Wizzbang

I may be in the market to replace my ageing '97 Passat TDi (110) SE sometime soonish, but what to look at and what to avoid ?

The Passat has done me well for the 4 years that Ive owned it, and is still very clean and tidy despite having 180,000 miles on it, but just recently its starting to require costly maintainance, so, I think its time to move on.


Budget will be a max of £2500, absolutely no more.


I do a fair bit of towing my motorbike on a trailer to trackdays across the country, so it must be capable of doing so and a diesel is prefered but not essential, a reasonable sized boot would be nice too, to chuck all the associated kit that goes with the bike etc when I go away.


My budget dictates that I cant go too prestige or too new, so Ive found myself looking at 2003/53 2004/54 Mondeo 2.0 zetec tdci 130 6 speed


Anyone with any first hand experience of these cars ??

Anything else that I should conisder ?

nick172sport

iTrader: (6)

ive drove the mondeo tdci very good i thought though it was a later one

scooby-tc

iTrader: (2)

what about a pug 406 estate diesel? I had one of these for work and it was a great work hack and had plenty of room in the boot although it did cost quite a bit to fill up as it had a big fuel tank.Should be able to get a decent one for about 1500 and have some change unless you want as new as poss then the mongo will fit the bill nicely

Mogsmex

just what I was going to recomend as I started reading your post, cracking cars, handle well, pull like a train and will do 45mpg,

couple of things, make sure it's a tdCi the common rail is chalk and cheese to the earlier version, if you get a 53 plate on you'll get the facelift dash and the 6 speed box, make sure it's a 130ps, the 115 isnt as good and there much much on fuel I would go for an estate if you can find one, same running costs and there huge

weak points - if it hasnt had a DMF it WILL fail at about the 120k mark depending on how it's driven, also injectors wear out at about the same mileage maybe a bit more

I got my Dad one just over a year ago, full fat 130ps, TDCI facelift 6 speed estate Ghia X with every option, I paid 3k for it which was a bargain, but you should be able to get something similiar for your budget now, just maybe not the X bit (leather seats)

hope it helps

Jamescsti

Used to own a 115 TDCI mondeo on a 52 plate was a lovely car, really good to drive, quite lively. MMy duel mass flywheel had to be replaced at around 120k miles which wasn't cheap, would still have another though

Matteeboy

Definitely a Mundano.

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Skoda Octavia diesel (pre-facelift)? Basically the same as your Passat but costs less. My other half's has done over 150k and is still going strong. I'm not sure how they compare in terms of price to the Mondeo though.

JTaylor

My field managers drive these and they're excellent. Comfortable, relatively quick, reliable, drive nicely and always produce 40+ mpg despite massive abuse. We have some on 150k with very few squeaks and rattles that still feel fairly fresh. HTH.

Wizzbang

Having read quite a few owners reviews and having a long chat with a Ford main dealer mechanic, Ive got quite a few doubts over the Mondeo.

Ive looked at most other options within my price bracket and im not that impressed, so.....Im looking to extend my budget......potentially going up to £4k

That brings in the only other car that takes my fancy....the BMW 320d (E46) 2000/2001


Anyone able to tell me much about these ?

Matteeboy

E46 320s is a good one but you must be careful - quite a few had swirl flap failure which kills the engine. Happened on my Astra (under warranty) and the work involved was pretty extensive.