... and I said, lets sell carpets in the year 2000...

[cms206]

So, yeah... got a phonecall this morning from a mate.

 

"Just been up past Brian's, he's got quite a tidy looking motor lying. Birnam's are coming this afternoon for it... nip up and have a look."

 

 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why it appears I've inadvertently bought another repmobile. One owner since it was six months old, 102950 miles on the clock, lots of recent bits and pieces including timing belt, two bald tyres, no tax and an MOT that expires one month from now. It also sounds like a CVH when it's cold and it's been romped up the arse at some point and repaired using a half arsed second hand bumper.

 

Ladies and gentlemen... it was undeniably cheap... but what the fuck have I done? And does anyone have any experience of them?

 

[dollywobbler]

Well, not exactly exciting, but decent motors. I'd own one. My only Mondeo Mk1 experience is a pre-facelift diesel with mega-high miles. It was utterly neglected and got to 330k miles before the crankshaft snapped. Was a nice motor for tooling around in.

[tonedepear]

That looks just like mrs_tone's car only a better colour, spec and loads less rusty.

 

And probably a few hundred quid cheaper. Bah.

 

ScaryOldCortina of this parish advises* that the bottom arms are a right bastard.

 

Also the sills and arches rust like bastards and the clutches are a nasty job.

 

*having just done one on mrs_tone's, along with 2 new sills for it's MOT

 

They're nice enough in my experience fo sho, I had one a few years back which was broadly identical to mrs_tone's. From the pictures your one looks broadly better than most tbh.

[oman5]

Yes, I've had one. The only reason I got rid of mine was it was so capable it was bordering on being dull.

102k on the clock is peanuts wether its a zetec or the diesel, both will sail past 200k easily. They do have timing belts to change, arches can rust, front subframe and wishbone bushes can wear. bumpers damage easily and replacement in the right colour is hard.

A pretty safe bet though, they handle very well, plenty of space,the 2.0 is quite pokey but slightly thirsty, 1.8 a bit sluggish, but I'd happily have another.

I also briefly loaned a 1.8 td which was ok, same engine as the old sierra td but intercooled and the same very narrow power band. the one I drove had 280k on the clock, although I have heard injector pumps can fail and its an expensive job.

[cms206]

Cheers for your comments so far guys - the other alloy is in the boot with a new tyre on it, and the stereo had been removed but was supplied with code. The only thing that really worries me is that it sounds bloody tappety, but doesn't seem to have any backpressure and the oil has now been topped up. It was putting out white smoke when I picked it up, but it's cleared by this evening.

 

Aircon seems to work, electric seat adjustment works, all of the back and 2/3rds of the front heated windscreen work, poked and prodded everything and it seems fairly solid, if a bit grotty. Looks to have had a new exhaust recently too. Front tyres are bald as a coot right enough so I can't really comment on handling, and one of the wheel bearings is rumbling I think. Brakes are shite but I'm used to that with the Cavaliers. Seems a thoroughly decent place to spend some time, to be honest.

 

It was registered in January 2001 so probably quite late for one of these ones too?

 

Oh yeah... was I ripped off for £200... ?

[MK5 Escort]

I've had no experience of the petrols in these, but driven numerous diesel examples - including two hatchback 'X' plates in the company I used to work for.

 

I find them very comfortable things to drive and from my experience find the suspension more forgiving than the model that replaced. Handle well and the examples I driven also had excellent gearboxes.

 

In terms of reliability, the only real issue they all seemed to have was eating through wishbones. Other than that, I only ever recall these Mondeo's going in for routine servicing and regardless of the way they were treated, just seemed to plod on and on. I remember one had to go in for a new water pump at about 140k but that was about it.

 

This reminds me. One of the X plates, the most battered one, developed a very odd fault that I don’t think was ever diagnosed. You'll be driving along and at random (sometimes it wouldn’t happen for days on end, sometimes it would happen three or four times in the space of ten miles) it would develop a very odd 'kick back'. Not from the engine (you could just feel ‘it’ through the steering wheel), but you could hear a metallic ‘clack’ sound up front and you’d physically feel the car ‘jolt’ back a little as if it had very briefly been 'held back' - then all was well again...

 

No, you weren't ripped off for £200. Worst come to the worst, I'd expect around that figure back for it in terms of scrap, unless I'm now out of date with scrap prices. What I would say though about it which my eyes were immediately drawn to were the scruffy alloys - no offence! It is a pretty late one and there are a handful out there on 'Y' plates. Those two 'X' plates that I'm discussing were December 2000 registered from memory and had to be sourced from a dealer somewhere near Stoke given the area tags ('BF'). Barring one other vehicle, they were the only vehicles in that firm which weren't either Chester or Liverpool registered in the nine years I worked there.

