Help! 135+ motorway miles a week- currently in a Jimmy!

[ZX10R NIN]

We've had Mondeo's as pools cars for the last 7 years & they do exactly what they're supposed to, which is to be a reliable comfortable car but they have the added benefit of being a decent steer too.

Now compared to their petrol 2.0/2.5 Turbo maintenance wise the costs are very similar (around £200-300.00 for a service) OP the only downside with your mileage would be the possibility of your DPF clogging up, it's recommended you change the DMF when replacing the clutch on both petrol & diesel models, so you're left with the extra fuel cost vs the possibility of having to change you DPF.

Now OP to give you a rough guide, I'm using the Mondeo as an example with both Petrol & Diesel being £5.21 a gallon, servicing being nigh on identical & all being Titanium X models the fuel costs over 7000 miles are as follows.

Petrol
2.0 N/A 145bhp £1018.00 + £270.00 Road Tax 35.8 Average mpg 0-60mph 10.9
2.3 N/A 160bhp £1199.67 + £295.00 Road Tax 30.4 Average mpg 0-60mph 10.2
2.5T 220bhp £1199.67 + £295.00 Road Tax 30.4 Average mpg 0-60mph 7.3

Diesel
2.0tdci 140bhp £ 799.68 + £185.00 Road Tax 47.9 Average mpg 0-60mph 10.0
2.2tdci 180bhp £ 761.37 + £185.00 Road Tax 45.6 Average mpg 0-60mph 8.4

Depending on how you drive you'll have better/worse economy than these figures but that's down to the individual.

Personally I'd go for the 2.5T with that lovely 5 cylinder engine plus it's a bit of a sleeper with that extra performance over the diesel but I could see why you'd take a long hard look at the 2.2tdci especially when you'd be saving £510.00 a year which is enough to cover unexpected costs & if you don't have any then your servicing/tyres etc are covered.

[qska]

Super Slo Mo said:

It's nothing massive, just little things like the alternator pulley internal ratchet seizing (the ratchet reduces vibration somehow), air con pump failing, coolant temp sensor failing, MAF failure, console bushes failing. These were all on a Polo. My Superb, which was brand new was generally ok, but it had a number of little electrical gremlins, like the heating would go to max temperature, then all the way back to fully cold first thing, then quite often during a journey it would whizz around to max temperature again and back. My colleague's car, also brand new, had the electric mirror fold stop working.
The wife had a diesel Polo, that was ok mostly, but had to be in with VW every few weeks having the DPF cleaned. She replaced it with a 1.4 petrol, which has been great, and is nearly as good on fuel.

That would drive me nuts, I hate these intermittent issues, especially electrical ones.
We just paid an electrician £600 to find a broken cable in the wife's S-Max' wiring loom (the air con didn't work).

Super Slo Mo said:

My sister in law had a Mondeo diesel, that cost a fortune to keep in good order, and eventually blew the engine. She replaced it with a £2,000 Civic 1.8 which has been faultless (she does 40,000 miles per year), and more or less as economical on fuel.

Interesting - my Mondeos were normally very reliable, although they did require some tinkering skills. The main console was loosening up every few months (needed tightening), some noises here and there, water leaks into boot when opening.

But mechanically, they were great, all of them (3 petrol MKIII and 1 diesel MKIV).

[Super Slo Mo]

To be fair, they serviced it once in 80000 miles and it wasn't a new car to begin with. I'd told them many times they needed to keep on top of routine maintenance but they had to learn the hard way.