Clarkey said:
aftermarket ones cant be any worse than the standard ones, can they?
Yes, they are fibreglass mostly. The standard Mondeo bumpers are actually very good, I continually explain why you see cracked ones but nobody ever listens, they just keep repeating the same 'OMG THEY ALL SUCk' rubbish
The Mondeo front and rear bumpers are made from flexible plastic with a foam padding layer underneath. This means that your average Mondeo bumper will actually survive most low speed parking mishaps and be completely undamaged - the bumper will flex in if some muppet reverses into you, and flex back out again.
The problem comes with the fact that if you have a proper parking knock, the sort that would knacker any bumper, the Mondeo bumper simply splits. Most Mk2 Mondeo owners now simply cannot be bothered to repair this - and instead just whack duct tape over the offending split. This is why you see so many bodged Mondeo bumpers.
Do the same thing in many other cars and duct tape isn't an option, you pretty much have to buy a new bumper.
I like the way the Mondeo bumper is designed - it meant that when some utter smacktard in a Rover 400 reversed into my car last year, I was left with just a small scratch which was easily removable with Megauirs ScratchX, rather than having to replace the bumper.
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