[AlanM]

The reality is most cars "serviced" by Ford dealers will never have had the transmission oil changed.

At all. Ever.

I've bought a few with full "service" histories, and the transmission oil has ALWAYS been absolutely filthy. (Except once when the oil was new, there just wasn't enough of it. But that was Mycar. At least they tried) The transmissions weren't working properly, which meant the cars were cheap, and an oil change almost always gets them working perfectly. Sometimes the valve body needs to come out for cleaning.

Ford (and most other brands) dealers are very good at invoicing. Unfortunately the other bit of servicing a car, the bit where you use spanners and stuff, they're not very good at, at all.

So I certainly wouldn't avoid this car. Buy it, and change the gearbox oil (and the external filter) yourself. There's plenty of youtube videos on how to do it, it's not difficult at all. (Although apparently too difficult for Fotd dealers)

If you don't want to do it yourself, I'm not sure what to suggest, it doesn't seem like there's many "professionals" capable of doing this simple job.

Also, the MD Mondeo has the DCT451 transmission which doesn't have the plastic clutch damper spring retainers inside the transmission. It uses a dual mass flywheel instead. So, even if seriously neglected to the point of shifting poorly, it won't break up the spring retainers which necessitate a complete strip down and rebuild.

This inability or unwillingness to lay tools on a car isn't restricted to Ford dealers. We recently bought a Mazda CX5 with 160,000 km and a full "service " history. I checked the air filter and I think I would be the first person to set eyes on it since the car rolled out the factory door in Hiroshima.

Despite having been "inspect and clean"ed SIXTEEN TIMES.