Faults:

Engine thirsty for oil. Needed regular topping up, but at 7 squid from the stealer, not a major problem.

Friends car also used oil; from a V6 engine to be expected I guess.

Did 40000 miles without incident before I sold it.

General Comments:

Car is very comfortable and strikes a good compromise between a cruiser and sports saloon.

The engine is very smooth, but not as quick as I expected. It needs to be above 3500rpm before it goes.

It has a top speed of 140mph. I never went that fast, and to be honest it felt like it would take a while to get there. Low end torque is poor.

You do get a lot of toys for the cost of the car at current used prices. The interior is very nice with half leather all round. The handling is OK, better than my previous LX Mondeo, but it's a heavy car and will lose out to more nimble cars.

MPG is around 30 if driving sensibly, but drops to low 20s when caning it.

The RSAP bodykit still looks good today against more modern cars. A nice car to have owned, but you won't miss it when it's gone.

Faults:

Everything went wrong with this car and parts were so expensive here in Australia... apparently Ford in Australia doesn't want to know about its Mondeo. I have done nothing but fork out $$$$$$ and it continually broke down in the most dangerous places. Not only that, but the car had hardly any power up hills!

The last straw was when the head gasket blew and it needed a new radiator; of course I keep the water up in it (costing $2000).

I was so happy to get rid of the car, and sold it for less than half of what I paid 10 months earlier! A DISASTER!!! Now I own a Holden Commodore and couldn't be happier.

General Comments:

PLEASE DO NOT BUY ONE! YOU ARE GETTING RIPPED OFF.

Could be different overseas, but if you are a regular aussie like me, stay away from them. Better still, buy a HOLDEN COMMODORE.

Faults:

Basically nothing, I just bought this car and actually gave it a full service. and oil I used syntethtic and it's a wow.

General Comments:

Its very powerful and not that thirsty, I used for service an expensive synthetic base oil and this car goes like a rocket although its 10 yrs old, very comfortable no noises powerful engine, its fully equipped so its very comfortable and probably will also upgrade it in the next month. and also I just dropped the suspension by an inch and put in 17 inch alloys with low profile. it's a real deal I love it, probably best car I ever had since I got my licence.

Faults:

O/S/R door failed to lock with the central locking, quick and cheap DIY repair.

Couple of little bodywork problems such as paint peeling on rear bumper, but I bought this car as a cheap daily hack so nothing major... covered with a touch up pen and it is fine.

General Comments:

I bought this car to use as my daily runabout as I was getting depressed at the increasing running costs of my 2 litre Honda Accord. I wanted something fairly cheap to run, preferably diesel.

Having owned a few Fords in the past and being a fan of them, I went to have a look at a few Escorts and Mondeos with the 1.8 Turbo Diesel engine and eventually settled on this £500 R reg example from a local garage, which was a part exchange bargain they were trying to shift on.

The car itself drives great, with good, composed handling and it is extremely comfortable on long journeys. With regards to fuel consumption, it will do about 500 miles to a tank at a cost of £50 per tank, which works out at 10p per mile, which in my opinion is good going.

However, for the price of economy, you do pay with regards to performance. This car is very sluggish, especially in lower gears around town. 1st gear pull aways are very slow and some corners in 2nd gear are very slow as well. Once in 3rd gear however and accelerating on the open road, the turbo kicks in and its not that bad, although it does feel a little held back. Lots of gear work is needed.

For what I use the car for however, it is absolutely perfect. It is economical and comfortable and has been extremely reliable in the time that I have had it (touch wood!). If you intend to buy one of these however, make sure that you get the cambelt changed ASAP, as these are prone to failure on these engines.