Ford Mondeo or toyota avensis diesel estates. - which one is the best and most reliable

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Wed 18 Jan 2012 15:51
Ford Mondeo or toyota avensis diesel estates. - which one is the best and most reliable - phil 123

i am thinking of buying a second hand mondeo or avensis diesel estate.

mondeo 07 onwards( new shape) and avensis 06 onwards,i would imagine for £5000

they would have at least 100,000 miles on the clock. dont know a lot about cars so

any advice on engine / reliability / what to look out for etc would be great.

thanks phil123.

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Wed 18 Jan 2012 16:10
Ford Mondeo or toyota avensis diesel estates. - which one is the best and most reliable - corax

It depends on the history of the vehicle you buy. At that mileage, unless you personally know the owner, you won't know how it's been driven, important with a diesel engine. Also you will want to know if any faults that have cropped up have been fixed properly and not bodged. I don't have much knowledge of the Ford but Toyota's of that era can suffer from cracked head gaskets - Toyota may fix out of warranty but only if the car has a full Toyota history.

Really, for that budget and mileage and no manufacturers warranty, it's pot luck whether you can run either reliably - stick to a petrol for (more) peace of mind. Otherwise, increase the budget and buy a diesel with a manufacturers warranty.

Edited by corax on 18/01/2012 at 16:13

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Wed 18 Jan 2012 16:28
Ford Mondeo or toyota avensis diesel estates. - which one is the best and most reliable - phil 123

thanks for your reply, would it make any diferance if i went for a 07 or 08 avensis (newer engine design)or perhaps one with lower mileage.

do the petrol ones not suffer as much with cracked heads.

cheers phil123.

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Wed 18 Jan 2012 17:00
Ford Mondeo or toyota avensis diesel estates. - which one is the best and most reliable - skidpan

thanks for your reply, would it make any diferance if i went for a 07 or 08 avensis (newer engine design)or perhaps one with lower mileage.

Choose the right Mondeo and it won't have DPF, one less thing to worry about. All Avensis have them.

Personally I would not buy a used diesel, you would never know if it been missfueled for starters and is why lots of diesels are sold, our old Mondeo was at any rate.

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Wed 18 Jan 2012 17:08
Ford Mondeo or toyota avensis diesel estates. - which one is the best and most reliable - oldtoffee

Avensis petrol engines seem to enjoy a reputation for very good fuel economy so in common with the fears over old diesels already expressed I'd be scanning Autotrader and seeing what I could get for £1k less that your budgetting on a diesel and that's the fuel cost difference covered for an awful lot of miles.

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Wed 18 Jan 2012 17:53
Ford Mondeo or toyota avensis diesel estates. - which one is the best and most reliable - corax

thanks for your reply, would it make any diferance if i went for a 07 or 08 avensis (newer engine design)or perhaps one with lower mileage.

do the petrol ones not suffer as much with cracked heads.

cheers phil123.

The only thing the petrol engine suffers from is high oil consumption due to bore/piston ring wear - as far as I know Toyota sorted this from around 2003 onwards.

I have a 2007 1.8 petrol Avensis and so far it's been faultless. Does on average around 38mpg on my dual carriageway/urban commute. Will easily do mid 40's on a cruise. If you test one make sure the driving position is comfortable and the seats fit you - I find the squab too short and the seat/pedal relationship wrong for my legs, so I'll be looking a for a new car this year. But apart from that the car is excellent with very good ride quality. The suspension was improved 2006 onwards.

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Wed 18 Jan 2012 18:34
Ford Mondeo or toyota avensis diesel estates. - which one is the best and most reliable - brignac

Another vote for the 1,8 Avensis petrol estate. We have a 06 with 80,000 on the clock and it's very good. Sailed through MOT today in fact wilth nothing needed. Comfortable cruiser and will carry loads of gear. We take a canoe on ours etc.

Mondeo is I think a bit bigger which could be important. Toyota is good on fuel making diesel not worth it - unless you drive 20,000 miles a year.

Petrol Avensis estates are hard to find used - I found - could be that people keep hold of them?

B

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Wed 18 Jan 2012 22:29
Ford Mondeo or toyota avensis diesel estates. - which one is the best and most reliable - phil 123

thanks for all your information,seems like the petrol avensis is worth looking at.

does any one have any info on the diesel mondeos 2007 onwards.

thanks phil.

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Thu 19 Jan 2012 06:37
Ford Mondeo or toyota avensis diesel estates. - which one is the best and most reliable - oldtoffee

HJ's car by car review, what's bad on 2007 Mondeos here:

www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/ford/mondeo-iv-2007/...d

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Thu 19 Jan 2012 07:16
Ford Mondeo or toyota avensis diesel estates. - which one is the best and most reliable - thunderbird

When we changed cars about 18 months ago the Avensis Tourer 1.8 was one we tested, had a 1.6 TDCi Focus at the time. We liked the car but the engine was a gutless wonder in a car that size. OK it had 140+ bhp acording to the brochure but we could not find them. I would suspect if you drove it like you stole it to get decent performance the fuel economy would be appaling. Wanted to try a diesel but dealer had none.

We bought another Turbo Diesel car but if you want to try a petrol with an excellent engine and more space than the Avensis try the Skoda Octavia 122 bhp 1.4 TSi Estate. Superb engine, good drive but if you are under 5ft 4 the driving position will be impossible, it was for the wife. Watch the tyres as well, one we drove was on Dunlops and was deafening, the one on Bridgestones was fine.

Had a TDCi 2.0 Mondeo a few years ago, perfectly reliable and very roomy car but the new model is just way too big externally IMHO.

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Thu 19 Jan 2012 07:50
Ford Mondeo or toyota avensis diesel estates. - which one is the best and most reliable - craig-pd130

I had a 2008 2.0 Zetec diesel estate for three and a half years and nearly 40k miles. It needed two brake light bulbs in that time, on top of the annual service.

According to the Ford forums, they seem to be reliable into the 100K+ miles territory. The DPF system on the Mondeo / SMax / Galaxy seems to be robust, very few reported issues apart from the occasional duff sensor.

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