Cheap Mondeo - should I?

Personally prefer the Mondeo we have now over the Sierra for refined ride, quietness and comfort. The Sierra we had was much more *fun* though :)

Lee

Also sprach "Boothby" :-

No. They're crooks like everyone (present company excepted) else in the motor trade.

Still a Mondeo.

I've just searched, and there are 3 Mondeo in my area

Boothby ( snipped-for-privacy@all.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Where Are You?

It'll be s**te. At best it'll be DOG slow. Golfs are normally very expensive for age and mileage, which suggests that this is fooked.

Age? I suspect this should be your next car.

Boothby ( snipped-for-privacy@all.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

So hardly the arse end of nowhere.

Are dealers charities round you?

No. Never have been. What's 150k miles? clue: Motorway or town miles?

Mileage is irrelevant. Condition is everything. Always has been. Always will be. I'd *FAR* rather have a 5yo car with 150k of motorway miles than the same car with 20k of never getting warm.

No, of course not. At your budget, that's not the most important thing, though.

No, you need cheap maintenance. Buying a £900 Mondeo which needs a clutch in a month is going to be a total false economy. At least with a Sierra you can *see* if it's rotten or not - and that's going to kill it. With a Mondeo, it'll be the hidden repair costs that kill it.

You really ought to be looking at that 306.

Still a lot of car for the money IMO!

Granted, there are lots of private sellers who make the car sound great and it turns out to be a sack of the proverbial. But...keep looking and you

*will* find one you like and let's face it - you only need to find one good car out of all the ads. When I was hunting this time last year for a cheap run-around I went to see about five cars all described as VGC before I bought the one I've had for the last year (ironically, it had higher mileage than all of the others I'd seen!).

A dealer that's been around for ages doesn't offer any peace of mind at all unless they're willing to put a decent warranty on the car (say 6 months, unlimited mileage and covering all mechanical components) - and at the price you're paying I think that's very unlikely. As for MOTs, provided the bodywork is sound and there's no clouds of smoke from the exhaust then it should really only fail on steering, suspension or brakes - none of which are massively expensive to rectify on a standard car. Either way, if you spend half of £900 on the car and a further £200 on bits for the MOT it still works out cheaper and you know exactly what bits have been replaced and what will need to be done.

I'd recommend a 414 (I had one for two years and did a lot of motorway runs up to Lancaster, often with a caravan attached) but the weak gearboxes put me off as when mine went it cost £150 to be overhauled with ME removing and refitting it. Never had any problems with the head gasket though. I did buy a 416GTi a few months back (described as head gasket blown but other than a knackered radiator it was fine) for £40 for spares for my diesel - that was a quick car. The GTi has twin-cam Honda engine, all the other 1.6 are single-cam.

If your 214 has been reliable then why not spend some money getting it fixed? As long as it isn't bodywork then it's probably your cheapest option. IME the Rover 200/400 series has very good bodywork and isn't usually what sends them to the scrapyard. The 800 I had also had good bodywork but that was a 1997 model a few years ago! Time will tell what this new 600 series is like for rust...

I'd say many give up long before then so they may have already been replaced. Either way, if you can do them yourself they're not expensive bits to replace. Also there's a good chance that a young car with many miles has spent it's life on the motorway (especially the larger cars) which is far less stressful than town journeys.

They're not as comfortable or quiet as the Mondeo, but they were the reps choice (along with the Cavalier) for motorway driving before the Mondeo arrived. I had a Y reg 2.3 Ghia estate which I used to travel all over the country with during one of my earlier jobs. Whatever car you go for, try and get the highest spec you can afford as they usually get better seats and luxuries such as air-con and a decent stereo.

I liked the old Sierras and Granadas - if I could find a high-spec one that didn't have rotten rear arches or sills then I might be tempted myself. If you can find a Montego that doesn't have a rusty rear arch then that might also be worth a look as they'll be cheap too, even the 7 seater TD estate which returns >50mpg!

Darren

The most important thing to find out is if or when the clutch was changed. They can last well over 100k miles but when they do wear out it's a bitch of a job involving removing the engine, gearbox and subframe. I'd say that any old Mondeo needing a clutch soon is worth very little. One that's just had it's clutch done will be a good car for another 10 years or so.

Suspension bushes wear out every 40k miles on the early cars and early gearboxes can crunch into third gear. The metal coolant pipe that runs round the back of the engine rusts through but isn't an expensive fix. The engines themselves last for ever if cared for. The bodies don't rust at all. A lot of car for the money, especially if you get a Ghia model.

In news:cr24p4$3a3$ snipped-for-privacy@newsg4.svr.pol.co.uk, Boothby decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Um, the K series isn't a Honda engine, but it's the best engine they ever put in a 200 Rover.

Pete M ( snipped-for-privacy@blue-nopressedmeat-yonder.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I think he realises that...

Hence the "good - I had no probs except for head gasket" - which implies that he liked the rest of the car...

I've liked the K-series powered Rovers I've had. But then, I didn't suffer head gasket probs with 'em. I lean towards the "no such thing as a totally unexplained failure theory", but who the hell ever checks the header tank level THAT regularly?

In message , mrcheerful . writes

You're having a laugh! When the Mondeo was launched it was probably the best driving car that Ford had produced.

In message , Pete M writes

I was rather fond of my Mk2 Cav. Drove well, easy to work on, clutch removal with gearbox in situ was a great idea. If only manufacturers could use that feature on modern cars.

I am certain they were wonderful (according to road tests and they are never biased are they?), however a 12 year old mondeo usually drives like a loose bag of nails. my 20 year old sierra still drives with precision (by comparison) and I would not swap my sierra for any mondeo (to keep), even though the old girl (the car) is getting very rusty.

mrcheerful

In message , mrcheerful .

Sorry but I've owned a few Mondeos (driving one at the moment) and they never drove like a loose bag of nails.

They go saggy with age

In news:+lP3usCIpa1BFwTI@10.0.0.3, Paul Giverin decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

I agree that the clutch idea is a good one.

I still stand by my comment that GM have never made a decent FWD car.

(That's GM not including Saab, which is probably a cop out)

in a word, don't

Also sprach "Tim S Kemp" :-

Don't we all.

That's enough about this one, where's the details for the cheap one?