Goodbye Mondeo

[AlanD]

Hi all.

After 7 years of faultless service the Mondeo has moved on to another owner - or so I am informed by the dealer where we traded the car.

The car was 8 years old when traded owing to it being used by Ford as an 'Executive" vehicle for the first year of its life in Oz. In that 12 months the car's value decreased by close to $20,000.

If the vehicle had continued being manufactured we would have sourced a new or near new Mondeo as a replacement. You all know how that has gone - Ford have lost a loyal customer who, in the last four decades, has bought 9 Ford vehicles - but if you decide to base your business on selling Trucks then I guess you might expect your customer base to decline.

The decision to source a new car was partly determined by the maintenance costs across the next couple of years that would have generated bills of close to $5000 and would have involved breaking open the engine with the risk of consequent problems after reassembly. That coupled with no warranty against serious malfunction tipped the balance to the new car purchase.

I'll visit from time to time to see what is happening.

Cheers

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by AlanD

Hi all.

After 7 years of faultless service the Mondeo has moved on to another owner - or so I am informed by the dealer where we traded the car.

The car was 8 years old when traded owing to it being used by Ford as an 'Executive" vehicle for the first year of its life in Oz. In that 12 months the car's value decreased by close to $20,000.

If the vehicle had continued being manufactured we would have sourced a new or near new Mondeo as a replacement. You all know how that has gone - Ford have lost a loyal customer who, in the last four decades, has bought 9 Ford vehicles - but if you decide to base your business on selling Trucks then I guess you might expect your customer base to decline.

The decision to source a new car was partly determined by the maintenance costs across the next couple of years that would have generated bills of close to $5000 and would have involved breaking open the engine with the risk of consequent problems after reassembly. That coupled with no warranty against serious malfunction tipped the balance to the new car purchase.

I'll visit from time to time to see what is happening.

Cheers

Pity, they don't even sell real trucks.

[Mechan1k]

What are you replacing it with?

[AlanD]

Already replaced, see sig.

Very like the Territory we once owned with somewhat less cargo space.

We have had it for 3 months and some differences are:

Much more ground clearance by about 60 mm
Higher driving position, which I appreciate
Similar appointments - most of which I'll never use, like the sunroof
Very similar build quality a bit superior in some areas
Poorer cargo tie down points
Horrible navigation programming method with no voice input capability, but is capable of being used whilst moving without searching for touch screen letters.
Less range by about 400km, partly due to a smaller fuel tank by about 5 litres
More power and torque 170 kW and 440 Nm
AWD which is on demand and I only notice it kicking in as I climb up our steep drive into the garage.
No reverse predicted path indication, but I can already use the straight back lines effectiveley - I would like the predictive ones though.

It happened we walked into the dealership when Mazda were discounting some vehicles for runout and this particular vehicle had been on the lot for 4 months and the dealer wanted to move it, so there was an extra dealership price deduction as well. All up it took $9000 off the usual sale price.

And we have a 5 year manufacturer's warranty for protection against expensive failures.

[Mechan1k]

Ahhh nice.

I went a 2022 Mazda 6 Atenza after moving on the FG.
Nice vehicle ... although lunched a transmission at 2,000km old.

The AWD will help in taking off in the wet.
FWD with the 2.5T in the wet is suboptimal ... especially when peak torque is just under 2000rpm

Strange about the no voice input .... I think they newer screens may have done away with it ... the 6 is still on the old MZD connect and has it.

[Mondaveo]

Thanks for sharing your ownership experience, Alan. These Mondeos are (IMO) great and underrated cars, but it seems to me you've got to be increasingly committed and willing to go it alone to hold on to one.
My own vehicle has utility value out of proportion to monetary worth (practically none, since the hail incident), so as long as it's mechanically sound my plan for now is to keep driving it for as long as I can.

I agree with you about the modern range of Ford vehicles. There's absolutely nothing in the current lineup that really speaks to me. And once the pendulum of public trendiness swings back away from ugly SUVs and dual-cab utes as family cars, they'll be on a hiding to nothing. Meanwhile the Chinese have the conversion to EVs truly won, and Ford may only survive as a protected species in its home country of the USA, along with many other legacy nameplates.
My best course might just be to hope for one of the Chinese EV manufacturers to come out with a sexy wagon EV in the near future?

Originally Posted by AlanD

The decision to source a new car was partly determined by the maintenance costs across the next couple of years that would have generated bills of close to $5000 and would have involved breaking open the engine with the risk of consequent problems after reassembly. That coupled with no warranty against serious malfunction tipped the balance to the new car purchase.

What upcoming services did you have that require "breaking open the engine"?
Is this a reference to changing the timing belt or were you doing additional cleaning and maintenance? My car is 50% older, and while it's had the gearbox opened up, it's never had the engine apart (and AFAIK that should never need to come to pass).

I would have liked to get the intake manifold inspected/cleaned on my TDCi for several years, but from a certain point they (manufacturer) made it integral with the cylinder cover, and thus a massive job to remove/reinstall...

