'93 Mondy thread - a K reg estate *exists*

[sierraman]

Check the test fail out on K…LAH. It’s fucking fucked as they say…

14 fail points,  numerous advisories, 150k ok the clock… send it to the banger track! 

[Dick Longbridge]

16 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Check the test fail out on K…LAH. It’s fucking fucked as they say…

14 fail points,  numerous advisories, 150k ok the clock… send it to the banger track! 

Apart from a bit of welding on a sill it's not had any mention of welding needed on previous MOTs. However, it looks like it's let go in style this year to make up for it. 31 years is a life well lived for an old Ford on British soil. 

[Peter C]

On 15/06/2024 at 08:20, ETCHY said:

 Sierra has now assumed "classic" status..

Confirmed, not assumed. 

[N19]

On 14/06/2024 at 23:48, Rustybullethole said:

 

This picture does nicely show the age-old thing of estates looking the same over the years - almost identical visually to my mk2... believe the floorpan of the estate is the same mk1 to mk3 (my mk2 has a 'mk3' towbar fitted).

[Marshall2810]

Well the N reg estate that I was told was in Stoke on Thursday, turned out to be in Newcastle by Saturday so I didn't bother with what turned into a wild goose chase. 

To cheer everyone up I found a picture of my mk1 diesel I had forgotten I'd had briefly during lockdown. Still going 

[warren t claim]

9 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Apart from a bit of welding on a sill it's not had any mention of welding needed on previous MOTs. However, it looks like it's let go in style this year to make up for it. 31 years is a life well lived for an old Ford on British soil. 

I read that as his mate who owned a MOT station either retired or lost his testing ticket last year.

[warren t claim]

82 pages in and I can't believe that I've failed to mention my first Mk1 Mondeo relationship.

Back in 1996 I worked in the corporate world selling third party maintenance contracts for an IT hardware support company which as an industry probably doesn't exist anymore. As well as flogging maintenance contracts to corporations I had several clients who where small to medium IT and comms resellers where I'd be selling them a contract that is essentially the warranty for their end users. One of these resellers was a new start up that had spent a few months trying to headhunt me and after a long period of mutual flirtation, I jumped ship and joined.

My old company was pretty tight when it came to company cars so under most circumstances I used my 1982 Fiesta Supersport and claimed fuel, mileage allowance and free main dealer servicing at Quicks Of Altrincham. As an aside, the reaction from the Ford dealer when I booked such an old car in for a service was a sight in itself! Having said that, the mechanics used to fight over who got to road test it though!

The final straw was when the MD saw the financial director of The Legendary Joe Bloggs clothing company, a client he really wanted on our company CV, getting out of my Fiesta when I collected him to come and see our repair facilities. After that I was told that any clients I was ferrying around had to be done in the sales director's new Omega 2.0 GLS. This meant that the directors of the start up trying to poach me thought that I had a new Omega as a company car and therefore would have to match this!

At this time a local rental firm called Stamford Car Hire was renting out Granada 2.5 TD Executives for £90 a week so when I started I was thrown the keys to a metallic blue Mk3 Granada. It was shit! Not only did it sound and drive like a Transit it was a hell of a lot more thirsty at motorway speeds than you'd think. The company car tax was high as well being a 2.5 litre. Another thing was that as a bloke of 27 I really hated the image that driving an unfashionable Mk3 Granada diesel projected. I know that the Granada wasn't exactly a Maestro Clubman Diesel ala A To B rep man, but I really hated it. The Executive badge on the back would've been more embarrassing than having Sales Executive written on my business cards. I was a Systems Consultant and my Granada Executive was only one small step above me turning up to see clients in a Mk3 Cortina 2000E with a vinyl roof! It had to go.

As luck may have it, Stamford Car Hire also rented out Mk1 Mondeo 1.8LX diesel's for the same money (They must have bought the Granada's fucking cheap!) so after a week I swapped and found myself behind the wheel of a nice new P reg example in Diamond White. After the Granada it was a revelation! The firm was happy as my MPG rose to over 40 MPG from barely over 30 in the Granada, pretty important as I was covering over 1000 miles a week including my 90 miles a day commute to the office. It was even more comfortable to drive than the Granada with the added bonus that is was a hell of a lot less cumbersome to drive and much easier to park. I know it sounds strange to write this in 2024 when every sales rep has either a 320D or an A4, but back then I was really proud to drive and be seen in my 1.8 LX TD! My clients approved of it and were happy to be shuttled around in the passenger seats. Reliability was 100% too, it always started first turn of the key and servicing only took a couple of hours. Sadly, this makes for a pretty dull contribution to this thread compared to my previous posts!

 

[egg]

Just shows how many were worked hard in many ways, which means the survival rate is so low!

[sierraman]

21 hours ago, warren t claim said:

I read that as his mate who owned a MOT station either retired or lost his testing ticket last year.

