Faults:

Airbag warning light came on for a few days. Changed a fuse, then it went away, odd!

General Comments:

Well, where do you start. I bought this to replace my beloved Calibra 16v, oh how I wish I'd kept it!

It's a 2 litre, yet it performs like a 1.3 or 1.4. Acceleration is very poor for a big engined car. Don't get me wrong, it will go a little, but the lower gears are too short and the higher gears too long meaning rubbish acceleration.

That said, it is a very quiet car considering it sits on 16" wheels with low-pro tyres.

The worst thing of all is the driving position, it is positively awkward, despite having height adjustment & lumbar support. I just can't get comfy in the thing and drive my girlfriends fiat instead whenever I can to save the backache it gives me.

Would I recommend you buy on of these cars? No.. The only choice I am left with is to either get the leather interior out of another Mundano (its new name) or sell it.. After having a relatively sporty Vauxhall, I wish I'd have saved a little more and got the Alfa Romeo I originally wanted.

I suppose it would be a great car if:

a) You drive slowly everywhere.

B) You want to walk like a hunch-back.

C) You have family and want a cheap car.

Any other reason, don't buy one! They are a hateful car and I wish I'd never bought it. I've never been so bored driving a car, and I arrive at my destination with a bad back every time!

My advice? Buy an Alfa Romeo 156 for the same price or thereabouts, more fun, more comfort and better looking.

If anybody wants a hateful, but clean Zetec Mondeo 2.0 in Panther Black metallic, give me a call with £1700 in your hand and its yours, that's with a 2 year warranty!

07740 368248

Faults:

Moosing (that dreadful noise when idling / on throttle / off throttle / town driving / motorway driving etc etc.)

Wishbone bushes.

Rear lights leaked.

Remote central locking was hit and miss.

General Comments:

Where do I start?!

I had a Sierra 2.9 V6 4x4 many years back, so when it came time to change my Saab I thought the Mondeo ST24 would be a fitting replacement.

I chose a one owner 99 ST24 which had a very full and comprehensive Ford history. Drove well on the test drive and was very clean inside and out.

Well, I kept it four weeks then sold it as in that time it drove me mad!

Starting was hit and miss with a warm engine, the gearbox was crunchier than a bowl of Rice Krispies, the clutch was more vague than a cloud's shadow, the throttle made the car jerk when applied or released (great in town), racket from the engine was not pleasant, the moosing noise was horrible and it felt like the car had been made as an aside to Ford's main business.

Upon advice from the Mondeo forum, I changed the air intake to a K&N induction kit to "stop it moosing". The net result was it got louder, and more annoying!

As for being a 'performance' model. Utter piffle! Frankly our works VW Transporter 170's would leave my ST24 for dust. It's gutless at town speeds, gutless on A-roads and super-gutless on Motorways.

On the plus side, the handling is great and the seats are superb.

Some of the problem is that my recent cars have all been much more powerful than this so maybe I've become accustomed to having in excess of 260bhp. Even so a car of this power should be much quicker than this, the Sierra would have made mincemeat of this Mondeo performance wise and would have shamed it in the build quality stakes.

Such a shame because it looks really aggressive and turns heads, although half of the head turning ability lies in the fact that the car makes that awful noise.

I kept it four weeks then changed it for a Volvo V40 T4, which frankly destroys the Mondeo in every way, particularly performance.

Fords used to be really good cars, even the more basic models. Maybe I just got a Lemon, but I expected more than this.