'93 Mondy thread - MOT pass

[RoverFolkUs]

Just now, warren t claim said:

The Mk3 was more of a revolution than an evolution which scared us off at the time.

You know what would scare me off is the god awful indicator tell-tale sound used by the MK3 Mondy and MK1 Focus. I'd hate to have driven one for a living. 

Is it just me that gets so irritated by it!? 

 

[egg]

Inspired by @Peter C's Sierra clutch shenanigans, I thought I'd get myself a clutch pedal quadrant - as it's a piece of plastic, it might well break sometime, and as it was £6 delivered, not an expensive piece of OEM stock to hold. Different design to the Sierra though, none of the little teeth....wonder why?

[EyesWeldedShut]

One has a self-adjusting facility and the other doesn't?

[Peter C]

34 minutes ago, egg said:

Inspired by @Peter C's Sierra clutch shenanigans, I thought I'd get myself a clutch pedal quadrant - as it's a piece of plastic, it might well break sometime, and as it was £6 delivered, not an expensive piece of OEM stock to hold. Different design to the Sierra though, none of the little teeth....wonder why?

I bet that getting to the quadrant on a Mondeo is a lot more fun than on a Sierra.

[sierraman]

Cable clutch’s were only on first 6months-year of Mondeo production. Hydraulic all the way then, they don’t tend to give problems unlike the leaking master cylinders on the Mk1 Focus, a real back breaker to access. 

[warren t claim]

On 05/04/2024 at 13:42, sierraman said:

Cable clutch’s were only on first 6months-year of Mondeo production. Hydraulic all the way then, they don’t tend to give problems unlike the leaking master cylinders on the Mk1 Focus, a real back breaker to access. 

I had two fail although I suppose my use case was pretty severe.

[warren t claim]

I know that it seems strange today in an era when any scruffy driver/petty criminal can waltz into a specialist taxi broker holding a sizeable deposit and walk out with a Hyundai Ioniq on finance, but twenty odd years ago getting a main dealer to flog a new car for taxi use on finance was unheard of. It's not that taxi drivers are a massive financial risk, plenty of us have mortgages through high street lenders. The main sticking point to the main agent lenders is the fact that if the car ever had to be snatched back the residual value would be even worse than normal. Lada would take a chance if a driver signed on the line for a new Riva but their lenders would NEVER repo a car anyway. They knew that they were worth fuck all used so preferred to make a deal with the buyer. Back in my reposession agent days I was not once asked to seize a Lada!

That's not to say that nobody ever bought a new car to work as a taxi. The early to mid 2000s saw a surge in property prices meaning that quite a few drivers added the cost of a new Mondeo onto their mortgage.

The knock on effect of restricted finance opportunities meant that mass market family saloons like the Mondeo took about three years to filter down to us taxi drivers. These cars were sourced either through lenders like Welcome Finance with the help of forged payslips and a dealer happy to look the other way or like yours truly, via salvage auctions and pulled straight. The Mk1/2 Mondeo was the perfect car to source as salvage due to their then huge sales volumes sold to fleets and ergo plentiful number meeting their demise on our extensive motorway network after the rep behind the wheel suffered a carb coma after spunking his Luncheon Vouchers on one too many Little Chef Olympic breakfasts.

As a salvage buyer, a major Mondeo plus point compared to say the equivalent Vauxhalls or Rovers (believe it or not, the 400 was briefly popular as a taxi here at one point) is that the Mondeo can take a pretty big shunt without deploying its airbag. They also had the ability to be pulled straight without the need for a jib, a simple Porta Power would usually suffice although sometimes it was just easier to buy a new rear panel from Ford to save hours of labour. Although most of my Mondeo's were rebuilt write offs I can honestly say that not one of them was a cut and shut. I left that for the lads punting on 406s. In fact it wasn't unusual to see a couple of lads pushing the back end of a 406 down the back streets of Birkenhead like Smithfield Market barrow boys. 

One particular 2.0LX I had turned out to have the last owner live in my area despite me having to have the car transported from the salvage yard in the Midlands. I remember this Pepper Red (I must've had at least four Mk2s in that colour) example because the previous owner had fitted a nice set of Focus alloys.. Once repaired and back on the road I decided to knock on the previous owner's door. He couldn't believe that it was back on the road after it was hit from behind in standstill M56 traffic by a BMW which launched him into theTransit in front. If seeing his old car again made him happy that was nothing compared to his delight when I handed him his Shania Twain CD that was in the CD player when I got the car!

It's funny that the only privately owned salvage Mondeo I bought was a local car. Every other car had the name of a leasing company as the previous owner with the exception of two that had been owned by Trinity Mirror. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

2 minutes ago, warren t claim said:

The knock on effect of restricted finance opportunities meant that mass market family saloons like the Mondeo took about three years to filter down to us taxi drivers.

