Tab,

Bet I know who that was in Kent lol, bet it was in Erith....

A good Autobox Shop in Kent is Dartford Transmissions, honest and reliable, ask for Tony or Bob.

As you say the Mondeo tranny, (CD4E) on old ones or Jatco on later 5sp Autos is a pita as the subframe has to be dropped to get it out, but I used to do millyuns of em and were normally fine. Its usually loss of forward - broken clutch drum... loss of 2nd / 4th broken band and or band servo piston, or shifting down for no reason the range switch on top. ECU's and valve blocks don't give much trouble.

HTH Dave