Highly recommended as a towcar
Rear brake calipers replaced at 45,000 miles.
Exhaust system only available at Ford dealers and is very expensive to replace.
A good comfortable car to drive.
Engine is good but not refined.
The 4x4 makes this a great car for towing my caravan.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 13th April, 2001
Badly made, fast, dull and easy to hate
Catalytic converter 4 TIMES!
Various engine faults.
Exhaust.
Drank huge amounts of oil and far more petrol than it should have needed to.
Paint was unbelievably soft (car wash a big no-no!)
Horrible. OK, so it wasn't looked after very well before we had it, but it was still unreliable, uncomfortable and easy to lose in the car park. Went like a bomb and great for the motorway, but little else.
Dealer was useless and "forgot" to do anything to it when it went in for repairs once.
Cabin is like an aircraft cockpit with that dashboard and back end is too bouncy for back-seat passengers.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 8th February, 2001
I've got a 1995 mondeo 1.6LX, its not a very good car, good on fuel, but very underpowered, suspension bushes last about 1 year only! I have put it through 2 MOT's and it cost £300 a time, might not bother with another.
I agree. I wouldn't have another through choice. Mine was pretty reliable, I didn't spend a penny on it in the 6 months I had it, 2.0 is quite pokey, but far too thirsty. I also agree that the paint isn't very durable. It's useful as a cheap throwaway car these days.
My 96 example has just gone to the scrapyard with 211,000 miles on the clock. Still drove perfectly, but developed an ABS fault which was going to cost more than the car was worth to put right.
Had a mechanic check the engine over at 190,000 miles and found compressions and oil pressure still within factory tolerances. Still performed brilliantly (2.0), returned low 30's mpg and started in all weathers. All the interior gadgets still worked, the interior cleaned up well, and apart from the inevitable stone chips and the odd parking dink, so did the outside.
Can't agree with any of the negative comments above. Part of the reason these are so popular as taxis is because they run forever if looked after. If I could have been bothered, I could probably have fixed my ABS fault for less than £100 using a local breakers for parts, but I fancied a change anyway.
Took delivery of a 12 month old ST TDCi last week which I hope is half as good.
Don't pull out of a junction in a hurry!
Nothing in 3 days!
This was a hire car, so perhaps needed more time to get used to it. As it was, this was the worst car I've ever driven. Spongy brakes, unresponsive steering, slushy gearbox etc.
Worst of all was the performance: felt like a milk float pulling away from junctions, almost dangerously slow!
Did pick up when the turbo kicked in though.
Perhaps this was just a poorly looked after hire car - I thought Mondeos were meant to be good.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 15th July, 2000
Diesel-engined cars are like that - you just have to drive them accordingly and I don't think you've had the experience in such a short distance to comment so severely. I had a similar diesel for four years and it was spritely when pushed - but never like my new v6 Mondeo! Horses for courses, dude.
Yes, diesel's require more attention when pulling off quickly. My neighbour has a Mondeo TD, and you can get an awesome take off, but firstly, you need to plant your foot to the floor to get the turbo spinning, wait till your at about 3500rpm when the turbo's in full swing and you have plenty of torque and then feed the clutch in. Results are very surprising! But if you get it wrong you can just sit there crawling along waiting for the turbo to kick in.
I have an old TD Mondeo - 184500 miles at present and its incredible. all started when I had my company car (a p-reg mondeo TD estate) which ran forver on no diesel, and never ever failed once in the 3 years I had it, so when this one came up I jumped at it. the only failing is the diesel primer pump (I'm on my 2nd in less than 6 months and its still getting air in somewhere). All diesels are sluggish, but give them enough stick and they fly. they're rapid, economical, and reliable. what else do you want?
I drove a 1.8 TD with over 150k on the clock, it requires a different driving technique, as others have said you need to get the turbo spinning to extract any performance. I wouldn't have said they were slow, they give a good account of themselves for what is a pretty small diesel engine for the size of car. You don't know slow until you have driven a Sierra 2.3 diesel.
13th Aug 2001, 16:01
I had a '95 70000 miler - hated the damn thing - kept it 6 months before the general rumbles, rattles and extreme thirst for petrol drove me mad. Oh yeah - the paint was awful too - looked 10 years old and not 4 when I had it. My advice - only buy one if it is at a giveaway price!