I bought a  Mk 1 1.8 diesel Mondeo (LX) with v.low mileage out of Letchworth Car Auctions around 1998 that was just coming up for three years old - bidding was rather fierce - later found out that there were a couple of taxi guys in the bidding. One came over afterwards and passed me his card.
It was an OK car - I spent zero on it other than fuel/oil/filters and did about 10K miles motorway/autoroute but the light beige seats and trim were not a good colour for heavy use. I later flogged the car to him after about 9 months as I needed a 4x4 - he happily gave me the agreed trade in figure for the 4x4 (which was about 30% higher than the auction price). 

 

[warren t claim]

Gentlemen that reminds me.

Taxi brokers and the local popularity of the 406.

In the early 2000s the good people of Merseyside decided to wholeheartedly embrace the latest craze for putting in a personal injury claim in for just about anything. This caused taxi insurance to rocket from £33 to £91 a week. 

About this time a taxi broker in Scotland called Cab Direct decided to offer for sale brand new 406s for a reasonable amount that included free insurance. Plenty of local drivers took them up on their offer meaning that plenty of shiny new 406 HDi 90s appeared on our streets. This was probably the first time that local lads had sampled the common rail Pug lump and word soon went round telling tales of 55 mpg around the doors which only fuelled more sales. 

When the 406 was replaced with the 407 the driver rumour mill again went into overdrive but this time it was about the 407 needing to be main agent serviced and if it wasn't it'd go into limp mode 1000 miles after a service was due.

[warren t claim]

Another pretender to the crown that the taxi brokers tried to punt out was the Skoda Octavia. 

Not just any Octavia, but the non turbo SDI.

Rather like Gareth Gates and Daniel Beddingfield, these heaps had their 15 minutes of fame back in 2003 before buyer's remorse hit in. They were cheap, very cheap for a new car at about £75 a week but that was about it. These things took close to twenty seconds to hit sixty with just the driver aboard. Throw a quartet of Birkenhead's chunkiest munters on board and I dread to think how slow they'd be. I remember driver's defending them saying that the Octavia is no slower than the old and missed Bluebird diesel but at least the Bluebird had toys to compensate. The SDI was equipped with keep fit windows and the only creature comfort was central locking. 

When someone phoned me asking to rent a Mondeo from me and the only one I had available was an Aspen base my reply would start with telling the driver that although I do have a Mondeo for rent I'm afraid it's only a base and doesn't have front electric windows but I'll put them top of the list when a higher spec car becomes available. The last thing I wanted was to prep a car only to have the driver fuck it off due to the DHSS spec! But at least the Mondeo Aspen came with a turbo!

Anyway, those Mk1 Octavias soon fell out of favour. It's no good having a huge boot if it struggles to cope fully laden on an airport run but their biggest fault was the gearbox and its fondness for shitting itself. Without exception, every SDI suffered gearbox failure which Skoda/Taxi Dealer wasn't too keen to fix under warranty. Plenty were laid up at under two years old while the owner tried to source a good used box.

[High Jetter]

Were you never tempted to try a Sunderland T72 Bluebird? I had a 2.0d one as a cab in the late 80's, was bulletproof.

[warren t claim]

5 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Were you never tempted to try a Sunderland T72 Bluebird? I had a 2.0d one as a cab in the late 80's, was bulletproof.

I had an ex cab as a pizza delivery car back in the day but they were too old to be plated here when I started.

[High Jetter]

Youngster 🤣

[warren t claim]

5 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Youngster 🤣

I often wonder how different my life would have turned out if I'd have got badged at 21.

[sierraman]

I was behind an SDI funnily enough yesterday. Foot welded to floor!

[Eyersey1234]

45 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I was behind an SDI funnily enough yesterday. Foot welded to floor!

Your foot was or theirs?

[sierraman]

3 hours ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Your foot was or theirs?

I was on foot 😂

[LoftyvRS]

15 hours ago, warren t claim said:

Another pretender to the crown that the taxi brokers tried to punt out was the Skoda Octavia. 

Not just any Octavia, but the non turbo SDI.

Rather like Gareth Gates and Daniel Beddingfield, these heaps had their 15 minutes of fame back in 2003 before buyer's remorse hit in. They were cheap, very cheap for a new car at about £75 a week but that was about it. These things took close to twenty seconds to hit sixty with just the driver aboard. Throw a quartet of Birkenhead's chunkiest munters on board and I dread to think how slow they'd be. I remember driver's defending them saying that the Octavia is no slower than the old and missed Bluebird diesel but at least the Bluebird had toys to compensate. The SDI was equipped with keep fit windows and the only creature comfort was central locking. 

When someone phoned me asking to rent a Mondeo from me and the only one I had available was an Aspen base my reply would start with telling the driver that although I do have a Mondeo for rent I'm afraid it's only a base and doesn't have front electric windows but I'll put them top of the list when a higher spec car becomes available. The last thing I wanted was to prep a car only to have the driver fuck it off due to the DHSS spec! But at least the Mondeo Aspen came with a turbo!

