Thoughts on purchasing a Ford Mondeo

Dr.Winston O'Boogie · 14-01-2015 9:16am #1

Hi all, just looking for some advise. Currently driving a 99 BMW 318, I love the car but I now commute to work with an hours drive in total (sometimes more) so the fuel costs are going through the roof. Also have a newborn child so space wise the BMW isn't the best. Basically going to be looking for something that goes easy on the petrol and has more boot room (my car doesn't have the option to put down the back seats to create more room).

From my own tentative research I was looking at a Ford Mondeo (second hand). I reckon I could get about 1500 for my car so that would be my budget.

Any thoughts? Would a Mondeo be better for a family car/fuel efficency or am I off the mark?

barney 20v · 14-01-2015 9:42am

Buy a Diesel if you are changing and commute+1 hr to work daily.
Loads of good quality TDCI monedos around.
Ps i've a ST Tdci mondeo and i find it plenty big enough for the family and very nice to drive.

bazz26 · 14-01-2015 9:43am

What year Mondeo are you looking at as there are 4 generations of Mondeo. Also what sort of annual mileage are you doing and style of driving, i.e. city driving or long commutes?

Dr.Winston O'Boogie · 14-01-2015 9:48am

bazz26 wrote: »

What year Mondeo are you looking at as there are 4 generations of Mondeo. Also what sort of annual mileage are you doing and style of driving, i.e. city driving or long commutes?

Well I would try to get as up to date as possible but as I said my budget is about €1500. Seems to be a few about for that price stretching from years 2003-2006.

Averaging about 14,000 km a year going by my calculations for the work commute. Wouldn't be driving it far other than that. The commute is from west Co.Dublin to Naas.

There is a 2003 Ford Mondeo I was looking at for 1200, would that be a decent generation?

http://www.adverts.ie/car/ford/mondeo/2003-ford-mondeo-for-sale/7201526?notification=0a3373fb382810695cb8c48a8958c5cf-1421194294#comment_42663237

_Brian · 14-01-2015 9:59am

He's had it 9 months, seems to have done quite a bit of work and yet no NCT, there would be better options out there considering he doesn't specify the milage either.
At the least you's need to get a good mechanic to look it over, but I'd probably say steer clear.

bazz26 · 14-01-2015 10:00am

Being honest, other than the split folding seat which I can understand, I don't really see the point in upgrading as 14k km is still really small annual mileage to make any significant savings on fuel. Plus you also have the risk of buying another car that you don't know that might be a money pit.

Dr.Winston O'Boogie · 14-01-2015 10:02am

bazz26 wrote: »

Being honest, other than the split folding seat which I can understand, I don't really see the point in upgrading as 14k km is still really small annual mileage to make any significant savings on fuel. Plus you also have the risk of buying another car that you don't know that might be a money pit.

True, sick of the high tax on the BMW as well though and generally if anything goes wrong they are lot more to fix. Plus as I said now we are putting buggies etc in boot we are finding the option not to be able to lower the back seats an issue.

bazz26 · 14-01-2015 10:06am

Mondeo diesel motor tax is the nearly the same as your 318i. It's fairly hard to find a decent, tidy diesel car of that age and price range. An Octavia is worth having a look at too, they are a hatchback so the boot can swallow alot more than a saloon.

Nono Toure · 18-01-2015 4:41pm

I had a 2004 Mondeo for a couple of years, sold it not long back. It was the 1.8L petrol one. Found it a great car, never gave me an ounce of bother. It wasn't hard on petrol like some people make out!

Plus, compared to the BMW, I'd imagine costs on repairing it isn't half as expensive. GF had a Beemer before, broke her heart, parts were awful expensive.

Good space in the Mondeo, seats go down in the back as well.

Idbatterim · 18-01-2015 7:10pm

the tax on the mondeo at 2L will be marginally more than bm...

Dr.Winston O'Boogie · 19-01-2015 10:46am

Yeah had overlooked the tax, it may be more expensive but the year to year running would probably be less (I presume).

Nono Toure · 19-01-2015 3:34pm

Dr.Winston O'Boogie wrote: »

Yeah had overlooked the tax, it may be more expensive but the year to year running would probably be less (I presume).

The tax is annoying alright, it is on all older cars! For the 1.8L it's €352 per 6 months if you didn't want to do it all in one go for the yesr (€636) but in terms of the running costs it's not much. In the 2 years I had mine, I only put brakes on once, and did 2 services. Plus it was chain driven, so I didn't have to do the timing belt at all which saved a bit of money too.

There's a few on donedeal I see that might interest you, depends on whether you want to travel.

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/ford-mondeo-lx-automatic-one-owner/6992913?offset=10

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/ford-mondeo-with-nct-for-sale/8465505?offset=11

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/04-ford-mondeo-1-8-zetec-just-passed-nct/8251936?offset=1

http://cars.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/ford-mondeo/8279593?offset=20

Thoughts on purchasing a Ford Mondeo

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