Right long story short need a bigger car and shortlisted 2 from trade sale (need finance)

A 2007 mondeo ghia 2.0 td 62k with no history for 5.4k and a skoda elegance 2.0 pd tdi 2008 with 65k but full service history mondeo is 4 door saloon and octavia is a hatch.anyone own a mondy any issues or anything to look for? Same for octavia.

Main concern is reliability and size as the car the wife had shed just finished paying off and the ecu has gone kaput so not woth fixing : /.

Octies are very reliable, the fact that practically every taxi seems to be an Octy supports it. I’ve got one, and there’s a huge amount of space in the back, plus they’re a very comfortable car to spend time in.
Can’t comment on Mondeo’s, I’ve only ever owned one Ford, a Puma, which was extremely comfy, but not a family car.
I’d go for the Octy, it has FSH, which is pretty important, really. I bought mine in 2005, with 85k on the clock, ifor £5; t’s now over 110k, and going fine, apart from a few rattles. It doesn’t get an awful lot of TLC, tbh, though. 😀

The mondy better specced and looks waaaayyy nicer with the 18″ st wheels and metallic gray paint but the 4 door and nsh puting me off a bit I have heard good things about the mondys but the octavia has rave reviews too.

Its dark gray with the 16″ rs6 type alloys half decent spec and all black interior but the fsh swinging it tbh.

High miles dont put me off as long as it has sh but the father in law has got involved and hes got into her head now. Found a lovely bmw x3 on a 55 plate full sh and immaculate 1 owner 70k and just had a service at bmw 7k we could have had it for, too many miles apparently.

Service history only dissapears when there is something to hide or the car is old….. The cars not old so i suspect soemthings being hidden.

They are both massive. Cant speak for the octavia but the mondeos are drit cheap on parts.

You don’t say, but are they both the same price?

If so the extra 10k miles but FSH and year younger would probably swing it towards the Skoda.

tbh There are loads of this type of car around, I recently bought (for a little less) a similar mileage auto Vectra CDTi 150 hatch. Not a lot of history (but at this mileage you are only looking at 2 services), immaculate though and agreed a belt/pump/service in the deal. Another big car inside, and not a favoured one so good deals around.

i have a mondeo, older model, 2003, but mechanically its been a good car.
i may buy another.
my next one will be a 2.2 diesel, the 115hp 2.0 is slightly lacking in low down oomph until the turbo kicks in, and the 2.0 130hp has belt driven cams, which is just enough to steer me elsewhere.
in your position, id go for the vw, its a hatch, it has history.

trail_rat – Member
Service history only dissapears when there is something to hide or the car is old….. The cars not old so i suspect soemthings being hidden.

common for it to disappear (with every other document) when it goes through an auction, which will car will have been.

I’m a Mondeo fan, but the Octavia with the hatchback and history would win for me.

Mondeo are big cars but this one being a saloon will be a pain in the arse to get anything in. 2.0 engine also suffers with dpf and egr valve problems so if history is missing I would avoid!

Don’t know much about the octy but they have big boots but not a lot of rear leg room.

I would also look out for a vectra Sri 150 if you can find one.

Got told the chain driven mondys were stopped all together in 2006 the shape before the one were looking at. And the dpf was an issue on 08> cars? Looks like the octavia it is then.

Ah forgot to say the skoda is 5995. Found a skoda supurb last night fully specced to the eye balls but 3.6k on a 2003 with 77k miles makes me wonder.

I used to have a Mondeo estate, absolutely cavernous inside but if you spend a lot of time in and out of car parks it’s not the most manoeuvrable car in tight spaces.

I handed it back with 120,000 miles on it and it didn’t have a single mechanical issue in that time.

Currently got a Focus estate but if I was choosing again I’d likely get an Octavia.

Regarding the 18 inch rims, they look good but give a rough ride and the low profile tires are shocking in snow.

If you need finance, is there any reason for you not just getting a separate loan in order to widen the choice available?

e.g. 2008 Mondeo Estate: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201311099784327/sort/default/usedcars/price-from/5000/body-type/estate/fuel-type/diesel/price-to/6000/model/mondeo/make/ford/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/postcode/g134tb/radius/1501/page/1?logcode=p

or even better: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201311039637313/sort/default/usedcars/price-from/5000/body-type/estate/fuel-type/diesel/price-to/6000/model/mondeo/make/ford/onesearchad/used/onesearchad/nearlynew/onesearchad/new/page/2/radius/1501/postcode/g134tb?logcode=p

The car place were going is beating our banks apr rate!!!! Its actually cheaper than getting a loan.

Its the travelling to get the car. If it comes with a warranty or service pack and goes kaput its a nice journey on a low loader needs to be as close to home as poss.

Never driven an Octavia. Had a fully specced out mondeo titanium last year as a hire car to drive from ayrshire to Cardiff and back. Really nice big car, plenty room, big boot, but by Christ was it uncomfortable. Was so bad in the front seats my mate sat in the back in the end!.

