1994 Ford Mondeo Ghia from UK and Ireland - Comments

Immobiliser failed, leaving me stranded at home. This is apparently quite common on Mondeos of this age fitted with this equipment.

Front wishbones went at 60,000 miles and were pricey to replace.

Rear exhaust box fell off whilst travelling up the M5 in the middle lane at 70mph! It had given no warning at all.

The seats and carpets were wearing quite badly, as despite the low mileage, the car had been used for daily short journeys.

The engine was overheating despite no signs of head gasket failure.

There was annoying clunks from the suspension that the dealer couldn't fix.

Auto box would sometimes stall when changing between reverse and drive.

There was heavy vibration between 55 to 65 mph. This improved after the wheels were re-balanced but never went away completely.

Some interior bits had a habit of falling off or breaking - e.g. speaker covers, air vents etc.

The hatch wouldn't stay up without holding it up - a small and easy to fix fault but shows how tired the car was.

Despite all the niggling faults, the car ran ok and only let me down when the immobilser failed.

Other than that, it was enjoyable to drive, when I wasn' watching the temp gauge to make sure it didn't overheat!

The auto box meant that I rarely got more than 30mpg, even on a long run. However, it didn't blunt performance too badly and kickdown was quite brutal, once you waited a fraction of a second for it to hit.

The equipment standard is pretty good for a 1994 car. The Ghia came with air-con, 4xelectric windows, electric sunroof, ABS, velour trim, heated windscreen and a torch that re-charges in the glovebox! After 10 years of city driving, it was all feeling a bit tired though.

The Ford dealer was very poor, either not fixing faults or introducing new ones. I was so fed up with them after a while, I've now switched to Vauxhall after owning 10 Fords.

Forgot to mention that the speedo cable also failed (and had to be replaced with a new part that didn't fit quite how it was meant to and never worked quite right) and the interior passenger door handle often broke.

The thermostat and temp gauge sender were both replaced several times and the radiator was reverse flushed. I figure the head gasket was going.

The front suspension (along with its noises) was sagging noticably. So much so, that even driving slowly over a speed bump tended to ground the car, damaging the sump, bumper etc etc.