Blimey. 20 years since.............

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

........the first Mondeo. Feb 1993, and I was working at a Foard dealer (Skippers of Darlington). I'm no Ford lover but I still think this is the car that really moved the game along when it came to how ordinary run of the mill cars could drive. I used to specifically ask for the 1.8TD when renting because they were so nice to drive on long 3-400 mile hauls.

 

I just saw a faded-to-buggery red K reg one bimbling though town and it reminded me how old I am.

[dollywobbler]

It is quite astonishing. I had a good ol' read of this yesterday. http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/cars/fo ... rd-mondeo/

 

I was never keen on the saloon or estate, and the facelift to Mk2 was horrific. The original was very 'right,' especially when you see how grim some of the concepts were for it (as per above link). An early hatchback in a light metallic shade is a very fine looking car though.

[John F]

I can't say the weirdly-named Mondeo has ever excited me in any way. I drove a 1993 1.8 pez up to the Highlands & back about 10 years ago, and I can't remember anything about the journey apart from how little difference pressing the accelerator made.

[FredTransit]

AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!

 

How can the mundano be classed as a classic car??? I feel old.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I can't say the weirdly-named Mondeo has ever excited me in any way. I drove a 1993 1.8 pez up to the Highlands & back about 10 years ago, and I can't remember anything about the journey apart from how little difference pressing the accelerator made.

 

10 years ago it was.....a ten year old Mondeo. Back in 1993 it was competing with the Montego, Bluebird and Cavalier. The only thing that was in the same league was the 405. One weekend I had to go from Oxford to Darlington and back in a day. No Mondeo, but a new L reg 1.8 Passat - quite easily the most abysmal vehicle that redefined the word misery. That was the kind of lazy, poorly engineered crap it was competing with.

[carlo]

I think the Mondeo got a great reception because it was so much better than the Sierra, and the magazines wanted to be kinder than they were over the 1990 Escort. I don't think it was much better than the 405, especially the Mk II version.

[Bren]

........the first Mondeo. Feb 1993, and I was working at a Foard dealer (Skippers of Darlington). I'm no Ford lover but I still think this is the car that really moved the game along when it came to how ordinary run of the mill cars could drive. I used to specifically ask for the 1.8TD when renting because they were so nice to drive on long 3-400 mile hauls.

 

I just saw a faded-to-buggery red K reg one bimbling though town and it reminded me how old I am.

 

 

It also really moved the game along in terms of how sodding complex the average family car was to become.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

It is quite astonishing. I had a good ol' read of this yesterday. http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/cars/fo ... rd-mondeo/

 

.

 

I could spend a whole day on AROnline!

[Spiny Norman]

I think the Mondeo got a great reception because it was so much better than the Sierra.....

 

I think that was the point, the Sierra got panned at its launch for being a 're-bodied Cortina'. (You think you're old remembering the Mondeo launch? I can remember the outrage when the jelly mould Sierra appeared! ) Despite the futuristic looks it drove pretty similarly to the 'Tina but the Mondeo was a whole different ball game when it came out. That and the Focus really saved Ford's bacon in the UK.

 

I was handed a Mondeo as a courtesy car when my BMW got pranged in about 1995/6, and remember how impressive I thought the whole package was after driving its predecessors.

[Tartan58]

I was never keen on the saloon or estate

 

I always thought the saloon was the handsomest of the breed particularly with the light strip across the boot.

I'm sure most of the pre-production and launch saloons sported this but I saw very few on the roads.

 

Also recall as a 13 year old being addicted to the London-New York overland challenge that they did in 1994 using Mondeos and Mavericks, if I recall correctly it was televised daily as they went along - I even sent away for the official pack and had the map of their route on my bedroom wall, I was genuinely gutted when they failed to make the crossing from Russia to Alaska due to the ice melting (who says global warming is new?!) Must try and track down the recordings of this - sure they'll be on the net somewhere.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

the Sierra got panned at its launch for being a 're-bodied Cortina'. (You think you're old remembering the Mondeo launch? I can remember the outrage when the jelly mould Sierra appeared! ) Despite the futuristic looks it drove pretty similarly to the 'Tina

 

Eh? The Sierra was nothing like a Cortina and the only thing it inherited was the engine and gearbox. The ride was vastly superior and so was the handling - the Mark 5 Cortina was only a slightly massaged version of the 1970 Mark 3 and it was pretty crap. Great on the motorway but over bumpy roads it was poor, particularly for rear seat passengers. The Sierra wasn't quite as advanced as Ford made it out to be, but it was at least 10 years ahead of what it replaced.

