.

With you on this - if you can't afford 6 cylinders, it's a waste of money getting a BMW.

Decent shed this, I'd be tempted.

Can't agree with this (and yes I do own a 4 Cyl BMW) because even with a "poverty spec" 3 series, you still get a superbly balanced RWD chassis and with less weight over the front wheels, arguably a more nimble car than the six cylinder variants.

With that out of the way, I really like this weeks SOTW. I've always had a big soft spot for the ST Mondeos. The ST220 was proven by Car Magazine back in the day to be able to do a genuine 150 MPH and I just think its a good looking car. Great RPJ era Ford chassis too, optimised for British roads. Having owned 3 late 90s/early 00s era Fords, I do feel they were the high point for that marque. All drove fantastically well for what they were.

So a big thumbs up from me.

[Wab1974uk]

Always like these, and the ST24 before that.

Never owned one, but enquired about an ST24 when they were new. I was early 20's and clearly the dealer didn't consider me a serious buyer, and never got back to me with the figures.

I do like V6 engine cars.

[Ultrafunkula]

Very nearly had one of these in blue about ten years ago, but got the Focus ST 2.5 instead... It was very close though.
The Mondeo ST's look better in the flesh for sure, they are quite chunky.

[Rat_Fink_67]

I had a saloon for a few years and it was a great car. Freshening up the suspension with some Sachs dampers and H&R springs restored the handling nicely, and the cat-back exhaust sounded lovely too. It had climate control, heated leather seats, sat nav, cruise control and everything you really need from a car, and ate up the miles effortlessly.

An underrated performance Ford.

[cerb4.5lee]

dunnoreally said:

I'm rather partial to this gen of Mondeo as an anonymous motorway cruiser. Mine would be a Ghia X auto, though, for maximum discrete long-range comfiness.

I think that you can get a 3.0 V6 Ghia X in this generation, and that would make a lovely shed in many ways I reckon. I'd still go in the direction of a manual gearbox though, because auto gearboxes from that era seemed to really hurt the performance of the engine if I remember correctly.

I remember the E90 330i auto being a fair bit slower than the manual equivalent as well.

[Fastdruid]

greenarrow said:

Tiglon said:

Numeric said:

Some of the Fords of this era were just such good cars.

I used to drive a lot of different stuff and I often used to lament that people would rather a poverty 318i that could barely accelerate (low powered BMW never make sense to me) with sad M badges cos they had the M-pack rather than something like this, or if the diesel you could get say the Ghia x estate which was a another great car rather than the seemingly ubiquitous low powered A4 Avant.

But they did and here we are with Ford seemingly giving up in so many areas. Shows I knew little about motivations I guess.

With you on this - if you can't afford 6 cylinders, it's a waste of money getting a BMW.

Decent shed this, I'd be tempted.

Can't agree with this (and yes I do own a 4 Cyl BMW) because even with a "poverty spec" 3 series, you still get a superbly balanced RWD chassis and with less weight over the front wheels, arguably a more nimble car than the six cylinder variants.

Top gear did a test of the boggo 2l rep cars. amongst others there was a Mk3 Mondeo 2.0i and the more powerful E46 318i

The boggo 2.0i Mondeo was 2 seconds faster round the Top Gear test track than the 318i!

Edited by Fastdruid on Friday 17th March 09:44

[TIGA84]

Great cars, I sold the first UK estate in the country way back when in the days when dealers still did midnight handovers!

I also had the pleasure of sitting next to Tony Trimmer at the Ford Loughborough test track when I was selling them in 02/03 putting one through its paces, they are more capable than you think. Tommy Erdos was also there as a hired hotshoe in the new Focus ST170 which was a similarly enlightening experience through the banking............

I'll take one in Silver with the optional red leather please........

Edited by TIGA84 on Friday 17th March 09:40

[aestivator]

SteveStrange said:

"It's only done 104k miles"

Photo literally shows 105,005 miles.

Oh right, well now I know it's done 1005 miles more than I thought, I'm out.

[TheMilkyBarKid]

I really like these, a good looking car for me. I’ve not driven a 220 but when I was in my 20’s the company I worked for had a couple of Mk 1 Mondeo’s as pool cars, and even with the 2.0 zetec I remember them driving really nicely, especially on the motorway.

In fact I narrowly escaped a ban in one of those pool cars on one trip up a deserted M6 through Cumbria one Sunday afternoon as we had a job on in Northumberland on the Monday, so I drove up the day before ready to start first thing on the Monday.

It was a clear dry day and I have vivid (and traumatic) memories of a red Vauxhall Omega coming up quickly from behind me. At the time I thought ‘blimey he’s shifting cos I’m doing nearly a ton’. And then he put the lights behind the grille on….

[Fastdruid]

Shed said:

The best way to look at our Shed would be as a project, er, Shed. The proven ability of old specialist Fords to appreciate in value, plus the low mileage, plus the fact that this car turned out to be the last fast Ford family saloon, plus the fact that only 4,600 or so ST220 estates, saloons and hatches were made in total, all suggest to Shed that it really is worth saving.

Erm are we forgetting about the later Mk4 Mondeo 2.5T here?

Sure, the ST220 was the last Mondeo with an ST badge but the 2.5T was an ST in all but badge, using the same engine as the Focus ST with better handling than the Mk3 Mondeo, quicker than some variants of the ST220 and massively so with a remap. In Australia they badged the Focus ST as the XR5 Turbo and the Mondeo 2.5T as the Mondeo XR5 Turbo.

You could argue it didn't have the special sports suspension that the Mk3 ST220 did...but then again, neither did the Mk3 STD as standard (it was optional).

Edited by Fastdruid on Friday 17th March 09:46

[Deranged Rover]

Lovely car and well worth a punt I'd say.

I really wanted one a few years back but couldn't find one that wasn't (appropriately) a shed, so went for a 3.0V6 Ghia X instead. Same engine, albeit with 20bhp less, same six speed manual, but softer suspension, tyres that didn't resemble o-rings and more wood inside.

Absolutely loved that car and it was fast, comfortable, reliable and great to drive. I even managed to get 42mpg out of it once when I was really early to collect Mrs D.R. from a flight so just set the cruise control to 65mph all the way up the M3 to Heathrow. I'd happily have another one.

However, after mtwo years of ownership, I came to the inescapable conclusion that sensible, economical, reliable, great handling and cheap to maintain cars were just not my thing, so I sold it and bought a Range Rover...