I get the opportunity to drive quite a variety of new cars and recently drove a new Ford Mondeo 2.0LX.
It a very long time since I last drove a Mondeo and to say I was impressed is an understatement. It was in the same week that I drove a new BMW320 and a new Mercedes C200 and I have to say the Mondeo is a match for either. The Ford engine (designed by Mazda, I gather!) is actually a lot better than the Mercedes engine - I say this as a 15+ year owner of Mercedes cars.
In the light of this experience I am now considering buying a 6-month old Mondeo 1.8 or 2.0 - they can be had for £9000 with 12k miles on the clock, which seems quite a bargain when you think that a C-class would cost a least twice that.
The 'BUT' is that I've never owned a Ford before and have concerns about quality and reliability. What is the general experience with the Duratec HE engine? There must surely now be some that have covered high mileages. Is there anything to check for on these cars other than the items listed in 'car-by-car breakdown'?
A final query - does anyone know if it is possible to get a discount for 'no p/ex' off the Ford Direct prices, or are they pretty much 'fixed' like 'car supermarket' prices?
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Owned a 2001 Duratec HE 1.8LX for a while, lovely to drive, great handling and power, I didn't have any probs with the engine.
I would however say that in my experience, the customer service from both Ford and it's franchised dealers leaves a lot to be desired.
My dealer (whom I would love to name and shame but won't as I don't want to upset HJ!) has managed to damage my vehicles on three occasions. They also seem unable to carry out the simplest of tasks at the first visit, giving a multitude of excuses and reasons for their poor service.
If you're buying new or nearly new and intend on a Ford main agent carrying out service/warranty work then I'd do yur homework and get opinions of people who have used the dealer previously.
Good luck.
PP
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P.S.
Look at your local Ford Direct dealer screen prices, then try www.archersofashby.co.uk and compare. They are a franchised Ford dealer who specialise in Ford Direct, very nice people to deal with, I only wish they'd been more local to me as they could have had my service and warranty work with pleasure.
I travelled from North Wales to buy from them last year as their screen price was around £1300 less than my local dealer.
Worth a look.
PP
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That's interesting. Archers of Ashby are just a few miles from me!
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