New Owner: 56 Plate Mk 3 2.0L Ghia

[cragger89]

Hello!

Joined originally in 2012 because I became the proud owner of a Mk 2.5 Zetec Sport Focus. I lost my job last month, so decided to avoid anything sinister happening with the finances, to do a voluntary termination on the finance deal as last time I was out of work, I was signing on for a good 4 months and I just don't have the affordability there. Twinned with that, I suffer badly with anxiety/depression which could make the job search take a lot longer, so the focus is going back and I picked up a "banger" yesterday in the form of a 56 plate, 2l petrol Mondeo Ghia. I paid £1400 for it so I own it outright and feel a LOT more comfortable having done so. I did see a few for closer to 800, but they had hardly any gadgets and were a lot older.

I love it so far, have done a few hundred miles and love the extra comfort features it has over the newer focus.

It's done 125k miles which is fairly high, but I opted to deliberately look for a higher mileage example simply because of the problems I've had with cars at 80k miles where they have needed lots replacing on them within a few days of me driving home in it. Obviously, I'm not naive and expect that the Mondeo will need some work doing to it at some point because it is old, even the 60 plate focus needed 800 dropping on it at the MOT this year.

I always do regular services on my motors, but thought I'd ask if there is anything you guys would suggest to look out for/expect? The air conditioning needs at least regassing, but as it is cold at the moment I'm not worried about that for now. The oil looks nice and clean but I'm probably going to book it in for a service anyway just so I know it is done.

Any pointers would be appreciated fellas, look forwad to treading the responses.

[jeebowhite]

to be honest the MK3 petrols are pretty good, there arent as many concerns with them. Not sure if it would have a DMF and clutch but if it does that would be the only thing I would be wary of. It might be worth getting the injectors cleaned (there are issues with diesel injectors, but I dont believe there is anything wrong with the petrols - but I just couldnt say for sure!)

[cragger89]

Thanks mate.

I will have to have the inlet manifold flaps taken care of as they were noisy - for now I've disconnected the pipe with is responsible for them opening/closing, leaving them in a permanently open state so as to keep them from disintegrating and falling into the engine!

Took it for a long drive today and can safely say I prefer it over the Mk2 focus. Really pleased with my purchase - would be better if it didn't require any attention at all, but for the sake of unplugging and capping off a length of pipe (and the bit it connects to) temporarily, I am not going to lose sleep over it.

Pleasantly surprised this morning when I discovered it has electronic folding mirrors and an electric mechanism for raising and lowering the drivers seat!

[jeebowhite]

Yeah I must admit the mondeos really have me hooked... It's always good to find new toys though lol

[cragger89]

Yeah I must admit the mondeos really have me hooked... It's always good to find new toys though lol

It's what I should have bought when we bought the 60 plate focus which is still in my avatar. It's never been big enough when we go on holiday with the dogs in the boot and loads of luggage, we've had to use roof bars/box for the suitcases.

Here's to hoping that it will be a dependable motor for quite some time. Although I paid what I consider banger money for it, I really love it.

[jeebowhite]

It's a great price you paid, now just sit back and enjoy the miles of mondeo motoring