The Mondeo three years on

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Hi everyone,

I thought it might be useful / interesting to share my experiences and the running costs associated with a 54 plate Mondeo 2.0 TDCI Ghia X that had 90k miles on the clock when purchased.

In September 2011 I needed a car that would cope with my commute from Portsmouth to Southampton every day and make a monthly trip to Cornwall bearable.

I had a budget of £3k and needed something economical, comfortable and reliable. Some may argue that the 'reliable' aspect is a bit circumspect with the 2.0 TDCI but I went into it with my eyes open about DMFs etc.

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In the last three years I've done 47,798 miles or just under 16,000 miles a year.

My average fuel consumption has been 44.64 MPG (although the OBC has recorded 52.79). My commute is the perfect example of a 'combined' journey, with town driving at either end and motorway in between. My average monthly fuel spend has been £176.58.

Servicing, repairs, MOT and tyres have come to £4,669.57 (I'll go into more detail later).

Tax was £600 and insurance £1,926.71.

Assuming it has depreciated the full £3k purchase price, the total cost of ownership has been £16,337.08 or 34p per mile.

I said I would go into more detail with the servicing:

I'm pleased to say that so far I haven't had any DMF issues (touch wood) but I have had to replace the power steering pump twice (the first time was a 3rd party pump that didn't last). I also had to replace the oil and water thermostats to solve a temperature sensor issue and it's also had a new set of discs and pads.

It's had two sets of Michelin Conti Sport Contact 5s and had it Hunter aligned at the same time which worked out at about £600 a time.

Plus the standard annual servicing and MOT I've averaged about £1500 a year to keep it on the road.

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I've been mostly happy with it, it certainly crunches the miles and you can fit a lot in the back with the seats down.

I'd be interested to know how the figures above compare to other Mondeo owners and other car owners in general.

I'm trying to work out if it's a false economy buying a cheaper car upfront that then requires high servicing costs to keep it going or if I could get something newer for a similar TCO / price per mile over three years.

My thinking being something newer might have better consumption, lower tax, similar insurance and servicing costs but *hopefully* lower repair bills.

With the savings made in those departments I could spend more on the car itself.

My suspicion, if it is possible, is that it would be something like a 1.0 Fiesta which just wouldn't compare to a Mondeo Ghia X in terms of practicality, equipment and comfort but I thought it was worth asking.

Cheers all, happy to answer any questions if you've made it this far.
 
I did something similar to you. In 2010 I bought a 56 plate version of the same car at the same mileage. I took it up to 150k in 3 years. In that time the only repair cost beyond servicing, tyres and brakes was a wheel bearing and a door lock. It did cost me double what yours did initially, though, at £6k.

As a direct comparison, even with your additional repairs, yours will have worked out cheaper than mine did over the same period, but I was happy with the *relatively* low cost, and comfort, over the 60k miles. I wouldn't have swapped it for a brand new Fiesta for a motorway commute.

I got rid of it at 3 years as I told myself I would when I bought it, although it was tempting to hang on to it. My prediction was that the increased age would increase the frequency of repair bills, the cost of which could have gone into a newer, hopefully more reliable car. As it turned out, I gave the car to my Dad, who has run it for another 18 months. It has needed more repairs than it did under my ownership (broken handbrake, another wheel-bearing, an exhaust), but nothing major.
 
Thanks Freakitchen, good to know.

What did you replace it with out of interest?

I do agree with you, old Mondeo > new Fiesta any day. It was out of curiosity more than anything else. :)
 
Fairly similar story with my Astra tbh - it cost more to buy because it's newer, but less to maintain, similar mpg. Result is basically the same.

I'm strongly considering leasing for my next car - I don't like having money tied up in a depreciating asset.

I'm strongly considering an electric car for my next car - mostly for the quietness.
 
I'm strongly considering leasing for my next car - I don't like having money tied up in a depreciating asset.

This is one of the most ridiculous phrases on the internet, sorry to single you out but you see it so often that I actually wonder if people even know what they mean.

