1999 Ford Mondeo LX review from UK and Ireland

Brake pipes needed replaced.

Front springs replaced.

Radiator and aircon compressor both needed to be replaced.

Rear hatch rattles.

New brakes all round.

Eats coil packs.

Sticky electric windows.

Immobiliser is playing up.

Steering shakes at certain speeds, varies from day to day!

Rear central locking is temperamental.

I was talked into buying the Mondeo by a girl I knew; she had one and reckoned they were a better car than the little Citroen AX I was running about in, 10 out of 10 for observation! But the offer on a 7 year old Mondeo for £600 was too good to turn down, even if it had been used as a courtesy car by a local garage.

Cosmetically, the car was fine, in fact it's the best Mondeo for its age I have ever seen; it was originally a Ford Fleet car and had plenty of history. Even so, I had the timing belt changed as a precaution.

Disappointingly, it failed its first MOT in my hands; brake pipe corrosion, a common enough fault on the Mk2, just a bit fiddly. After that it was all systems go, for a few months at least. The car started spluttering one day, and it didn't take Einstein to work out it was off a cylinder, the Ford coil pack had claimed another victim, as a 1350cc triple, the Mondeo is not a good performer, fortunately, it was a pretty easy fix and the car was soon back to its best.

The rear hatchback makes a rattling noise over bumps; you can remove the boot trim and reposition the lock, but it will start rattling again, just turn the stereo up and ignore it. And on the subject of audio, why, in the name of God do Ford insist on those huge double DIN head units that you have to buy a replacement fascia and ISO adaptor for. I have a 1991 Polo that you can put the stereo straight into, so all in all a poor show on the audio front!

Second MOT and it fails again, broken front spring, again a quick google shows this to be a frequent occurrence, easily remedied if all the suspension bolts had not been seized solid! In fact the suspension feels a bit tired, fair enough, it does get a very hard life so I can't complain!

The radiator sprung a leak, so that was replaced, and the knackered aircon condenser was replaced at the same time; it's a bonus to have aircon, especially when it works! The coil went bad again, fortunately within the warranty period of the replacement part.

This probably sounds a bit negative, but it's really a lovely car to drive; around town, it eats fuel, but on a run it does over 40mpg, quite a surprise really. It's a rather nice place to be, motorways are the real happy hunting ground for Mondeo drivers, I can't imagine many cars would be more comfortable, although the seat is showing signs of wear from my ample frame.

To be honest, I'm thinking of replacing it though, if I can find a Mondeo of similar vintage and condition with a diesel engine!