the million(artistic licence) mile Mondeo Taxi

[Glasgowrob]

ChocolateFrog said:

You must drive it quite hard to get through a set of pads so quickly?

I assumed most of your miles would be schelping up and down the motorway.

lets just say theres many spirited runs up and down the A and B roads around the west of Scotland, either on route to a job or on the way back, off up to Ardfern on Sunday morning that's always a good spirited drive.


no faults to report so far, if anything seems like its going to be a nice reliable car. (watch this space now I've said that) certainly does seem to have loosened off rather nicely since I got it though, pulls cleanly to just under 5k quite happily and certainly feels more capable than the stats suggest, a bit of testing also proved Fords book figures are somewhat conservative too

[Glasgowrob]

It's finally clicked

Had a very empty A83 this morning and decided to push on a bit The big bus and I have finally hit it off she just soaks it up and certainly flatters an average driver




❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[Glasgowrob]

Currently sat at a longterm of 42.42 mpg

That's real world figures done fill to fill using an app called road trip
Personally would love to get it up to 50mpg but that would require a huge change in use and driving style



The best I've seen out a tank was 48 and that was a full tank on the motorway
Albeit mixed driving. very inefficient on cruise at anything about 65 despite 70mph being under 2000
RPM in 6th

Edited by Glasgowrob on Sunday 16th October 19:58

[Glasgowrob]

in terms of mpg bear in mind it does a lot of urban work in between those mega jaunts across country,

a lead right foot and an enthusiasm for driving doesn't help matters much either, recent trip up to ardfern was a perfect example of poor mpg being the result of an enthusiastic empty run up empty Scottish A and B roads does tend to bring out the worst in me.


will try and keep a tab on one of my fills this week and really try not to drive in a spirited fashion see if I can crack 50mpg.



sure a few tweaks here and there might help the mpg

[Glasgowrob]

tyres get changed as and when required,


ie yesterday


40902 2x uniroyal rainsports (rear)

29-05 10117 miles Oil service
04-07 18826 miles Full service
07-07 19305 miles 2 front tyres (2x Uniroyal Rainsports)
11-08 27808 miles Oil Service
19-08 New Windscreen and ADAS calibration.
26-08 30862 miles Taxi Test - Pass (woot)
27-09 37335 miles 2 front tyres (2x Uniroyal Rainsports)
03-10 38339 miles full service and a set of front pads, £70 for a set of genuine Ford front pads ouch
18-10 40902 miles 2 x rear tyres 2x Uniroyal Rainsports

[Glasgowrob]

And guess who I bumped into again



have first refusal if she comes up for sale, although a rusty Omega and 2 Mondeo estates might be testing the wifes patience a bit


lots of pics tomorrow off to Elgin on a nice little job

Edited by Glasgowrob on Wednesday 19th October 20:42

[Glasgowrob]

well no pics from Elgin due to time constraints

43k miles now

So here's a pic from exciting Glasgow with a conscious effort to not photograph left handed for the upside down pics

Edited by Glasgowrob on Wednesday 26th October 18:59

[Glasgowrob]

On 52k now

That said I've deliberately driven sensibly this tank and 300 miles in I'm showing an indicated 59.7mpg
I've not had a harsh acceleration or broke a speed limit all day

[Glasgowrob]

and a bit of an update and its a biggy.


first on the service front

29-05 10117 miles Oil service
04-07 18826 miles Full service
07-07 19305 miles 2 front tyres (2x Uniroyal Rainsports)
11-08 27808 milesOil Service
19-08 New Windscreen and ADAS calibration.
26-08 30862 miles Taxi Test - Pass (woot)
27-09 37335 miles 2 front tyres (2x Unroyal Rainsports)
03-10 38339 miles full service and a set of front pads,
18-10 40902 miles 2 x rear tyres 2x Uniroyal Rainsports
29-11 49412 oil service,
02-01 55197 miles 2x Bridgestone potenzas on the font.
14-02 62038 Full service and 2x front tyres (Rainsports)




and now onto the bad news, its broken.

had a visit to the local dealer last week for excessive play in the driveshafts. which is fine all covered under warranty no issue apart from taking a day to diagnose and then waiting 7-10 days for the parts to come into stock.

fast forward to this week and its broken down



cuts out wont start so dragged into the local dealer again by the AA on Tuesday morning. fast forward to today the dealer is now saying that its not under warranty. for reference the car is on 65k miles and 10 month old.



maybe its just me reading it wrong but I read unlimited as "unlimited" not 60k miles so off the road for a decent length of time, they cant seem to be bothered to honour their own warranty terms and people wonder why main dealers get a bad reputation.

time for a bh at ford customer relations

[Glasgowrob]

eltax91 said:

What are you doing in the gap rob? I take it a licensed Private Hire vehicle isn't easy to come by? You can't just borrow one from the dealer....

sitting with my thumb well and truly shoved up my backside

EJH said:

Have they advised why they don't consider the car to be within warranty? The first year looks, as you say, to be unlimited mileage and I can't see any exclusions covering "hire or reward," etc.

