Faults:

Throttle cable started to fray at 70k. Changed as a precaution (UKP 18 for a genuine Ford part)

Otherwise faultless - consumables/servicing only.

General Comments:

One of the best bargains on the road.

Great to drive, fantastic handling, gutsy (if slightly noisy) engine, confidence inspiring brakes and solid build quality. As an all rounder you really can't do better without spending significantly more.

All day comfy thanks to great seats and more driving position adjustment than I have ever seen on any car.

More reliable and just as well screwed together as my previous 1998 Passat. Much more of a drivers car too. Excellent ABS which doesn't cut in unnecessarily - most mainstream manufacturers (including VW) can't do this.

Some shiny plastics let the interior down, but there's no faulting the design, ergonomics or construction quality. Bombproof mechanicals have needed no attention between services and if this engine didn't breeze 150,000 miles based on current feel at 77k I would be astonished. Run it on good semi synthetic 5W/30 oil and it will go on and on.

33 mpg average with low insurance costs. Depreciation if you buy at 4+ years old is negligible. A very cheap car to own.

A safe, solidly engineered, great handling and utterly dependable car available for absolute peanuts. Cheap parts, helpful and reasonably priced dealers if you put the effort into finding them, and it owes me in total, with depreciation and maintenance factored in, about four months PCP payments on a new mid spec 3-series. I guess it depends how much "image" is worth.

Faults:

I bought this car with a FSH from the agents.

After only 4 days the front right shock BROKE! The aircon didn't work and after having it repaired under warranty, it still did not work (and still doesn't).

Various other small things have gone wrong with the car. The water coolant bottle cracked open, the water pump failed and all the auxiliary belts snapped (in close succesion) leaving me stranded on the side of the road on more than one occasion.

At around 156000km the engine appears to have reached the end of its life. It idles very strangely and occasionally backfires. There is a complete lack of power and the car stalls at various times.

Ford lives up to its poor name (even in SA) and the service leaves much to be desired. I was once charged for various filters that I was told were replaced (fuel, oil, cabin air filter, etc) only to discover that they were old filters and soime werent even there! There appears to be no Mondeo mechanics employed by Ford SA!!! They simply do not know how to service/fix this car at all.

General Comments:

Generally (when the car was working) this is a good car. It has lots of power with a very flat torque curve providing plenty of smiles!

It handles as if on rails and is very stable at high speeds.

Fuel consumption is horrendous even at legal speeds and seems to get worse as time goes by.

Great refinement all over, but poor service backing from Ford.