After a lot of browsing car ads, giving up, a few threads on these forums, browsing some more, giving up again and generally procrastinating, I finally bought something to replace my aging E36 323i which will be excellent at munching up those motorway miles:
It's a 54 plate Mondeo TDCi 2.0 130bhp Zetec Nav. It's got a 6 speed box, cruise, climate control, heated front screen, sat nav and only 39K on the clock. She's been recently serviced and is immaculate inside and out. Before I continue, I ought to say that having had loads of fun with my 323i, I drove a 52 plate BMW 320d (150bhp one) whilst searching for the 'right' car, and I'm afraid to say, it was outclassed by the Mondeo. BMW need to sort themselves out because, on the whole, Ford have come up with an extremely good car.
Driving: A completely different style to my previous motors (all were petrol), the gearing seems a trifle short in 1st and 2nd. The 6th gear is only really useable on the motorway. A long journey a couple of days ago saw over 60mpg! This is about twice as good as the beemer. The cruise control seems a little too relaxed sometimes, actual speed seems to vary a couple of mph either side of the speed it's set at, but no real complaints apart from the lack of backlit buttons on the steering wheel.
Around town it's as capable as any other motor, although the clutch on mine is very sensitive. The 'bite point' seems instantaneous, there is no middle ground. Maybe I'm just used to the heavy, worn controls of my old car, but it's taken me by surprise a couple of times! Power steering is (i think) speed sensitive, seems to lighten up around car parks etc. Possibly could have a bit more feel about it.
The torque is rather impressive. Takes about a second for the turbo to spool up after youve floored it, then the power surge starts. Unfortunately, being a diesel, the fun is over shortly after you feel the big dollop of acceleration and it's time to change gear again! Once up into the long 6th gear, the Mondeo performs nicely, provided you're over 60ish mph; below that the engine just grumbles if you try to push too hard. The TDCi engine has an overboost feature that can generate an 'extra' 20nm of torque when you boot it. Can't say that I've noticed this kicking in, but I suppose it's nice to have.
I'll let you all know what it's like on the B-road twisties when I get the chance!
Looks: You've all seen grey mondeos... this colour seemed the easiest to keep clean! Oh, it is an awful lot bigger than the previous model of mondeo - I guess cars just keep getting bigger and bigger...
Other: The headunit is a Blaupunkt sat-nav one. Sound quality is good, it playes MP3 CDs and the screen is nice and clear. My only complaint here is that it seems a bit long-winded to set the navigation mode up before you start your journey. Also, the maps are on a CD, so you have to put the navigation disc in to calculate your route, then, once everything's loaded into memory, you can remove the disc and put in your audio one. Not a problem if you've got a separate MP3 player (it's also got AUX-in via a socket in the glove box) but something that could have received a bit more thought nevertheless.
All the buttons and controls have a solid feel about them apart from the indicator stalk, which feels a little weedy. Climate control is easy to use, has a normal mode and an economy mode which seems to do exactly the same as normal, but without air con switching on. Heated front screen is good - it literally demists in seconds. Why don't all cars come with this?
Right... Pros and Cons then to round up!
Pros:
1. Fuel economy - over 60mpg on a 200 mile motorway trip. I'm impressed.
2. Feels solidly built, cabin is big and the boot is HUGE.
3. Supposed to be really safe - airbags all over the place!
Cons:
1. Why the **** arent the cruise buttons on the steering wheel backlit?! In the dark, its incredibly difficult to know the difference between reset, increase and decrease speed when all the buttons are identical.
2. There are literally thousands of them on the road - you will not stand out in one of these.
3. Route setup on sat-nav is very long winded and permanently set in Km. I like my distances in miles, but it seems Blaupunkt can't figure this one out.
4. Why are the back windows not electric?
PS: Excuse the picture, I havent taken one of my own yet
It's a 54 plate Mondeo TDCi 2.0 130bhp Zetec Nav. It's got a 6 speed box, cruise, climate control, heated front screen, sat nav and only 39K on the clock. She's been recently serviced and is immaculate inside and out. Before I continue, I ought to say that having had loads of fun with my 323i, I drove a 52 plate BMW 320d (150bhp one) whilst searching for the 'right' car, and I'm afraid to say, it was outclassed by the Mondeo. BMW need to sort themselves out because, on the whole, Ford have come up with an extremely good car.
Driving: A completely different style to my previous motors (all were petrol), the gearing seems a trifle short in 1st and 2nd. The 6th gear is only really useable on the motorway. A long journey a couple of days ago saw over 60mpg! This is about twice as good as the beemer. The cruise control seems a little too relaxed sometimes, actual speed seems to vary a couple of mph either side of the speed it's set at, but no real complaints apart from the lack of backlit buttons on the steering wheel.
Around town it's as capable as any other motor, although the clutch on mine is very sensitive. The 'bite point' seems instantaneous, there is no middle ground. Maybe I'm just used to the heavy, worn controls of my old car, but it's taken me by surprise a couple of times! Power steering is (i think) speed sensitive, seems to lighten up around car parks etc. Possibly could have a bit more feel about it.
The torque is rather impressive. Takes about a second for the turbo to spool up after youve floored it, then the power surge starts. Unfortunately, being a diesel, the fun is over shortly after you feel the big dollop of acceleration and it's time to change gear again! Once up into the long 6th gear, the Mondeo performs nicely, provided you're over 60ish mph; below that the engine just grumbles if you try to push too hard. The TDCi engine has an overboost feature that can generate an 'extra' 20nm of torque when you boot it. Can't say that I've noticed this kicking in, but I suppose it's nice to have.
I'll let you all know what it's like on the B-road twisties when I get the chance!
Looks: You've all seen grey mondeos... this colour seemed the easiest to keep clean! Oh, it is an awful lot bigger than the previous model of mondeo - I guess cars just keep getting bigger and bigger...
Other: The headunit is a Blaupunkt sat-nav one. Sound quality is good, it playes MP3 CDs and the screen is nice and clear. My only complaint here is that it seems a bit long-winded to set the navigation mode up before you start your journey. Also, the maps are on a CD, so you have to put the navigation disc in to calculate your route, then, once everything's loaded into memory, you can remove the disc and put in your audio one. Not a problem if you've got a separate MP3 player (it's also got AUX-in via a socket in the glove box) but something that could have received a bit more thought nevertheless.
All the buttons and controls have a solid feel about them apart from the indicator stalk, which feels a little weedy. Climate control is easy to use, has a normal mode and an economy mode which seems to do exactly the same as normal, but without air con switching on. Heated front screen is good - it literally demists in seconds. Why don't all cars come with this?
Right... Pros and Cons then to round up!
Pros:
1. Fuel economy - over 60mpg on a 200 mile motorway trip. I'm impressed.
2. Feels solidly built, cabin is big and the boot is HUGE.
3. Supposed to be really safe - airbags all over the place!
Cons:
1. Why the **** arent the cruise buttons on the steering wheel backlit?! In the dark, its incredibly difficult to know the difference between reset, increase and decrease speed when all the buttons are identical.
2. There are literally thousands of them on the road - you will not stand out in one of these.
3. Route setup on sat-nav is very long winded and permanently set in Km. I like my distances in miles, but it seems Blaupunkt can't figure this one out.
4. Why are the back windows not electric?
PS: Excuse the picture, I havent taken one of my own yet
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