[AlanD]

Hi Mondaveo

Thanks for the feedback.

In the next couple of years 3 services would be indicated one of which is $800 plus the other two @ $400 rounded off. The timing chain would have reached its 10 year life and at some stage I would have had all the brake discs skimmed and relined. There would probably have been the cost of new tyres too.

Now I know you can get things done at less expense, but during warranty I use dealerships to catch up with factory recalls and to avoid the argument "Oh, that's probably due to using other than a Ford Dealer for service". I have gotten into the habit. Also I'm no longer enthused about tearing into mechanical repairs like I was 30 years ago. (30 years ago we had the services of a Mitsubishi trained mechanical person who had gone private, he was the father of our elder son's mate at school and became a personal friend, Also Mrs AlanD was driving a Magna). Anyway, I regard any activity which involves the removal of engine parts that are bolted on as "breaking open". You possibly have a different opinion and I respect that.

A couple of things that I did not mention earlier:

1. The car is equipped with a "Heads up Display" which shows speed, current (or at least) the last speed limit sign it has detected and repeaters for the blind spot monitoring system. If they are active it shows the current cruise control setting and varying the setting can be done in 1kph (Short press) or 10kph (Long press) increments. When the navigation is active the next turn is shown in this display with a distance that counts down in 10m increments as you approach it. On multilane divided roads there is usually enough distance to safely get into the appropriate lane to effect the turn.
2. The sound system is made by Bose and sounds a bit superior to me when playing the same music that we played in the Mondeo. Haven't counted the number of speakers - 8, I think, 4 doors, 2 tweeters one in each A pillar, a centre dash wide range and a sub-woofer in the "dish" of the spare wheel which is now full size.
3. The doors automatically lock once the car is moving and can not be opened from the outside if you stop but leave the engine running, to prevent hi-Jacking I guess, but it's a bit disconcerting if you have just stopped to let someone into the car.

And finally: I have a set of 4 Bridgestone Potenza RE003 Tyres (235/45R18 98W) that are mounted on the Mondeos spare set of wheels, even tread wear at 5mm depth to the indicator bars, that I need to quit if anyone is interested. I live in Western Gippsland. PM if interested and I'll discuss price privately. I'm keeping the rims because they have two sets of stud holes and they will fit the new car.

Cheers

[BLACKVE]

you'll miss the mondeo, my 18 trend is at 255k and still going strong.

Just bought a wrecked one with really low kms to swap engine trans over(when needed) as theres no options out there(need the wagon)

whats the Mazda's fuel econony like, friends have one and its drinking 12l/ 100 atm

[AlanD]

Just had occasion to fill the petrol tank and the "economy' calculated out at 7.83 Litres per 100 km. Interestingly the in car economy readout for this fill showed 8.2 Litres/100 km and it's the first time I have seen a car show conservative figures for this calculation. The use was a mix of country and regional town short trips usage. Split about 60/40.

After the fill I did about 60 km going home and the in car figure was showing 7.2 litres per 100 km.

I'll get a better understanding in August when we plan to go to Adelaide for a few days - probably 2000 km involving about 90% on the highway.

12l/100km? I'd have to suspect your friends are doing a lot of stop/start city driving to generate that sort of figure - Our Territory gave long term figure of 12.5 l/100km when we lived in the Dandenong Ranges and that car was not noted for fuel efficency.

Cheers

[NZ XR6]

Alan, I can't see your sig. on Tapatalk, but am I correct in assuming you have bought a CX5?

Sent from my SM-S938B using Tapatalk

[AlCan]

Originally Posted by NZ XR6

Alan, I can't see your sig. on Tapatalk, but am I correct in assuming you have bought a CX5?

Yes, it's a CX-5, but the sig is in red - maybe that's why you can't see it?

Mazda
CX5 KF AWD 2.5 Turbo
Soul Red


Mazda
CX5 KF AWD 2.5 Turbo
Soul Red


Glad to see it's a petrol! Are the diesels still on the market?

[NZ XR6]

Originally Posted by AlCan

Yes, it's a CX-5, but the sig is in red - maybe that's why you can't see it?

Mazda
CX5 KF AWD 2.5 Turbo
Soul Red


Mazda
CX5 KF AWD 2.5 Turbo
Soul Red


Glad to see it's a petrol! Are the diesels still on the market?

Thanks. Not the colour, you can't see sigs in Tapatalk.

Sent from my SM-S938B using Tapatalk

[AlanD]

Originally Posted by AlCan

Yes, it's a CX-5, but the sig is in red - maybe that's why you can't see it?



Glad to see it's a petrol! Are the diesels still on the market?

No not in the edition that we bought and the dealer had limited stock owing to the run out activities.

If there had been a diesel available we would have been tempted.

I see there is now a diesel equipped hybrid available -- next time? Maybe.

Cheers

AlanD

[AlanD]

Oops!! I should have noted the diesel hybrid I was talking about is a CX60