AS Communal MK4&5 Mondeo Thread

[warren t claim]

 

The time you miss an important mileage moment in your haste to find a filling station. Never mind, it's been clocked twice so bears no semblance to reality anyway. 

[Sir Snipes]

Spotted another oddball yesterday. Normal enough hatch but it was an odd grey-brown colour. Reminded me of the old Nissan Gun metal grey but more brown and IMO not as nice.

 

 

I seem to be becoming a closet mk4 fan. How are the Autos in these things? Do thwy have a rep for going kablamo?

[Norbert]

mileage1.PNG

 

The time you miss an important mileage moment in your haste to find a filling station. Never mind, it's been clocked twice so bears no semblance to reality anyway. 

 

Using Time travel, Photoshop Paint, let's go back a bit......

[overrun]

Spotted another oddball yesterday. Normal enough hatch but it was an odd grey-brown colour. Reminded me of the old Nissan Gun metal grey but more brown and IMO not as nice.

I seem to be becoming a closet mk4 fan. How are the Autos in these things? Do thwy have a rep for going kablamo?

The Powershift auto isn’t supposedly as hardy as the other type. Both shit on juice in comparison to the proper boxed equivalents - and the 2.2 TDCi is already a drinker.

 

Every time I see a stock gunmetal grey R32 GT-R pic it reminds me of the one that got away.

[overrun]

That's one handsome car.

Ford really nailed it with the mk4.

Not sure about spacing the wheels out nearer the curb though.

Still I'm sure you are careful with it.

Yeah, it being 50mm wider does bring that concern. Like you say, just have to be careful.

 

Cheers.

[RichL]

Ford definitely got it 'right first time' with these.

 

Skillfully updated and facelifted over the years.

 

overrun that is looking superb

[junkyarddog]

A much better car than so called "premium brands"

 

I kind of consider the mk4 Mondy the spiritual successor to the mk1 and 2 Granada.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

A much better car than so called "premium brands"

I kind of consider the mk4 Mondy the spiritual successor to the mk1 and 2 Granada.

I'm sure we've had it before, but the Mondeo is bigger than any Granada , or indeed the Mk4 Zodiac.

If only it was RWD...

[Kiltox]

Using Time travel, Photoshop Paint, let's go back a bit......

300k.JPG

It’s being virtually clocked as well as physically now! It’s entered the taxi twilight zone!!

[Pete-M]

MA sounds like Manchester?

We are all N* up here.

M* is officially Merseyside / Manchester.

 

Huge numbers of Scouse dealerships register their cars in Chester (D*) after the massive cock up when the registration system changed to the current one - the local Ford dealerships in Liverpool were allocated MU for the first batch of current format registrations... this resulted in lots of people turning up to collect their new Fiesta etc and rejecting it because of the 'Man Utd' reg.

[warren t claim]

Millie has officially shat something serious in her engine department.

 

It looks like I'm going to have to rent another car until the Hybrid Pony arrives in a month.

 

Fuck.

[junkyarddog]

Oh dear.

 

Any idea what happened?

[warren t claim]

Oh dear.

 

Any idea what happened?

I lost a game of cambelt roulette. Not getting my new car for another four weeks as well.

[junkyarddog]

Shit!!

 

Twas the wet belt that failed I take It?

 

Not really the engine to be playing that game with,but I understand why you did.

[warren t claim]

The results of the post mortem are in.

 

Death caused by wet belt failure.

 

I honestly thought that it would of been changed to chain earlier in its life...

[junkyarddog]

Makes a right mess of everything so I've heard.

[overrun]

TADTS

[overrun]

This seemingly means your mirrors won’t fold in and only the O/S glass will adjust.

 

OMG ITS FUCKED £ORD $TEALER TIME SELLING TO WBAC / Remove battery terminal for 10 seconds and reinstate, clearing all issues

 

But which option did I choose?

[warren t claim]

Make sure you don't give the body control module a shit fit.

[overrun]

Make sure you don't give the body control module a shit fit.

I’ve had the battery off a few times and no ill effects. Same with the previous car.

But alll of that is always t the back of my mind lol.

[warren t claim]

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.

[sierraman]

Might have just had a bad un.

[overrun]

ST Line estate or GTFO.

[junkyarddog]

I've been eyeing up a MK5 2.0 Zetec estate,

 

I just don't find them as nice inside as the 4,plus they look a little bit too aggressive for my taste.

Electric handbrake is putting me off too,along with that stop/start nonsense.

 

Will see when the price of them comes down,3 year old ones are still to expensive for the moment.

[overrun]

I hope they change the dash/screen situation when there is a refresh. I couldn’t get away with that.

Agreed on handbrake.

[Sir Snipes]

Im not keen on the mk5. It looks "heavy" to me.

[sierraman]

It does look really dense. I was in america about four week back, they love them there, nearly all of them the 2.0 hybrid.

[warren t claim]

Right then, let's get back to some more HOT WARREN T CLAIM MK4 ACTION.

 

 

One of my local scrappies also rents out taxis so I struck a deal involving weighing in Millie and renting this until my Ionic hybrid arrives.

 

Don't be fooled by the alloys, this is a boggo base spec wearing Millie's old shoes as I'd just bought tyres for her. 250,000 miles on the clock with the usual fucked drivers seat with the Mk4 habit of "self reclining" as I'm sitting on it, sadly the seats fitted to Millie can't be swapped as she had electric height adjust which is absent from Black Beauty. Like Millie she sports the 1.8 shititswetbelt engine but as it's going to only have to last a few weeks I'm hoping it'll last (where have I said that before??). Strange driveling vibes and clunks if you stay in too high a gear and on the subject of gearboxes it's got a change that reminds me of a Montego with a sloppy linkage. Mind you, as a totally unexpected bonus it's got, wait for it, WORKING AIRCON. Sadly not full climate control as it's a living on the Edge spec but I'm trying to draw some positives here OK? 

 

Will it last a few weeks???

 

I fucking hope so.

 

[Kiltox]

I love the insights into the taxi game this thread provides

 

“One of my local scrappies also rents out taxis” explains a lot

[sierraman]

I bet they rent out some right Dreamboats.