Have 04mondeo gia x what to buy or should i hold onto it?

tvjunki

Can you help me decide whether to repair or buy another car?

I have a mondeo gia x 04 and it has about 80k miles on it. Diesel. 5 cd player. Full leather. Heated seats etc.

Bought it from 6months old. As you an imagine well loved if held onto it this length of time.

Now clutch and flywheel need to be changed. This will cost around 700-800 to replace. My mechanic knows I love the car and he said that once one thing goes other things will go. Do pay €700 per year in road tax due to old road tax rates. Insurance is €450 fully comp.

I dont know whether to repair or trade in for another a year old car. I know I will not get much for it but its spec is good. I did get the alloys redone and car polished last year and the guy said he would buy it off me when I wanted to sell it. I love the car but I know that paying out €800 for a car that might not be even worth that may be silly but love the spec and trying to find something that is similar and is reliable.

Any suggestions would be welcome of an alternative. I was looking to buy in from the North but cannot decide what to buy. Brexit has affected buying from the UK.

chicorytip

If you like the car keep it. It's low mileage and well maintained so why spend twenty thousand or so on a new model. A car is an asset that depreciates in value from day one, unlike a house. The cost of insuring your current car will increase the older it gets and motor tax is more expensive. Those are the main drawbacks of running an older vehicle. Replacing the clutch and flywheel is a job you would expect needing to be carried out anyway. Those are wear and tear items. The rest of the car is not suddenly going to fall to bits. The point you make about importing from the UK post Brexit is correct. There is better value to be had at home now except for auction vehicles which can be a lottery.

User1998

What would be your budget for a new car?

tvjunki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550124#Comment_118550124

Spoke to my mechanic today and he said if I plan to sell within the year then do nothing as it will not affect the trade in value. The rest of the engine and car is good with low mileage.

Just a thought..was thinking if I buy a newer car then my insurance will go up, road tax goes down but could be paying out the similar as what I am paying if not more. Hard decision to make.

shane b

Have you the budget for a 1 year car? Also at 5k miles a year you should buy a petrol. Buying a diesel and driving those low miles may cause you pdf issues.

Personally I'd spend the money and keep it.

I'm biased though as I'm just after spending 1700 euro on a 09 top spec Octavia but with twice the mileage.

tvjunki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550150#Comment_118550150

At minute have around 30k budgeted.

go to mister-auto.ie with registration number. find price of clutch kit with flywheel. prices seem to be reasonable but do not know the exact model of mondeo.

...or ring a ford dealer parts desk in the north.

if the car has been fit for purpose for the last 17 years then you can eek a few more years out of it until the choice of EVs becomes wider which is where you should be aiming next.

800 euro isn't very high quote. If you have a good relationship which you wish to maintain with your mechanic maybe haggle a bit but give him the job as good mechanics are harder to find than cheap parts.

tvjunki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118551464#Comment_118551464

Before this car I was driving about 20 k miles a year and changed every 2-3 years. I have been driving a company car so not using my one as much for long distances. Last few years doing even less due to Covid restrictions.

It is a lovely car doing long distance drives and loves the motorway. You don’t even feel the road in it. It hugs the road. There I go getting emotional over a car. I do try to give it a good run to clear the engine up the North and down South.

Good luck with your new car.

The prices of second hand vehicles have massively increased due to lack of supply. Brexit, exchange and nox tax has really affected what cars are bought in.

shane b

Sorry should clarified part of my post. The car is not new to me, i have it 3 years. The 1700 euro included a 2nd hand engine, new clutch and flywheel.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118551465#Comment_118551465

Does it really need a new clutch? I would keep driving it for now and trade it in/sell when it really needs to be done

monkeybutter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058230344/have-04mondeo-gia-x-what-to-buy-or-should-i-hold-onto-it

You have surely done the timing belt on it right 😀

But financially, with the low mileage you are doing, repair and keep makes the most sense

offering cash in advance when leaving the car in for an agreed repair is a way to haggle. It is a 6 hour job. maybe less if the Mechanic launches in to it early in morning and decides to push lunch out.

tvjunki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118551592#Comment_118551592

That must have hurt. That would have been a bit is a shock.

tvjunki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118551655#Comment_118551655

Getting a bit noisy the last few weeks so hearing it is slightly off.

tvjunki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118551672#Comment_118551672

Yes timing belt changed a few years ago when it was due. Cannot remember the official time the timing belt had to be changed but I was changed.

