AS Communal MK4&5 Mondeo Thread

[warren t claim]

A memory from ten years ago today. OXG getting bodywork. Probably the best Mk4 I ever had the pleasure of owning/driving. Cost me £2500.

[warren t claim]

Incoming. 

[warren t claim]

180000 mile 2.0d. 

Let's see how this works out.

[warren t claim]

On 07/07/2018 at 23:07, warren t claim said:

The OCD amongst you may have noticed a slight change in the thread title.

 

Due to Millie shitting her wet belt I've been without a car so I've had to rent another for work at the eye cost of £35 a day. Now as you've probably guessed already the car s I've been renting are Mk5 Mondeos so I thought it's high time I gave you my less than expert opinion of Ford's latest effort at a mass market mid sized family car. 

 

Here's the first one I had...

 

 

Looks nice, doesn't it? 

 

Now the first thing any Mk4 veteran will immediately notice is the improvement in the solidity of the car. Right from when you first open the door it feels like a quality product, something that extends into the plastics used in the interior. A couple of customers has asked if it's the new Jaguar or remarked that they thought it was an Audi. The seats are amazing, a bit like an 80s Saab or Porsche with loads of adjustments available although the seat height is non-electric. Legroom both front and rear is improved over the already cavernous Mk4 with the bonus of not having rear head restraints that dig into your back unless raised. 

 

The kit offered is basic by the standards of a modern car. No reversing sensors, let alone camera and the rear visibility isn't fantastic. No adaptive cruise, autonomous emergency braking or lane assist either. Lots of confusing wheel-mounted buttons as you'd expect and a big screen in the dash for the climate, sat nav and phone. Sadly due to the angle of the screen, it's virtually unreadable during the bright sunshine we've been having lately. It comes fitted with Apple Car Play and Android Auto as well although that doesn't seem to work as well as I had hoped. 

 

Now the bad part. Ford have equipped it with stop start and even after a mere 26,000 miles the starter and DMF are beginning to rattle worryingly. You can override the system with the button but it's default setting seems to be in the on position. As you'd expect it comes equipped with an elestric parking brake which is as unpredictable in whether it releases automatically when you try and pull off. Also on the subject of the transmission tunnel, the cup holders are too deep, if you put a standard sized McDonalds cup into them the cup sinks right down removing the lid in the process. Other switches controlling the elecric windows (front and rear) on the drivers armrest are just a bit too far forward, often when I've gone to open the drivers window I've mistakenly opened the rear instead. Column stalks are as you'd expect although Ford have copied the Insignia by putting a rocker switch on the end of the wiper stalk to operate the rear wiper. Headlights are Bi-Xenon and really do light the road well without dazzling oncoming traffic although there's no automatic lights fitted or come to think of it rain sensing wipers either. The wipers themselves are those modern overlapping clap hands type that save manufacturers having to tool up for different RHD/LHD markets and they do a great job of keeping the screen clean. 

 

The two litre diesel engine is very refined and flexable and returned 42 mpg in my useage and has plenty of power, more than you'll ever need and is mated to a pretty slick six speed box.

 

Any other faults? Well after a mere 26,000 miles the tyre pressure sensors have gone haywire promising all sorts of MOT issues down the line.

 

Now due to that particular car being plated for several councils I had to return it and swap it for another as it was needed elsewhere on Merseyside and I was given this 19,000 mile example as a replacement.

 

 

Now this example has none of the rattly stop start and TPMS faults that the silver car had although whether it'll get them only time will tell.

 

So would I spend my own money on one? Well the answer has to be a definite maybe. Passengers love it and it's a nice car to spend a shift in.

 

7.5/10 from me.

I thought that I'd revisit this six and a half year old post I made here to see if my opinion has changed.

I won't bore you here with the reasons why the Insignia was showing signs of a premature death as I'll save that story for my taxi thread and why I couldn't jump in another car from the fleet I help manage (spoiler alert the owner has sold all of his cars through auction) but suffice to say I had to find a replacement car pronto.

Enter YR66LRV (reg quoted cos I know some of you are car history/DVLA pervs). Needing a car pronto I called in to see a guy I know who rents out taxis. He's the fells who I did a deal with seven years ago to take the remains of Modern Half Millie, the Mk4 estate I owned in exchange for the use of a black Mk4 estate on his rental fleet after Millie shat her wet belt and I needed a taxi until my Hyundai could be delivered.

He had a couple of Mondeos for hire, a black 65 plate hatch and YR66. As well as those he also had an Insignia, DU66ZXR, that ironically I tried to buy from him seven years ago but at the time he'd already agreed to sell it to another driver. The driver concerned lives around the corner from me and that Insignia clearly suffered a major fault down the line meaning the owner sold it back which explains its place on his rental fleet. 

I chose YR66 because it can't have been a taxi for over a year as it's got rear privacy glass which my council outlawed until ten months ago. At the time YR66 was sitting on some very snazzy 19" wheels one of which was sporting a flat tyre. After my experience with the MG6 which wore 18" Mr Creosote waffer thin tyres which aren't suitable for taxi use due to pothole induced side wall damage we agreed to fit YR66 with the more sensible Mk5 Mondeo wheels. 

YR66 has clearly seen some action in its life which I discovered when I rang my insurance company to cover her. I read out the reg number to the lady on the other end of the line and she said that is coming back as a grey Mondeo Titanium. YR66 has had a fair bit of work done to her after a collision meaning a lot of the Titanium has been removed. The accident was obviously a hit on her offside as she no longer has touch entry on the right side doors and although fitted with a reversing camera on her tailgate it doesn't show on the infotainment screen. Not really an issue to me as I have previously owned a Mk4 Ghia estate, BD09HDO, that after a knock lost its Ghia front and faux wood dash trim.  

That's not to say that YR66 doesn't have any issues. The biggest of those is the immobiliser. If I stall her or leave the stop/start switched on she has an annoying habit of refusing to start unless I get out and lock/unlock the doors before starting again. The engine is far from silent but I've heard much worse sounding Mk5 2.0 diesels so on the Mondeo death rattle scale I'll rate her as a 5.5 out of 10. The sat nav shows no GPS and still thinks that I'm parked in a Birkenhead back street although it does still display the speed limit on whatever road I'm driving on. 

Let's move on to some other observations. The lane keep assist isn't anything like the system fitted to my Ioniq that was happy to drive itself on motorways. Even in its active mode all it does if send a vide through the steering wheel whenever I stray too close to a white line. YR66 is fitted with Ford's Parking Pilot, the feature which when activated will tell you when you've found a suitably sized space and park the car for you. I honestly thought that this feature would be a bag of shite and not work properly but in reality it works well. In fact it's wincingly brave when deciding on a parking space and will happily squeeze itself into a space that has you thinking "no fucking way!"

Fuel economy seems to be about 43 MPG around the doors even with the stop/start switched off which is OK. The engine does seem less torquey than the 1.6 dizzler Insignia often needing a lower gear but that could be down the the gearing. 

 

 

[Jds1]

I'm currently in the market for a new family car and a 2011 estate , 2.0 petrol (non ecoboost) has caught my eye is there anything specific I should keep my eye out for ?

[sierraman]

5 hours ago, Jds1 said:

I'm currently in the market for a new family car and a 2011 estate , 2.0 petrol (non ecoboost) has caught my eye is there anything specific I should keep my eye out for ?

Nothing as such but the diesel is quicker in the real world and considerably more economical. Swings and roundabouts, no DMF of DPF bother but you get bummed on the tax and the running costs. In fairness it’s less likely to have been ‘worked’. Check for smoke, they can get a bit smoky by 120k ish.