You 'don't like having money tied up in a depreciating asset' so instead you'll allow somebody else to tie up money in a depreciating asset and then bill you for the depreciation and some profit instead?

You can't escape the fact cars depreciate - it is what drives the lease cost.

Occasionally you get some ridiculous deals but they are the exception not the rule. Leasing is generally the most expensive way to drive a car this side of simply renting from Hertz. As you'd expect it to be really - you are paying to borrow somebody elses car.
 
Out of curiosity what sort of speed do you tend to do on the Motorway?

Well the M27 is a cruel mistress so some days I can average 10mph!

However, I've started leaving early in the morning to miss the traffic and I stick to a solid 70.

If I'm rushing to get home or something I'll push up to 80 (traffic permitting) but usually I'll stick to 70.
 
[TW]Fox;27149111 said:
This is one of the most ridiculous phrases on the internet, sorry to single you out but you see it so often that I actually wonder if people even know what they mean.

You 'don't like having money tied up in a depreciating asset' so instead you'll allow somebody else to tie up money in a depreciating asset and then bill you for the depreciation and some profit instead?

You can't escape the fact cars depreciate - it is what drives the lease cost.

Occasionally you get some ridiculous deals but they are the exception not the rule. Leasing is generally the most expensive way to drive a car this side of simply renting from Hertz. As you'd expect it to be really - you are paying to borrow somebody elses car.

This is true, of course - but it doesn't change the fact that rather than putting a lump into a car it's managed through a smaller monthly contribution + some profit for someone else on top. If you want to do something with the remaining cash that can make money rather than leave it sitting against the car then great......then again most people (outside of business users) I know that lease don't have the cash to purchase outright sitting around in any case and so typically have just ended up picking a more expensive way of financing.

It can look very attractive if you're someone who either has never heard of, or for some reason refuses to use one of the brokerage sites floating around. I find this both very confusing and hugely frustrating.

I'm not going to suggest for one second it's usually cheaper than just buying something outright whilst being smart about the purchase price, but there are cases where it's a close run thing and I guess I can see the point - particularly for someone who "just wants to pay x for a new (usually small)car"
 
This is true, of course - but it doesn't change the fact that rather than putting a lump into a car it's managed through a smaller monthly contribution + some profit for someone else on top.

So does funding a car in a myriad of other ways, too.

then again most people (outside of business users) I know that lease don't have the cash to purchase outright sitting around in any case and so typically have just ended up picking a more expensive way of financing.

Exactly this. Yet they all come out with things like 'yea yea I totally don't want to tie up my funds in depreciating assets, so I like to leverage synergies and lease'.

I'm not going to suggest for one second it's usually cheaper than just buying something outright whilst being smart about the purchase price, but there are cases where it's a close run thing and I guess I can see the point - particularly for someone who "just wants to pay x for a new (usually small)car"

Leasing is highly convenient and hassle free. There is nothing wrong with selecting it if you value these two attributes but you must do so on the understanding that you are paying a premium for this.

Except in the event of bonkers deals (Anyone fancy a Golf R?) you are almost always going to be significantly better off in terms of total cost of ownership by purchasing the car, using it, and then selling it/trading it in at the end, even when you account for the fact most people will need to incur financing costs in order to do this.
 
Just had a look at mine as I've had it four years & done 53k miles in it, used to commute Worksop to Doncaster via the A1 & M18 but now do a much shorter commute, less of mine is town driving as it is mostly A road & Motorway driving.

My tyre costs are much lower as I have 16" wheels & have only had to buy one set of tyres, plus two Sagitar P307's that I binned after a few months as they were utter rubbish & I then replaced them with four Goodyears, that whole thing only cost £360.

I appear to have spent £6522 on fuel in 4 years looking at my online banking.

I have only spent £500 on repairs as I either do it myself or if it isn't urgent my GF's dad has a mechanic that does it for free so I have no labour costs & a service usually only costs me about £40 every 6-9 months.

Insurance £1310 tax £560 (why is mine lower? Mine is a TDCi 115?)

