At the moment I have a boggo Mondeo 1.8 lx that I bought with 44k on, it was absolutely dog slow when I got it (after my MK2 Golf GTI), really slow but recently after 2 thousand miles it seems to be a lot better, it almost accelerates and was quick enough to match a Saxo VTR the other night much to my (and his) surprise.

I know its not a quick car and I am under no illusions (hence why I am after a change) but to be fair to it, it feels miles better than it did.

could it be,

1/ I havent driven my Golf (or anything remotely quick) for 4 months.
2/ Its loosened up through continous thrashing.

 

well my dad used to have a cavalier 4x4 with to begin with was quite slow but by the time he had clocked up 140k on it, it went like the clappers but drank a bit of fuel by then.

I and he noticed that the scoob was very tight when new and really struggled up a steep hill near where we live now it has 8,000 on the clock and again is flying so yes I do believ that over time cars will improve as they loosen up - provided they are maintained

 

seem to remember Tg did a test on a golf 16v gti

new and one with 40k on it

the one with 40k was quicker in a 1/4 mile test

Cars loosen up with miles - to a point!

I had the same with a civic VTI, it got better with age/miles

Scoob loosened up after around 8k

 

Generally things will loosen up with age, especially compared to brand new. My scoob was seriously tight when brand new, and continued to free up noticeably over the first 10k in particular. Now, approaching 22k it's better still. I believe that most cars need ~30,000 miles before they're at their best. After that, they tend to get looser rather than necessarily better, but that can still be an improvement.

Also, if a car hasn't been driven/worked at all for several months, and now you're driving it more regularly / harder, it will "de-silt" and free up a lot. I remember many years ago borrowing my grandfather's Citreon LNA (now there was a car!) when I'd blown my engine. The Citreon had done about 300 miles - all slowly around town - in the previous year and a half. When I first got into the Citreon, it had a top speed of about 65, with inadequate braking and handling for such a massive speed! Everything was just silted up, sticky, rusty etc. A week and 1,000 miles later, it would do 90+, stop almost adequately, and even corner slightly less badly than before. I suspect something a bit like that has happened to your mondeo.

 

Now you have confirmed I am not going mental, does the same thing apply to the opposite sex....

 

VW PD engines are well known for not getting into stride until around 15k to 20k miles. Get the oil warm each time and thrash the knackers off them

 

Most certainly, especially if the previous owner was "careful" and tottered about everywhere.

First example was my XR3, seemed OK for a 1.8 16valve, but at first only seemed marginally faster than the old shape 1.6's. 30K of good use later, and it was a flyer, and an excellant A-road blaster.

2nd example was my runabout 1984 POLO, 1 owner from new and 80K obivously used locally for most of its life, and once I've fixed the missfire (plug leads) it was fairly typical....given 3 weeks of daily blasts up the motorway. Well, what can I say, the speedo would quite happily go off the clock (i.e 3 figures plus some more). And it would eat any modern 1.3/1.4 supermini off the lights when it could handle the traction.

Also to add my mate at the time had a Polo 1.3 "S" and even though mine has the same engine...it was way faster. Even though his has done 28K (mummy's old car ) and was perfectly maintained and mine was an 80k with patchy history. We spent many a weekend tinkering with his to try and get it to match it, but it just couldn't

 

There is a downside to this thrashing lark. Yes, I agree that the car will get faster with miles and a thrash but there is also a sweet spot when a car will be at its best and reliable with it. After this sweet spot things will go wrong and performance will go down hill. Sell the car at this point...

F