[dollywobbler]

Apart from the front suspension and the rear suspension and the blobbyness, the Sierra is not dissimilar to a Cortina. The Sierra did move the game on, but sadly for Ford front-wheel drive became the next big thing about five minutes after they launched it. Incredible to think how panned it was for its looks now - a Sierra doesn't look that interesting at all these days (though I do like them).

 

The Mondeo was lovely though. It had a real delicacy that belied its stiffer bodyshell.

 

That is an attractive car in my book.

 

Looked good as a racer too...

[Spiny Norman]

Like it or not, at its launch the Sierra was criticised for being too low in tech and too high in 'style'.

http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/cars/ford/sierra-ford/the-cars-ford-sierra-development-history/

 

Remember at the time GM had just introduced the fwd Cavalier/Ascona Mk2 and the Sierra was seen by many as being a bit outdated in the chassis department, and sales reflected that.

 

Point is, the Mondeo was a far greater advance technically over the Sierra than the Sierra was over the Cortina.

[John F]

I can't say the weirdly-named Mondeo has ever excited me in any way. I drove a 1993 1.8 pez up to the Highlands & back about 10 years ago, and I can't remember anything about the journey apart from how little difference pressing the accelerator made.

 

10 years ago it was.....a ten year old Mondeo. Back in 1993 it was competing with the Montego, Bluebird and Cavalier.

 

Around about the same time, I had a 1995 Cavalier SRi. It utterly pissed on the Mondeo in every single respect, from comfort and performance to reliability and - when I sold it 5 years later - comparatively high residuals, when Mondeos couldn't be given away. I genuinely miss that Cav.

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

The Xantia was also launched in 1993, and was significantly better than the Mondeo in virtually every single department (with the obvious UK-specific exceptions of shit dealers and poor residuals). Even build quality was unusually good by Shitroen standards (ironically, the Heuliez-built estate did have some issues with rear doors going astray), and it was years ahead in design, comfort, specs, engines (particularly diesels)...

[dollywobbler]

Blimey. For some reason the Xantia's age surprises me more than the Mondeo. I can't say I'm overwhelmed by Xantias though. The fact that they're so good at being normal kind of goes against why I like Citroens. The BX managed to appeal to the 'normal' people as well as the enthusiasts. Or maybe it's just me. At a Citroen rally last year, there were LOADS of Xantias. Mind you, 90% of them were V6s, most of the rest were Activas.

[willswitchengage]

Meanwhile, in TechRadar 1993...

 

By Trigger's retro road tests on flickr etc

[CortinaDave]

The ealy K reg Mondeos were superb. I had a registered-on-the-first-day-of-mondeo-sales 2.0 Si a couple of years ago and it was an excellent car. Good on fuel, solid feel, excellent drive and pretty quick. It needed nothing in the time I owned it other than basic servicing.

 

By contrast the R reg mk2 I had felt like it was made of eggshells. Seems Ford had been on the costcutting bandwagon in quite a few areas, and I was hugely disappointed with it by comparison.

 

Sierras were the same - The early Y reg German built cars seemed to last forever - by contrast the C and D reg ones rusted like buggery. I heard Ford bought in a load of cheap metal around that time.

[R9UKE]

So sad but the Mondeo was my first "favourite car". I was born in 1991 so growing up they were everywhere and dreaming of owning a Ghia with all the options one day that had an extra warning display in place of the coin tray on dad's LX, and illumination behind the interior door handles, and a rechargeable torch in the glove compartment. Still need to fulfil that fantasy - but must be K, L or very early M reg as they received an ever so slight facelift mid 94 which changed the speedo and the steering wheel slightly. My 1998 LX Auto just isn't doing it for me....

[trigger]

I've got a soft spot for the old Mondeo having owned a 1996 1.8TD GLX Mk1, a 1997 1.8 Verona, a 1999 ST24 and now my current ST TDCi, The MK1 was a £300 bargain, it was mint when I had it even with 125k on the clock back in 2006 time, It lasted a year with the only issue being the power steering pump breaking.