Anyway, those Mk1 Octavias soon fell out of favour. It's no good having a huge boot if it struggles to cope fully laden on an airport run but their biggest fault was the gearbox and its fondness for shitting itself. Without exception, every SDI suffered gearbox failure which Skoda/Taxi Dealer wasn't too keen to fix under warranty. Plenty were laid up at under two years old while the owner tried to source a good used box.

I spent a fair few years supplying the Taxi trade with Skoda product, in fact I was one of the earliest Skoda dealers to advertise regularly in the Taxi press (PH Monthly from memory?? It was 20+ yrs ago...)

We took advantage of the early Skoda unlimited mileage (36m) warranty and so did many of the drivers, and yes the SDi did have a longevity issue with the transmission, but don't forget we were selling these brand new at £9995 including the warranty. We could also offer the low rate finance to the trade and as such we were registering 400 + pa just to the taxi trade.

The first Superb proved to be a better bet for the majority and again at £11995 for a 1.9 TDI PD100 Classic they were light years ahead of the then ageing Octavias.

The end of the unlimited mileage warranty period was usually signified by Taxi drivers getting all manner of stuff replaced under warranty and I think back then Skoda were bending over backwards to show goodwill in this sector as it was such a good way of increasing brand awareness in the UK, that they were honouring warranty claims with little or no dealer service history just to keep face with the taxi trade.

Back to Mk1 Mondeos (and Mk2's) I took a fair share in PX and like all ex taxi stuff they were worn smooth with 150k on them. In fairness to the Skoda's they seemed basic but robust enough to wear their miles well.

 

[egg]

K440 LYA is on the move again - a rare K reg base yours for £999.

https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/1806046139862564/

[Peter C]

Link not working for me.

[egg]

3 minutes ago, Peter C said:

Link not working for me.

Sorry, must be in a Mondeo group only.

Quote

Open to offers..
Shopping trolley ding..
Been everywhere in it..
Wind up windows.
Radio cassette player..
What more do you want..
Offers collection Bentley thank you.
Doncaster area

[Peter C]

Wind up windows in a Mondeo? Well I never.

[sierraman]

Hmm I’m only 20 miles away as well…

[egg]

7 minutes ago, Peter C said:

Wind up windows in a Mondeo? Well I never.

the only Mondeo ever to have them I think was the Base/Aspen.

[egg]

I can't be sure if the current owner of LYA was the winner of the Retroshite roffle that was held.

https://retroshite.com/2023/04/24/ford-mondeo/

[Eyersey1234]

1 hour ago, egg said:

K440 LYA is on the move again - a rare K reg base yours for £999.

https://www.facebook.com/commerce/listing/1806046139862564/

Wish I was in a position to take this chodtastic conveyance on

[warren t claim]

7 hours ago, egg said:

the only Mondeo ever to have them I think was the Base/Aspen.

I'd forgotten how colour-coordinated the Mk1 was compared to the Mk2. That pic really does illustrate the superior quality of seat fabric the Mk1 had compared to its successor. 

The coin holder was useful in these. Whenever I was fobbed off with some foreign coins I'd ram them into the coin holder and see how low it took before an opportunistic light fingered punter stole them.

Another Warren peculiarity was that I always made sure that I kept a half decent pen in the dedicated pen holder. No half chewed biro for me. 

Looking at that hardcore, held open, continental strength interior pic reminds me that if you drop anything like money between the front seat and centre console you should consider it lost forever. You will never see it again regardless of how determined you are. Using that space to slide your A to Z in helped stuff from dropping in there though.

[warren t claim]

There's got to be an interesting story behind this.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/ford/2000-ford-mondeo-1.8-lx-td-5dr-11500-miles-estate-diesel-mondeo-classic-with/1473877788

[MantaGTE85]

That white estate would be well worth saving. I'm not sure I've seen one like this. At this late stage of the mk2 production run, was the LX relegated to base-model rank? I'm certain most colour-grilled late mk2's I've seen seemed to be Zetec, but also sometimes Zetec S, ST24/200, or Verona. I've deffo never seen any Aspens beyond around 1998 S-plates. Or even a 1.6.

[warren t claim]

11 hours ago, MantaGTE85 said:

That white estate would be well worth saving. I'm not sure I've seen one like this. At this late stage of the mk2 production run, was the LX relegated to base-model rank? I'm certain most colour-grilled late mk2's I've seen seemed to be Zetec, but also sometimes Zetec S, ST24/200, or Verona. I've deffo never seen any Aspens beyond around 1998 S-plates. Or even a 1.6.

It's funny you should mention that. I've had colour grilled LXs but never any of them were Aspen spec cars. All my Mk2 Aspens were saloons and I'm certain that the newest was an S reg. Come to think of it, they were all diesels as well.