[Cavcraft]

I see no parcel tape.

[RoadworkUK]

That's a terrific car, and embarassingly cheap for what it can do.

 

Ford could have got away with making the Mk1 and 2 a good 20% more shit, and still sold zillions of them. Everybody has heard it before, but they really did drive superbly. This was one of the first fruits of the Ford Ride and Handling Revolution of the '90s. It was a great chassis, and it says quite a lot that the V6 was better to drive, and faster than the V6 Probe of the same age.

 

In road tests of the era the Mondeo, 406, Xantia and Laguna were at the top of the pack, the Primera close behind and the Vectra, Carina, 626 et al comfortably behind. Since then the Mondeo has held pretty much the same position, possibly with even more of a lead now that the Primera, Laguna and C5 are dead ducks.

 

The Zetec is arguably the best of the bunch, with those Cosworth style wheels, sports suspension, A/C, etc, they had most of the features that sales-reps everywhere wanted. It sold brilliantly to them for the same reason that the outside lane these days is full of A4 S-Lines.

 

Top Buy. It's a shame these are thought of as near-landfill now, somebody needs to keep some good ones for prosperity.

[Cavcraft]

Serious question: Have you checked the oil level? I found the Zetecs do like to rattle a bit if they're low on oil but once topped up it seems to go away.

[cort16]

Seems good for 200 quid to me. I've got a bit of a soft spot for these for no explicable reason.

Could it be a bit gunked up and it's taking time to fill the hydraulic tappeyt (I presume these have them).

Could be worth an oil flush and oil change OR turn the stereo up when you start it up as it's a 200 quid car.

[eddyramrod]

That looks like a perfectly acceptable way to get to work, for the price. Well done! If it'll MoT once, and you run that out, you're in profit.

[CIH]

Like late escorts they almost always seem to need discs and pads and wishbones.

Some had absurdly contrived exhausts with two back boxes and several feet of exhange piping lol.

 

I think cdlutches are supposed to be an absolute arse too ?

 

I've been giving that brown mk1 estate the eye for a little while now.

[AnthonyG]

That seem's OK, certainly for £200. I can't add anything to what's been said before, except I've had several Mk1/2 Mondeos and really rate them. The Mk2s are definitely worse for rust than the Mk1s, they must have cheapened the paint or some other aspect of the protection around the sills and rear arches.

 

Zetec engines are usually pretty bombproof, I'd give it a oil change and then take it for a good run before doing anything else. They are quite noisy by 2012 standards, although they shouldn't sound like an old CVH. At least it's easy to take the top cam covers off and have a look.

[CreepingJesus]

Can't argue for £200. Well I could, but I can't find anyone willing to see me £200 to argue with fresh air about nothing at all.

Anyhow, good motors these: I still miss my MK1.

Sadly they eat front wishbones and wheelbearings for fun, and it's often a bastard of a job to remove them. OEM or Motorcraft, it matters not - I never saw more than 2 MOT's worth out of either. The rear suspension's great in use, but a pig to fix. Thankfully it lasts longer than the front.

Clutches are a 6-hr job, which kills most of the cheap Mondeos. And there's really no way round it; it's the titanic struggle to dismantle half the fucking front end to get the engine and box separated that creates the problems.

If it's tappety, check it's got enough of the right oil in - 5W30 stuff. Anything much heavier makes 'em run sick quite quickly. Having said that, the very occasional one was just tappety, and that was all there was to it. Had one come into the workshop from a Ford Direct customer which was like that. Despite rebuilding the cylinder head twice, it refused to shut the fuck up, but ran fine. Never did get to the bottom of that one...

[retrogeezer]

Had our 96 P Mk2 2.0 Ghia nearly 5years now and it's bloody great car. Nice to drive, smooth, quiet, economical . As said above, does things so well it is almost boring but if you are on a budget they are brilliant family cars.

 

Oh, and mine has that ridiculous exhaust with 2 back boxes....I cable tied 2 of the pipes up as they re too heavy for the poxy rubber mounts.

[Pete-M]

I've never owned this shape Mondeo, but I've driven hundreds of 'em and quite like 'em when they're in decent fettle.

 

The diesel isn't wonderful*, but the 1.8 and 2.0 petrol engines do the job just fine. Nowt wrong with 'em. 2.5 V6 sounds quite nice, goes reasonably well, drinks about the same amount of fuel as Apollo 13.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*I feel forbidden to point out that the diesel is rather agricultural, lest the AS Gestapo get shouty again...

