Hello all,
Anticipating a replacement for my trusty Cavalier sometime in next 6 months. Keeping it shortish, after research on this forum and others I have come to the conclusion that the new shape Mondeo 1.8 will easily handle in comfort my 300 mile weekly commute and accommodate the breadknife & two kids and associated gubbins, good handling, cheap to repair, good mpg 45+ m'ways, depreciation will have levelled out on the +/-60k "Y" reg I'm looking for.
I have researched Avensis, Legend, Mondeo TDCI and Vectra as direct competitors, and discounted all, what I would like to know is am I missing something?, either on the opinion I have on the mondeo or a car I have not thought of.
Budget 5k looking at purchase from auction
Cheap to insure, repair, get pattern parts for and DIY jobs on
Hold the family kit
Reliable.
Comments and opinions welcome,
Thanks
Ellis
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Watch out for rusty door bottoms near drain holes, sticking handbrake (make sure it frees off) and if it is an LX - distorted rear plastic wheel trims (as a result of sticking brakes). Also, check the washers front and rear (the pumps "break up" apparently)
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I can't fault your logic and there seems to be plenty of really good new shape Mondeos now available for £5k.
We too have a trusty Cavalier and a 2000 (old shape) Mondeo, which was meant to replace the Cavalier, but it's still going strong at the moment!
The only negative point I would make is that the new shape Mondeo is much larger than the Cavalier. It's much larger than the old Mondeo and we certainly notice a big difference from the Cavalier sloting into supermarket bays and town centre parking slots!
Good luck with your search.
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Keep trawling and don't pay too much.....
Just collecting tonight an old shape Dec 2000 2.0 Zetec hatchback with 61K on it for £3995 from a non Ford dealer. Coming with 12 months warranty, Full MOT, 6 months tax.
Looking forward to cheap reliable motoring....
Charles
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Try and get a 2ltr new shape.
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Just offloading my 2001 1.8 for................ another 1.8.
Buy one, you will not be disappointed. Mine has done 28k mixed miles and is basically the same as when I bought "new" from Motorpoint. There were a few trim issues when I collected it but that was soon sorted as I stopped at my local Ford dealership on the way home.
I have driven, been passenger in or crawled over all the competitors and none can hold a candle to it. Including a 3 series BMW and an A4. I even thought of a Volvo S60 as areplacement and being honest it is a better looking car than the Mondeo but the interior was awful. The leather trim looked more sausage skin than animal skin.
Honest John recommends the car very highly and I agree with him 100%. Badge snobbery be damned, it is a superb car and if you do go for one get the Zetec if your budget runs to it for the alloys and other bits.
Enjoy
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Have to agree with most of the above.
I have driven lots of cars over the last year or two including new Vectra (many times in all variants) Merc. C-class, BMW 300 and 500, various A4's. Never a Volvo S60 though.
The worst thing about the 2000- Mondeo is the Ford badge. In all other respects I can't think of a reason to choose any of the others. At the kind of prices the Mondeo now sells for its an absolute steal. Avoid the auto though, its still a dog.
Also agree that the 'new' Mondeo is a lot bigger than the old one - in fact it is a totally different car and in a different (much higher) class than the old one.
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Thanks for all replies, always good to have one's views verified by others who have direct experience.
Seen a couple of Y reg's around the 60 - 90k mark in Autotrader for approx £5.5 - £6k, anyone any ideas about auction prices for Mondeos of this age and mileage?
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Dear Prospective Mondeo Man
Here is an example of what you can expect
Manheim Auctions
Ford Mondeo 1.8LX latest shape - red
2001/Y 72K warranted
£4600
GE Capital Fleet 11 March 2004
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Correction it was a 2001/51 plate and not a 2001/Y
All other details the same.
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And1,
That price seems good for an '01, do you have any preference of Manheim over BCA, I have both fairly nearby, also is that a fairly representative auction price for this type of car at present?
To all,
are there any great advantages of a ZETEC over a non-ZETEC?
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Confusingly, Ford use Zetec with two meanings. The first is to do with the engine, and the second is a trim level.
In trim terms, Zetec is between LX and Ghia. Depending on the year, it adds alloys, front fog lights, body coloured mouldings, electric rear windows, leather gear knob/steering wheel.
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As a private customer, your buyers premium will be (slightly) lower at BCA, than Manheim.
But you'll work that in with your total budget, I guess. Best try a couple dry runs at your nearest centre.
& I'll promote Auctionview link once more, to our left!!
VB
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"modeo man" ah there's the rub, forever you will be the politicians example of Mr Joe Average.
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Its a shame Vauxhall don't still make the Cavalier - it would probably still be in the top 10 best sellers list! Only joking. Keep driving your Cavalier until it is terminally ill. Its probably worth between £1500 and £50 now and you'll probably get another five reliable years out of it. I agree with the other comment about the new Mondeo being so much bigger. Having sat in a new Vectra it seemed about as big as an Omega not a replacement for the previous Vectra.
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Have to give a resounding YES on this one.
Ignore the Ford badge and you get a very good car for very little money indeed. Just over a month ago, I took advantage of the shocking residual value of the Mondeo and picked up a lovely 2.0 Ghia X, 1 owner from new, full Ford SH on a V plate for £2650. I'm over the moon with it - it's brilliant, its fully loaded with leather, aircon, trip computer, cruise, full electrics, its only just over 4 years old, and cost under £3k. Just over 4 years ago, it cost £20,995
Where else can you get value like that? I could have spent similar money and got an older VW Polo with windup windows. It was a no-brainer, really.
It's a joy to drive, and servicing is a very reasonable £79 a year (I never do enough mileage to go past the servicing interval in a year) at my local Ford Main dealers Rapidfit centre.
I'd imagine one of the early Mk3's would make a similarly good deal :)
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Thats seriously cheap for a ghia x v plate with 90k if the price is after auction fees and Joe's profit- is that price right? I'm intersted where he bought it!
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I got it out of the Autotrader in the end, it has just over 100k on the clock. Held fire on declaring it a bargain until it went into the main dealer for its service, where despite spending 20 minutes looking for things to charge me for they could only find that it needed new brakepads :)
Happy with that :D
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Well done- sounds like a great buy to me. I paid 2200 for a w plate glx hatch with 100k at the end of jan. Yours sounds cheap. Do you know if it has had the cam-belt changed? I got mine done as soon as i bought it, and changed the brake fluid too.
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It hadn't had a cambelt, so I changed it immediatly :)
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Just given back a rented Mondeo TDCI Estate which I had for 2 weeks and 800km. I can confirm most of the views above, certainly if you need space it knocks spots off any of the competition except (in my experience) the Passat and it's far nicer to drive than a Vectra. The 1.8 petrol is a much smoother engine than the rather agricultural diesel.
The biggest practical problem I found was the size of the thing. I have a space in an underground car park at home which has variously been occupied by rented Passats, 3 and 5 series BMW's, C and E Class Mercs and various other medium sized cars which I managed to park without difficulty. The Mondeo required several attempts to get in and out of the space. This unwieldiness seemed to be related to both the generous external dimensions and a poor turning circle and was accerbated by the typically crunchy Ford reverse gear.
For the money, though, all in all a good buy - secondhand.
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Smoother? All diesels sound coarser... because that's the sound they make. But the drive of the diesel is as smooth as it gets.
Agricultural? Tosh!
I know the 1.8 is a fine engine but give me the diesel any day (even at a premium).
Splodgeface
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Some diesels are smoother than others. From my experienc, the PSA diesels are as smooth and refined as you can get.
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