AMKC

You want my honest opinion Scrap it. Honestly horrible hateful cars that model Mondeo. Horrible yokes. A lada would be nicer than it. A least the lada would have charather.

It's this mondeo that killed Mondeo man buy the way and the Mondeo as a model to buy too.

The 2nd worst Ford car ever after the Escourt.

Never mind my post OP. It sounds like you have a good Mondeo not a horrible bog standard model which is what we had and why I hated it so much.

Do the clutch and keep it going.

bazz26

Ah would you stop. Scrap a car because you don't like the model. Awaits the obligatory Kia Sportage or Dacia Jogger recommendation now.

lalababa

Yerra drive on...

Car99

Maintain it well and continue driving it. It sounds like you like it and it meets you needs. A newer car will need maintaing too and in my experience new cars cost alot more to fix when they go wrong.

MiketheMechanic

Do the clutch and keep it for another while, OP. You like the car. Keep saving for a newer EV or petrol hybrid that will make you as happy as the Mondeo obviously does.

Leonard Hofstadter

As others have said, if you like the Mondeo, why get rid of it? Cars have gotten so expensive now and as your mechanic points out, it's not going to go anywhere in value. Nothing wrong at all with having an old car and loving it. Just keep it until such time as the engine or gearbox gives up, or you get rust on the sills to the point of it being an NCT failure - at that point it is definitely time to re-assess the situation as you are in the 'uneconomical to repair' territory then.

The days of cars this age being unreliable and uncomfortable death traps are long, long gone; even cars from this far back have all the essentials like air con, buttons on the steering wheel etc and obviously if you've a Ghia X you've some nice other luxuries, so there isn't really much you're missing out on (apart from infotainment I will concede). Remember the Mondeo was a 5 star car in the safety tests back in the day, and it has six airbags, ABS and probably has traction/stability control, too, so while of course the standards of crash protection have moved on, an 18 year old car today is a completely different proposition to an 18 year old car in 2004 (really, any car since the late 90s / early 2000s is perfectly safe, as that's when the NCAP crash tests came in and my goodness were many cars from before this era bad at protecting their occupants and obviously 80s cars did not have ABS or airbags).

Most of the stuff a car like a 2004 Mondeo doesn't have compared to a modern car is stuff you don't need anyway, like stupid touch screens and stupid so-called driver aids, both of which are very distracting and annoying in the real world, so you're better off sticking with what you have until it drops. An 04 Mondeo would still have hydraulic power assisted steering which is far more communicative than the numb electric steering we're treated to in newer cars, so you've way more of a sense of what the car is up to on the road (which is a safety feature in and of itself).

tvjunki

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. Will now order the parts and get the clutch replaced.

The reason why I bought this car was because of the great reviews on the design and safety.

This car was the second car registered of this type model in the country when I brought it in from the Uk.

The Ghia X spec in the UK had all the spec at the time. We have to pay extra here for what is standard in the cars in the Uk. This car did have everything added as a Ford garage director was the original owner.

This car has a lovely drive on the motorway. You do not even feel the road when you are on the higher speed and you feel safe in it. It has air con, heated seats, power steering. Leather interiors and wood panelling. Cruise control, 18 inch alloys. It has 5 CD player. Chrome trim. Metallic paint. Parking sensors and elbow rest in back. Blue tooth. Boot bigger that others. Air bags. A lot to loose with the newer cars.

Agreed not mad on new cars digital screens, reversing cameras, fancy start cards, push button starts. The idea of google and the likes tracking you is not what I want.