I only paid £1400 as it had a lot of miles on it so my initial cost is lower.

Mine only seems to be costing me 8-900 to keep on the road per year. There is probably some bits I've missed & there has been occasions where I have been given £50 to take people places or pick things up for people but that lot I can't see adding up to more than a few hundred.

Cost of ownership for mine seems to work out at £11152 for 53k miles over 4 years so 21p per mile.

I have not included stuff I have done for my own entertainment here as mine is a 53 plate LX I have done none essential stuff like fit OEM Xenons, Powerfold Mirrors, alloys, autodimming mirror, rear electric windows, front fogs, late model lower grille, chrome trim off a Titanium etc which probably adds about £6-700 to the cost of the car.

It is probably worthless now as it has over 200k on the clock.
 
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[TW]Fox;27149860 said:
Leasing is highly convenient and hassle free. There is nothing wrong with selecting it if you value these two attributes but you must do so on the understanding that you are paying a premium for this.

#1 - it's not crazy because you can use the capital for an investment instead of in a car.

#2 - chill plz
 
Just had a look at mine as I've had it four years & done 53k miles in it, used to commute Worksop to Doncaster via the A1 & M18 but now do a much shorter commute, less of mine is town driving as it is mostly A road & Motorway driving…

Thanks for doing that Iamzod, interesting comparison.

Looks like you're getting slightly better fuel consumption than me and then things like the lower purchase price, insurance, tax, tyres and servicing have all made a bit of a difference.

I guess a lot of the add-ons you've done yourself I paid for up front with the Ghia X model; I think everything bar the Xenons came included in the Ghia X spec.

With the tax, I put six months on it when I bought it, then 12 months every February since 2012 and it's gone up £5 each year. So £90 initially, then £165, then £170 and this year it was £175…
 
Sorry to kind of thread hijack but I'm looking at doing something similar over the next 18 months as I'm buying a house and want my motoring costs to be as cheap as possible, I know there are cheaper cars to run but I dont want to be frustrated with a smaller engine car -

What do you think of this Mondeo? Its quite local to me, I would need to keep it for 18 months and want to lose the least amount of money possible in that time but by trading it in at the end as not having a car is quite a pain

Also, whats missing from the centre console?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif...ew/postcode/m225le/fuel-type/petrol?logcode=p

Or the same again but an Accord, maybe the Accord will more reliable despite the mileage?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classif.../engine-size-cars/2l_to_2-5l/page/1?logcode=p
 
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No worries, Relentless.

I'm not particularly clued up with the 1.8 petrol Mondeo in terms of reliability and economy but I can answer your question about the missing trim from the centre console — that's where the heated/cooled seat controls go — I'm not sure whether they come as standard on the Zetec or whether it's just a blanking plate that's gone AWOL.
 
As a comparison from the other side (Financing... in the US I know..)

3 years

$6000 insurance
$14400 Payments
$0 servicing (Free)
$500 tires (if needed)

$20900 or 13000 GBP
 
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How many miles did you do in those three years acemastr and do you know what your fuel spend was?

Unfortunately the UK/US prices are so different it's hard to make a decent comparison but interesting non the less.
 
Relentless that Mondeo is/was funny money!! You'd get a 2007 car in good nick for about £1500-2k nowadays.

The 1.8 isn't great, struggles to pull the car along, they seem a bit worse than they should be for head gasket failure and there's another common issue with them that I now can't quite remember but it results in rattling from some sort of actuator or butterfly valve

The 2 litre petrol is better, I'd have the Honda though
 
How many miles did you do in those three years acemastr and do you know what your fuel spend was?

Unfortunately the UK/US prices are so different it's hard to make a decent comparison but interesting non the less.

That's forecast, I've only had it 2 months so far lol

I do 10-12k miles a year, averaging 24mpg US (27/28 UK)

16k pounds just sound like a lot for what is essentially a cheap car, even my BMW I had for 2 years:

2800 to buy
1500 in repairs
700 in tires
1200 insurance
200 servicing(ish)

(pounds)
 
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