When was it Ray Charles passed away? 🤣

[warren t claim]

15 hours ago, egg said:

Just shows how many were worked hard in many ways, which means the survival rate is so low!

To be fair, it did have a pretty easy life as most of my miles were spent in 5th gear at 70 mph. 

A mid 90s point to mention that may upset many readers of this thread is this so far unmentioned rep fact. At this time many fleets were phasing out their fleets of Isuzu powered 1.7 TD Cavaliers for Mondeo 1.8 TDs and plenty of the reps hated their Ford replacements. Their main gripe being that the Cavalier was a lot more petrol like to drive and was faster. Word of mouth about this soon got around causing the unheard of scenario of reps not wanting to change their cars! Although I never repped a Mk3 Cavalier TD we did have a South Korean hardware technician called Hank who had a Mk3 Astra 1.7 TD company car and I borrowed it when my Mondeo was in for a service and I will admit that the Astra was a much quicker car. 

I had a (sadly business only) relationship with a lady rep called Jill from a nationwide specialist network maintenance and reseller company and after falling asleep at the wheel of her N reg Cavalier 1.7 GLS TD and writing it off in the process was given a then brand new Mk2 Mondeo GLX 1.8 TD. She must have collected it up from the Ford dealer on a Saturday morning as that afternoon she phoned me on my company mobile from a wine bar in Banbury slightly tipsy asking to know how I live with such a shit car!  She ended the conversation by telling me that she's up for promotion as her area manager is off to pastures new meaning she'll be out of the Mondeo and in his (E36) BMW 318 TD. A few weeks later we were working together on a contract when she let slip that the BMW is even worse to drive than her old Mondeo!

[Peter C]

@warren t claim

Got any pics of Jill? She sounds hot!

[warren t claim]

4 minutes ago, Peter C said:

@warren t claim

Got any pics of Jill? She sounds hot!

Sadly not as she was well tasty!

[egg]

Warren always reminds me that I've never owned a car that would impress a woman. Maybe the X1/9, but they were pretty unpopular when I had mine.

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, egg said:

Warren always reminds me that I've never owned a car that would impress a woman. Maybe the X1/9, but they were pretty unpopular when I had mine.

oh thats not true, you had an Invacar Mk12! and @AdgeCutler knows exactly why im saying that, if he dares to/is allowed to share any pictures!

[MantaGTE85]

15 hours ago, warren t claim said:

To be fair, it did have a pretty easy life as most of my miles were spent in 5th gear at 70 mph. 

A mid 90s point to mention that may upset many readers of this thread is this so far unmentioned rep fact. At this time many fleets were phasing out their fleets of Isuzu powered 1.7 TD Cavaliers for Mondeo 1.8 TDs and plenty of the reps hated their Ford replacements. Their main gripe being that the Cavalier was a lot more petrol like to drive and was faster. Word of mouth about this soon got around causing the unheard of scenario of reps not wanting to change their cars! Although I never repped a Mk3 Cavalier TD we did have a South Korean hardware technician called Hank who had a Mk3 Astra 1.7 TD company car and I borrowed it when my Mondeo was in for a service and I will admit that the Astra was a much quicker car. 

I had a (sadly business only) relationship with a lady rep called Jill from a nationwide specialist network maintenance and reseller company and after falling asleep at the wheel of her N reg Cavalier 1.7 GLS TD and writing it off in the process was given a then brand new Mk2 Mondeo GLX 1.8 TD. She must have collected it up from the Ford dealer on a Saturday morning as that afternoon she phoned me on my company mobile from a wine bar in Banbury slightly tipsy asking to know how I live with such a shit car!  She ended the conversation by telling me that she's up for promotion as her area manager is off to pastures new meaning she'll be out of the Mondeo and in his (E36) BMW 318 TD. A few weeks later we were working together on a contract when she let slip that the BMW is even worse to drive than her old Mondeo!

Yes, early BMW diesels were very hit-and-miss. At Renwicks Motor Village, the used car dealer where I worked at the time (so around '97/98) my boss once demo'd a rather nice M-plate high-spec E36 diesel, his was a 325tds though, but at that time I remember valeting a nearly-new but high-mileage P reg 318td Compact, which was very coarse, everything inside rattled and buzzed, and apparently used almost as much fuel as a 316i.

[High Jetter]

6 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

oh thats not true, you had an Invacar Mk12! and @AdgeCutler knows exactly why im saying that, if he dares to/is allowed to share any pictures!

Christ, I though the back of a mini was challenging enough 🤣

[warren t claim]

14 hours ago, egg said:

Warren always reminds me that I've never owned a car that would impress a woman. Maybe the X1/9, but they were pretty unpopular when I had mine.

That all depends on the type of woman you're trying to impress.