[Lord Sterling]

Thats done well to have no gaffa-tape on the bumpers, and not even a single crack even! Possibly the only Mondano I've seen like that (Well, there was my neighbours gaffa-tapeless bumpered Mondeo)

 

They dont seem too bad, they seem to drive nicely enough and seem pretty good at being an everyday car, they're certainly still popular around here, though most of them have gaffa-taped bumpers. Your example will certainly clean up well, there more good points in that than bad by the sounds of things, it deserves to live on.

[R9UKE]

Scrap is at £165/tonne, so at £200 you're laughing!

 

I'm still after one of these myself. A nice Ghia X Auto me thinks. Also can't quite believe the condition of the bumpers on that thing!!! Don't so much as breathe on them if you want to keep gaffa tape off your shopping list

[Pillock]

I had a mk1 1.8 Verona. Wasn't thrilling but did the job, eventually the high cost of a clutch resulted in it mounting a beavertail and heading off to a breaker. It had a clutch a month before at £650 but then seemingly shat hydraulic fluid all over it.

Bottom arms are indeed woefully poor and will need doing for every MoT if you're doing decent mileage.

Interior will sag and creak but stay in one piece.

The remote fuel flap release will snap and leave you having to pry the flap open.

 

Like I said.... it was transport and not much else. Not bad for a £200 runner though!

[trigger]

My Old Ford Mondeo 1.8 Verona by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

 

I really rate old Mondeos having owned two Mk2's, a Mk1 and currently driving a Mk3. I bought this one above about 2006 time, It had been sat in a garden for a year, I ended up paying £250 for it, It needed a new windscreen and a sill fitted for the mot which ended up costing another £250 but it ended up being a brilliant car, It cleaned up really well and drove fab, after 8-10 months i flogged it to my mates brother for £800, it lasted until last year were it got written off in a crash with over 200k on the clock.

[cms206]

Cheers guys...

 

The MOT is up the day before my birthday (durr ); it's rooked me buying the bloody thing so piggybank is getting weighed in at the bank tomorrow, see if I can rustle up some part worns for the front, get the other alloy back on, tax it and run it until then before making a decision. If it fails miserably I'll re-evaluate, but it doesn't seem too bad and it's a pretty comfortable place to spend some time. The rumbly wheel bearing, knocking and general tappetyness worries me, but we shall see how it performs.

 

It also has heaters, which the Cavalier doesn't. Now need to find somewhere to put the Cavalier...

[Cavcraft]

Probably a long shot CMS but what size tyres are they?

[cms206]

  Cavette said:

Probably a long shot CMS but what size tyres are they?

 

 

I'll check in the morning when I go to work as that is where I've abandoned it for now; IIRC they're 15s of sorts, Farmer Autocare's tyre finder keeps coming back with 185/65R14 for reasons only known to itself...

[Cavcraft]

Hmm, not overly sure what 15's I have here. Defo got three 205/60s, these may be a bit wide for your car but if you think they'll fit drop me a pm.

[AndyW201]

I thought the alloys on the Zetec were 16"?

 

Love that by the way. Always thought the Zetec was a very attractive spec, all the usual toys for the period, along with nice alloys, spoilers, spots, etc. As already mentioned, just what the young rep wanted at the time. Curiously though, I don't think the Zetec model was available with the TD motor, unlike all the other Mondeo trim levels, must have put off a lot of fleet buyers..

 

Mk1 and 2 Mondeos were very good cars, a big step from previous Fords. I've known shedloads of them do spectacular mileages reliably as taxis in the past

 

That looks a stonking buy for £200, especially with intact bumpers.

[AnthonyG]

  Pillock said:

The remote fuel flap release will snap and leave you having to pry the flap open.

 

 

Sometimes the metal rod (coming from the cabin) just gets unattached from a plastic linkage near the flap hinge.

 

If the remote release doesn't work, take the inner boot trim off and have a look before ripping the flap off!

It can often be reattached, or you can open it from the inside if the worse comes to the worst.

[retrogeezer]

another 400 miles done in mine over the weekend with no issues...

 

[cms206]

The fuel filler flap does open with the lever, thankfully; had to put some pez in to get it from where it was down to my work. It's a bit hesitant to start after sitting for a couple of days but I'm going to put that down to it being a £200 car for the time being. Priced up some wishbones as well, about £25 each seems to be pretty reasonable too so I shall set my mechanic on them when coinage allows as I am a mechanically inept moron unless it's got a big diesel engine.

 

Tyres are 205/55R16, seems a relatively common size so I'll give a couple of the local part worn tyre emporiums a buzz tomorrow.

[greengartside]

The 'sister' to that Mondeo is on eBay right now...

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2001-X-Ford-M ... 53eba8bb14