A Ford Mondeo - are you serious...?

[Ratz]

After a lengthy (and ultimately) unsuccessful handbag fight with MBUK over the famous valeo kiss of death I decided to go away from the prestige market for a while.

Traded my MB (Money Bucket) for a year old Mondeo Titanium X and have been genuinely surprised at the depth of talent and quality. It really is a lot of fun to drive, has a reasonable amount of poke, is comfortable & has lots of toys - all for the princely sum of £12k. Of course I realise it doesn't have the bragging credentials, but for the moment I don't care - it moves, and if it stops it's under manufacturers warranty.

I'd love to come back to the fold one day, but only when I am rather more certain that my investment isn't going to be worse than Woolworths shares.

 

[peterg1965]

Sorry to have read about your Valeo 'issues'. I think the way in which MB have reacted to the whole valeo saga is frankly scandalous and undermines the credibility of the brand and stretches the loyalty of customers to the absolute limit- amply illustrated in your case. I hope you are happy with the Mondeo, I owned a 2.2ST TDCI a few years back, great cars - reliable, economical and cheap to own and maintain.

Did you trade your E class?

 

[A210AMG]

Its good to hear your enjoying it.

I have to say there are pleanty of good cars out their and I like to try different ones we can get a bit blind with our MB rose coloured specs they are good but so are other cars.

With the sarga with your car I cannot blame you for trying elsewhere. It does seem you had your fair share of hassle.

Again this could happen to any make you buy.

 

[Ratz]

Yes I did trade the MB.

I agree things can happen with any car - I've had my fair share, including a Triumph Stag with crank failure - but they rarely constitute a financial write-off at 50k miles. Not only that, but this problem is now so infamous, that it affect the used value of the car! With any kind of research online beforehand who is going to buy a W211 of that vintage just in case??

Anyway I am not going to rant any more, I believe MB are doing a far better job of blackening their name than I ever could.

Thanks for all the support when I was whining - despite my defecting to another manufacturer I can't bring myself to defect to another forum!

 

[robert.saunders]

What engine in the Mondeo Ratz?

 

[Ratz]

What engine in the Mondeo Ratz?

2.0 TDCi (140), nice, torquey & quieter than the wife's A180.

 

[trapperjohn]

Stick with us Ratz. You have earned a huge amount of honour on the forum. The amount of infomation we got out of your situation and others re the valeo situation shows us where not to shove our hard earned, should we want to move to a newer Mercedes. Great pity you ended up shoving your Mercedes. You were given no option. Ford - Fond memories of a Taunus (German name for Cortina) 1.6 Ghia we drove round Germany for many a long year. Auto choke drove us potty for a while but a great family car. Good Luck with the Ford.

 

[robert.saunders]

Yes good fun strong engine; no real difference to the 2.2 to be honest. Quite a hoot to drive!

When I say this:

... depth of talent and quality. It really is a lot of fun to drive, has a reasonable amount of poke, is comfortable & has lots of toys ...

No-one believes me!!!

 

[AANDYY]

My previous 2 cars were Mondeos.
1.8 petrol and before that the 2.5 v6, which had a bank of secondary inlets on the engine so when you got over about 3800RPM, vroom.
Downside on the Mondeos they like to eat front wishbones.

 

[Ratz]

No-one believes me!!!

I am more than happy to enjoy my knowledge & their ignorance .

I have had more interest from neighbours & family with this car than I ever did with the MB.

 

[robert.saunders]

Mine eats front tyres; it sits on Ford optional 18" rims, 225/40 which look nice, but are noisy Amusing torque steer though and tramlining

 

[Ratz]

I'll watch out for that, I am on 18's too, I think 235's.

It's already had the royal treatment, clayed, polished & 2 coats of wax . Obsessive - me? Never .

 

[robert.saunders]

Link to mine, in the gallery:

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=36466

When it used to be clean

 

[trapperjohn]

Go on Ratz, pictures inside and out when your ready.

 

[Ratz]

It'll be next weekend now, when I've washed off a weeks worth of snow & muck .

 

[Dieselman]

Ratz, did you get the E class fixed then sell or sell before fixing and what kind of a fix did you get, if any.?

 

[imadoofus]

I've recently taken delivery of a new Mondeo Ghia, and I'm very impressed too.

As I've said before, I'm not interested in trying to impress other people, and this car does what I need at a fair price.

It has all the toys (DAB radio, Bluetooth, iPod connection, Voice control (pointless), heated front screen, cruise, dual climate control and so on), it's huge, comfortable, fast enough, and the only criticism I have is the fan is too loud.

Oh, and mine's not black


PJ

 

[Frank O' Phile]

I had an early Ghia X and really rated it. (it was black)

The Mondeo is the second best thing Ford ever made.

 

[Ratz]

Ratz, did you get the E class fixed then sell or sell before fixing and what kind of a fix did you get, if any.?

I traded the car without fixing, just had the MB garage replace the gearbox fluid. I have to say I am not terribly comfortable with this at all but I felt that even a repaired (not replaced) gearbox it would break again in a matter of months. In the past I have always done what I thought was the 'right thing' in the belief that what goes around comes around - but frankly the fault lies with MB and I refuse to feel entirely guilty on their behalf.

Sorry to ramble, but I don't like to be thought of as immoral.

From a technical perspective I only did maybe 80 miles with the new fluid and it made no difference at all, the car was juddering badly under light-medium load - ironically if you booted it the symptoms disappeared.

Something that didn't occur to me at the time of my discussions with MB was that at no time was any modification suggested, so on that basis in time the same failure would be likely to occur? Or am I misunderstanding, was it just a particular batch of valeo radiators & not the valeo radiator per se.