long story short dealer talking bks, now insist that my warranty was upgraded seemingly to 100k at point of sale, never mind what ford say on their website. Ford CRC absolutely useless and don't have a clue either buck passing saying well we can only go with what the dealer says and what the website says but wont tell me which it is

battered said:

Rob, did I see you in a queue in Glasgow last Friday on the M8? I was heading east at about 3.30pm, there was a blue Mondeo estate taxi, Glasgow authority on the yellow plate, 16 plate, with a PH sticker top L of the rear tailgate.
.

its supposed to be black but yep that sounds pretty much spot only mk5 Mondeo estate on Glasgow plates atm and yep sparkly pistonheads sticker on the tailgate (probably against Glasgow city council policy but that's another story for another day

ChocolateFrog said:

How come the Bridgestone's only lasted 7000 miles?

really didn't rate them was very unhappy with the handling and the feel, although that may have partially been down the buggered driveshafts that are also supposed to be replaced this week( funnily enough no issue with these under warranty at 63k


update as of today, Dealer still no further forward, car was pored over by both the dealers "master" tech and the regional Ford field engineer yesterday afternoon who don't know whats wrong. last I've been told is that theres nothing they can do until they have done an injector leakdown test. seemingly they had to order an injector leakdown test kit in. utterly gobsmacked that a very large and busy main dealer doesn't A have one or B the nous to put one together. so not moving until at least Monday by which time it will be a borked injector i'd imagine then an extra few days to order one in. and people are confused with my aversion of main dealers.

just means I get to put my feet up for a bit would have been nice for a couple of days but more than that it starts getting worrying that your source of income is off the road and the "experts" are stumped and sitting on their hands

Edited by Glasgowrob on Friday 3rd March 21:34

[Glasgowrob]

David87 said:

Did they fix it in the end? Love this thread!

Fixed is such an open ended term, it came out with. Ore problems than it went in

Fuel pump changed after 5 1/2 weeks in the dealers and came out with 8 litres of oil which is just over 2 litres too much loose hub nuts and some borked wheel studs lesson learned never let a Ford master tech near it again

On 76k miles now will do a mini roundup later when I get a chance

[Glasgowrob]

certainly not in my good books atm,

died yesterday thanks to a failed overrunning alternator pulley.

hats off to the lads down at KP autos though despite parts not being available from Ford (be it pulley or an alternator being in stock) back on the road within hours with the use of some bits robbed from a spare Skoda

2nd breakdown so far, 2 strikes Mondeo

Edited by Glasgowrob on Monday 12th June 21:40

[Glasgowrob]

battery light came on 5 miles from dropping my passenger off, said nothing and crossed my fingers


thankfully made it but not much further and that was sticking the aircon off straight away. lost power steering within minutes



your right though the mk4s are built like tanks, these well lets just say specced by beancounters

[Glasgowrob]

82k now

[Glasgowrob]

interestingly enough Ford wont sell you a pulley separate, you have to buy a complete alternator.

[Glasgowrob]

Zad said:

This is what worries me about Ford now. Beancounters nearly killed Ford in the early 1990s with the Mk4/5 Escort era and it's drift into mediocrity. Fortunately Richard Parry-Jones made them see the light, development became engineer-led and we ended up with the Focus, Mondeo, Puma etc. As a result, Ford as a whole was still profitable when GM etc were losing billions. Slowly though, the managers, accountants, finance people and focus groups have insinuated their way back in. The result being that everything now seems to be developed in the US, to the lowest possible cost. I suspect they now engineer cars to fail at around 70k miles, which is just after the point when most fleets get refreshed. And sod the next owner, or owner/driver who wants to do higher mileage.

All those European chassis people and designers that made cars which really handled, did it reliably, and with a cabin that looked modern an businesslike, seem to have been given the boot.

A few weeks ago when I was looking around for a replacement Mondeo for my dad (never did find the right one, decided just to spend £1k on a new clutch and stuff on his V6) we looked at so many Mk.4/4.5s that looked practically new, even after 8 years and 70,000 miles. They had the feel of an older Mercedes.

the Mk4.5 Mondeo was almost perfect as a load lugger all rounder, handled well drove sharply enough had a decent range of engines and pretty much covered every base.

I rue the day I bought a mk5

[Glasgowrob]

And we're back in the groove 86k and counting

[Glasgowrob]

2007-2014 with a facelift in 2010

2l tdci is the pick of the bunch in my eyes or the 2l petrol turbo if you want to go fast and rev more than 4k

[Glasgowrob]

soon be hitting 100k had a nice round trip to Dornoch today along with some regular work so 800 miles


and as for the mk4 the 2.5t is a pig of an engine liner issues thirsty and apart from the noise not that great all round


the 2l tdci will happily map to 200 bhp return good mpg and is in my opinion (formed over 350k of trouble free miles) bullet proof


the 2,2 tdci 200 is a corker of an engine maps well and put down some decent performance with a few tweaks map and FMIC has been known to see 250 bhp and 375 lbs/ft of torque but they are rare and expensive when they pop up for sale

[Glasgowrob]

Mondeo is now on the rental fleet as I've went full time in the office.

still clocking up miles but nowhere near as many as previously