 

That got replaced with this one, I only paid £200 for it but it needed work for a mot having been laid up for a year in a local garden, even this had 120k on it and drove perfect, it needed a sill repair and a new screen for the mot and gave a years good service before selling it to my mates brother for £600, he had it years until he wrote it off.

 

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

 

Then there was my ST24 which was one of my most favorite cars I've owned, I've always wanted a RS bodykitted Citrine yellow Mk1 but that will never happen now.

 

[Lord Sterling]

The Mondeo has always been on my radar, I always felt it was a rather attractive, modern but rugged car. As a teenager, for somenreason I always thought it would be a great car for me to rag about, but that never happend, if I had one today I'd do what I do to most of my cars, clean it up and return it to original spec.

 

Thinking about it, its rather strange seeing the mk1 Mondeo go through its life span, going from managers/reps cars trough to the middle class family mans car right down to the chav types who stick on crap bodykits and generally ruin them.

 

I have driven one or two of these, I think the first was some sort of low/mid spec LX or something, the other one was a fully loaded 'Ghia X' with black leather seats and electric drivers seat, nice car.

 

I've always loved these wheel trims:

 

RS bodykitted Citrine yellow Mk1? Yum.

[Junkman]

Hmmm. It was 30 years last year that the Sierra started to ruin automotive styling forever.

 

Shit. I AM old!

[andrew e]

Citrine yellow Trigger? Poor mans Coral beige (the metalic pinky/red you only got on the Ghia). I really like the Mondeo; it drove fabulously, looked great, wore well. If only the pen holder took a Bic pen, it would have been the perfect tool!

[beko1987]

I get more of a hankering for these as my next snotter every time I see them! I remember my dads M reg 2.0 one when it was brand spanking new and thinking (I'd have been 10ish at then time) that it was nice, and smart but I preferred his old G reg Granada 2.0

 

They still don't feel 20 years old to me. I'd consider one a step up from the zx.

 

Happy Birthday Mundano

[Cavcraft]

I think the Mondeo got a great reception because it was so much better than the Sierra, and the magazines wanted to be kinder than they were over the 1990 Escort. I don't think it was much better than the 405, especially the Mk II version.

 

Not wishing to re-ignite the Focus debate, that's exactly how I saw it with the Escort. It was such an awful car in it's last guise that a 1972 ham butty from down the back of the sofa looked more appealing.

 

However...I do quite like the Mk1 Mondeo. Bold, new, sharp design, fab wheeltrims and quite a step forward for Ford at the time, imho. Yes they got things wrong (clutch changes and headgaskets a nightmare I'm told) and the blue interiors were vile, but still not a bad package and there's still quite a few about which must say something. The REAL fuck up was the Mk2, a hideously ugly car with a sea of horrible plastic everywhere and the kind of 'horribleness' that could rival a Peugeot of that era.

[sprig]

I always thought the saloon was the handsomest of the breed particularly with the light strip across the boot.

 

Agreed, although any Mk1 mondeo should be in citrine yellow.... 211 people can't be wrong!

 

[Negative Creep]

For me the Mondeo somewhat represents the cutt off in my general interest in cars, and the end of the great DIY driveway servicing era. Whilst good cars, the mk.1 looked incredibly bland in my eyes, whereas the mk.2 was a big improvement. I can see it ever being part of popular culture in the same way the Cortina and Sierra have been though

[oldford]

I remember seeing my first Mondeo (though it didn't have a name at the time) in July 1992, my first impression was how American the dash and steering wheel looked. I've got the video cassette somewhere that was given away free with Autocar when it was launched in 1993 and also have the book - Mondeo, The Story Of The Global Car, ISBN 2-919983-00-8.

[purplebargeken]

I chopped my 1984 Mk2 1.1 pop+ Fester in for a 1982 Mk1 Sierra 1.6L in Crystal Green. Oh how I loved that car. It was nippy, pretty decent on fuel and bloody comfy. Useful amount of interior space if you get my drift. The only downside was that it was a little twitchy in side winds.

 

Have never, ever, ever had a Mondeo. My cuz had a Sapphire 2.0 and it drove lovely despite it rusting away to nothing.

 

Hmm, Mondeo. Hmm.

[retrogeezer]

You worked at Skippers in Darlington?? That's where my Mk3 Escort came from, it still has the rear window sticker and number plates!

 

 

Still think my Mk2 Mondeo is great, had it six years in April and only had to put an exhaust and front wishbones on it in that time. I also like the look of the Mk1 saloon..