I want to buy a Ford Mondeo!

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Right, i'm after some guidance, having never actually bought a car for myself, I need a few pointers.

I'm flying home tomorrow from travelling and therefore i'm in need of a car for cheap. Budget is around £600 for the car.

I've been looking at some Mondeos online as they are the best bang for buck cheap car in the UK.

So far for about £600 it seems I can get 2.0L 1998-1999ish Mondeos, with 12 months MOT, 6 months tax, 100,000+ miles. Manual, Petrol.

Now my questions.

Is this a good price for these cars?

Is it worth haggling on cars this cheap or should I more or less accept the list price?

Shall I buy from the dealers selling these cars on Autotrader or from private sellers on Autotrader? I thinking it'll be easier and less hassle to deal with the used car dealers?

What do I need to check for when buying a used car?

Anything else I should know about Mondeos???


Thanks in advance, i'm sure you can all agree my choice of car is exceptional. :D
 
Your choice of car is exceptional, but your budget isn't. At these sort of prices you're buying something that will last the year, and then epic fail the MOT.
 
billysielu said:
Your choice of car is exceptional, but your budget isn't. At these sort of prices you're buying something that will last the year, and then epic fail the MOT.
Click to expand...

The car will cost pence to fix anyway, as long as he buys a car that has been well looked after (i know they come few and far between at this price range) he may get lucky.

I bought my ST24 on the cheap, 1st MOT it 'epic' failed. Cost me about £800 to fix in total, this included lowered and uprated suspension & new brake lines.

Cant see anything costing over £500 for a full repair job if it does fail in a years time...
 
It's not a major worry of mine, it's only a temporary car I guess, it's only because i've been travelling for so long that my budget is this low. If it lasts a year i'll be reasonably happy, plus by then I expect to have a lot more $$$ for cars.

And as Ging says I may get lucky, so does anyone have any answers to my other questions???
 
I have an 05 Mondeo and love it.

In answer to your questions my views are;

1, Look around on autotrader to get a good idea of what they go for first
2,Always haggle...Nothing to be lost.
3,At that price it wont make much difference. At a dealer the car will either be from an auction or trade in. Either way it will have come from private and the dealer wont know much about the car. You might get a warranty for a few months but you will have paid for it in the price and it wont cover everything. That said, I generally buy from dealers I trust because it does feel simpler. In your case I would find the car I like at the right price from either.
4,Get someone who knows what they are looking for to come with you. If you don't know it is not worth looking. There is so much that could be wrong and a few tips will not touch the edges.
5, Apparently the diesel engines eat clutches so see how it feels. I have a Diesel and it is great.

Happy purchasing and good luck.
 
Bought an X plate Zetec-S in Jan for £500 with horrible wheels and a rotting bonnet. £200 later it has a new bonnet and a set of st24 turbines on and looks sweet. So they are available.
 
I bought an X reg 1.8 zetec for 300 quid, still going strong I do about 200 miles a day in it.
 
Bought a V reg 2.0 zetec 6 months ago for £500 from ebay after checking it over, a couple of cheap consumables replaced and it has a fresh MOT.
 
billysielu said:
Your choice of car is exceptional, but your budget isn't. At these sort of prices you're buying something that will last the year, and then epic fail the MOT.
Click to expand...

For £600 it's more than worth the risk. £600 for a year's motoring is a good deal on a car like this and if it does throw up a stonking bill at MOT, lob it and buy another, hoping for better luck.

And OP - it's always worth haggling. What have you got to lose?
 
I had an 1996 2.0 Mondeo last year that I picked up for £450. I scrapped it after a year but I could have got it through another mot for about £200. Most private ones at this age will be more knackered than one from a dealer or be sold by someone pretending to be a private individual.

Just make sure all the consumables (tyres, brakes, exhaust etc) are good and it doesn't make any funny noises from the suspension.
 
I bought lots of cars for under a grand and never had an 'EPIC FAIL', most lasted several years and never failed an MOT.

Of course scrapage means it's more difficult to find decent cars this cheap....
 
Check for leaks into the boot and make sure all the suspension is in good nick - no leaking shocks, snapped springs or pulling under braking.

The rear arches will be rusting and the bumper will be held together with duct tape, but other than that they're pretty solid :)

Oh, and avoid the godawful diesels in the Mk1 and 2, the 2.0 petrol is a good choice in these
 
Our family has had many mondeos - N,P,R,Y,02,05 regs.

Our experiences have been:
Petrols are good all round (1.8 and 2.0)
Old 'dagga dagga' diesels are pants. The newish tdci one we had had repeated injector issues (2.2).

Plenty of mondeos around, BUT plenty are nails.

On my way home from work today I followed an L reg mondeo, with the stereotypical shagged rear arches and LOADS of tape on the rear bumper.

EDIT: I recommend upping your budget if you can. Even £1000 gives you a larger variety of cars in your budget. As there are simply so many of these cars around and young people think they cannot insure them and as a result don't want them, then used prices are very very good.
 
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Thanks guys,

and I doubt i'd ever buy a diesel car ever... they do nothing for me :)

think i'll stick with the 2.0L petrol version. At least with mondeos there is always plenty of choice!
 
You dont buy a diesel because they do things for you - you buy them because you need them or at least want the savings :p

Saying that, the old TD lumps werent that economical anyway
 
I bought a 1.8 Zetec T reg Mondeo nearly 2 years ago for the exact same reason, I needed 'a car'

In nearly 2 years I put over 40,000 miles on it and other than some tyres and oil and things its only cost me some front suspension components and a small bit of welding to get it through 2 MOTs (£100 and £200) and Ive just sold it to my mum for £500 minus the MOT cost because she needs 'a car'.

As a mode of transport they are perfect. £600 buys you a lot, especially on ebay.
 
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