1.8 TDCi Edge+ 5dr Hatchback

Excellent car with one terrible flaw

To dismiss the good points - everything, except:

What darn fool would design a car so that one component failure, in this case a battery - and lets face it, batteries don't last for ever - renders the car impossible to start after it has been replaced?

Parked for four days in a carpark in France, and having shown no battery problems on the drive there, my Ford Mondeo refused to start last night when I returned to it. No Ford mechanics around at midnight on a Sunday but I thought: no problem in getting the attendent with a starter battery.

What I had not reckoned with is some half-wit in Ford's design department making sure that a half-dead battery triggers the engine immobiliser. And another half-wit writing documentation not mentioning in the car handbook how to reset this.

In consequence, car couldn't be started even with a new battery: mechanic summoned a flatbed truck which took the car to their depot and will be taken to the Perpignan Ford dealer today (the tow cost me €330.20 payable in advance). And I don't even mention the cost of getting home afterwards.

A small fortune gone, even before Ford charge me for whatever repair they do, including resetting the immobiliser. And then me having to drive back to France to collect it.

Henry Ford, who believed in constructing a strong reliable car which any mechanic could repair, must be turning in his grave.

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