I don't think there' s such a thing as a best car.

Obviously you must have right number of seats, sufiient loadspace and capacity for towing, roorack/box etc if you need them.

Then there's fuel/engine size at which point subjectivity creeps in. And that's before driver comfort and all the oddities of height, weight bodily proportion and shoe size creep in.

Mondeo is well rated and with plentiful parts and prospect of cheap servicing etc. £7k at 5yo and 80,000 looks a bit much to me but others will have better idea.

Personally I've gone off conventional estates in favour of van derived cars that get same/bigger load onto a smaller ground footprint. Hav you looked at Pug Partner/Cit Berlingo or the Fiat Doblo?

My Mrs has a Mondeo 2.0 TDI Zetec estate 57 Reg, we got it in January when it was showing higher mileage at 101K but we paid substantially less,

It has a lot of extras too like Hands free, voice control, roof bars, spoiler, 17" alloys

Its in Perfect order with a full history and recently had a new clutch and all new brakes.

So I think 7 K is farroo much, for that money you could get a 59 plate or a lower mileage.

As a car they are great, comfy economical, lovely to drive and handle well. Parts and servicing should be fine as long as you go to a good independant garage not a main dealer, they are dishonest and rarely do anything properly in my experience

I have a MkIV mondeo estate. I paid ~£4000 at car Giant for a 100K 58 reg estate (In March 13) . I think you pay a lot more for Titanium than my base spec Edge. i think Zetec might be the best compromise. I don't have too many toys but I don't miss them really.

+ points it's massive for a family car

It's very safe just check out NCAP crash test on Youtube. It looks a lot safer even than a Focus. The degree of impact into the car safety cell is a lot less on the bigger modeo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oODejorfBrM vs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9hwQHVi8O4

I have 2.0 TDCI its economical (55 mpg indicated on 1 hr A road journeys) but has enough power for overtaking.

It's nice to drive once you get used to the size. parking is a bit awkward, it's really long and also wide.

-ve points mine came with steel wheels but I got some alloys with new tyres that worked out at £120 a corner so not too much more than tyres alone.

My estate feels a bit too family in a way but it drives really well. If it was a hatch it would feel altright and I'm sure it drives the same anyway

It's a lot better car than the Mk2 volvo S40 I replaced it with. Best car I've had, recomended. HJ gives it a good write up which was the basis of my choice and He's not wrong in my opinion. Check out a Zetec or even Edge model for better price.