Ford Mondeo is at an end?

[Felly Magic]

My old fella would have been your stereotypical Mondeo man, but as he's been retired a fair while now, and he's started to get a bit of the old 'Arthur', he moved on to an SUV a few years back, he's just chopping in his Squashedquiche for it's smaller cousin a Duster, he was virtually insulted at the local Skoda dealer re trade in, as he is a cash buyer, those jokers are only interested in shoving you into something on a PCP deal, plus in my dad's words 'overpriced shite', he did think about Ford's new baby suv, but he doesn't like the look of it, plus the way they were treated by the Ford main dealer and even Ford UK over warranty work on mum's Fiesta pissed them off a fair whack

[Talbot]

Fords are strange things.  I've never wanted one, and I've never really known why, especially when I'm quite happy with a Vauxhaul offering, and Ford and Vaux (certainly in the UK anyway) have been playing leapfrog over each other for the best part of 50 years now.

 

I suspect it stems from my father buying a MK2 Cavalier in 1988.  The Cav was a much nicer car (and a lot more powerful for the same engine size) than a Sierra, so that's what he went for.  Since then, I've never really been interested in a Ford, particularly as they have a bit of a "cheaply made and will rust very quickly" image.  Mk1 Mondeos with their exploding rear bumpers were a case in point for cheapness.

 

The size-bloat issue is an odd one.  I don't understand why the new model in a range needs to be bigger than the old one.  Citroen are terrible for this too:  Go from a GS/GSA, through a BX, Xantia and various marks of C5, and you've gone from a really quite small family car to a very large family car.  A current C5 makes a GS look like a childs toy.  Even the larger car has gotten a lot larger too.  The Traction avant doesn't really count, but go from a DS through CX and XM to the C6, and the size difference is significant.

 

I've never been in a position to buy a car from a dealer, be it new or second hand, but have had some experience of them over the years.  Most of them are just a bit rude.. Peugeot were my benchmark when trying to buy bits for my range of old Talbots.  Italian dealers were worse.  Fords seemed helpful enough, and Vauxhaul seemed quite good, particularly the parts people.  The one dealer that stands out is Mercedes.  Every one of them has been a very positive experience, with knowledgeable staff, a cuppa made for me when I'm only after buying £4 worth of O-rings, and parts people who have gone out of their way to get bits in and then get them to me.  If I was in a position to buy a new(er) car, I'd definitely consider Mercedes after the experience with them, and I'm not even that keen on their cars anymore..

[dieselassist]

...In Ireland, if your a cash buyer, a Ford is actually one brand of 'new' car you can buy direct from a long established second hand car dealer; you give him/her a months or so notice n you can, dictate what spec you want - said second hand dealer will tell the buyer that there'll be 'delivery mileage' on it, as it 'has to come from Dublin, er the port' - like some pleb is driving it down from Dublin, but it will be a ford with some decent spec on it with maybe 70-150 miles on it for the list price of a 'base/poverty model' ; obviously a returned motor,/ failed PCP 'proposal due to bad credit or one that's 'got out the back door', as the dealership is struggling for sales no's...

[cort1977]

Being from nearly Essex I grew up with Ford's, seemed like everyone had an uncle/cousin/grandad who worked at Fords and could get some kind of discount so the whole area was stuffed with them.  Sierra Cosworth was the halo car for the brand at the time and I used to love seeing them hooning round Southend in the mid-90s. 

 

I like that they are cheap, handle well and seem to take a lot of abuse.  A CVH may sound like a bag of spanners but you could rev them out to 6000 without too much complaint.  Although there are a lot of better cars out there, nearly all of them in fact, I will still always have some affection for the blue oval.