I do love the older mondy st i found a absolute minter witb 47k silver 2.2td fsh from a dealer but cried when I rang round for insurance.

bigphilblackpool – Member
The car place were going is beating our banks apr rate!

fair play in that case! although in my experience i’ve never gone with my own bank as they’ve never really been competitive

Its the wifes saving grace. An immaculate credit score so the car place love her. Her bank offered a 10k loan and the apr waaaayyy to high against a 8.5k car with the interest.

Octavia. It’s a hatch so much more useful, it has FSH which the Mondeo doesn’t.

You always have to wonder about a car that is missing it’s service history.

Why would anyone pay top dollar for no service history?

Mondeo’s are fine.

Mk3 has fantastic handling.

Skoda is fine too.

we have a mondeo saloon. Only bought it cause it was very good money. Wouldn’t choose a boot otherwise. They are quite small for size of car and akward to get stuff in. But they are nice cars and when my old nissan dies I’ll be looking for a mondeo estate.

Well we now own a mondeo : ) it did have full sh from ford dealer with genuine ford parts just wasnt advertised. just had service and 12 month tax and 12 month mot new conti tyres all round all the extras bluetooth climate etc and we got 2 years warranty on all electrical and mechanical parts thrown in along with 2 years full aa breakdown. And got 750 off the price after haggling. The skoda had a 30day warranty from a small independant dealer and the finance was only avl over 3 years out of our monthly budget

Oh and mats and a 1/4 tank of derv with a detailed valet chucked in : )

my 54 plate cmax diesel had loads of dpf and egr problems !!

Looked at history and they were replaced under warranty in 2008 plus we have the 2 year parts and labour warranty inc so should be happy days

I like both but I would go for Octavia.

Very easy really as there are more Octavia taxis here then Mondeo (hardly seen any lately) ones.

Extra gadgets? Those are just distraction and more things to go wrong so I prefer them simple.

Octavia wins.

Should be ok for a bit then bigphil!

bigphilblackpool – Member

Well we now own a mondeo : ) …

D’oh! Missed that … 😆

Well done. Sounds like you have a good deal there.

I would also go for Mondeo by comparison to the 30 days warranty given by the small independent garage.

So how much did you pay for the Mondeo and what year is it? 2007?

🙂

In the end I think 4.7k there or there abouts after haggle then the interest of about 1.5k with no final payment,650 cash deposit and got the aa and free warranty chucked in at last min : ) late 2007 ghia x 2.0cdti with 140ps and every extra on possible from new.

Its the fact it was a saloon and not a hatch as most people dont want a “trunk” had a good friend of mine look over it and hes a service tech at merc. Thumbs up from him and full sh so think we snagged a gem : )

The wife is happy “omg you can talk to it and it talks back” its the simple things in life when she asks is diesel the black stuff at the garage (facepalm) 🙁

A 2yr parts and labour warranty won’t cover a dpf as this is a service item. Make sure it gets a blast out every few days. 20 mins at over 2000rpm for the re-gen. They are superb cars when they are running. Don’t use cheapo supermarket diesel either shell v-power is the best. Worth every penny in the long run.

The dpf already bin done along with the brakes that could cause incresed stopping distance. Looked and joined mondy forum and they were very very helpful. Ive looked at the warranty and it covers the ecu to the bottom end, pistons turbo etc bin very very thorough spent days researching both skoda and ford but the 30day warranty on the skoda was a put off as he had 3 cars in a tiny industrial estate lockup : /

The car was good price warranty a bonus and fsh was bought from the dealer new where we bought it was just traded in for a kugar 4×4 thing.

I have recently bought an ’09 Mondeo Estate diesel and I am very pleased with it. Great for biking, drives well, very well finished and economical. My first ever Ford and I will probably get another, the heated windscreen is ace!

I thought the estate was nice but its huuuhhge for what we need and the “boss” would struggle to drive and park tbh but could be a future work bus for me.

If you get the reg plate of the mondeo and give the local ford garage a call they may be able to look in to the history for you and give you an idea what it’s had. I’m not sure if the ford system is one of the national ones but it’s worth a call to find out. If it’s a local car they might have done it.

The octavia is ok but the 2.0 engines are much less reliable than the older 1.9’s. My friendly garage had one of the 2.0 pd’s in last week having the head replaced at 70k, a fairly common problem apparently.

But all cars have problems, look carefully, ask questions and if you don’t know much get a warranty (you get 6 months from any dealer sale at those kind of prices regardless of what they say due to sales of goods act stuff.

Read above posts : ) car was bought from where it was originally bouhgt new and all servicing carried out at same garage : ) it was a large ford main dealer.

170k on our Mondeo. It’s a great car. Rattles a bit but it drives like a car a quarter of it’s age/mileage.
Parts are cheap. I can get new discs & pads all round for £70. U 😕

I checked the parts prices and was surprised some cheaper than the old c2 checked clutch, pads, discs , exhaust etc and was happy. Plus the insurance is half the price of her c2 which was also a surprise!!!