How reliable are high km Mondeo's? Just starting to fish for a daily runabout to replace my old 250,000 km Hilux ( I see rust repairs in my near future). I see 2002 -2004ish Mondeo's about reasonably cheap but usually high km's. What do I look out for and what is likely to give me trouble?

 

petrol or diesel?

 

Flywheels, turbos, injectors

 

Not too fussed. Probably a petrol. My hilux is diesel though and cheap as to run. Which is more reliable?

 

The tdci mk3s give loads of trouble.

Just look at all the threads on this site about the subject

 

get an early mk3 TDDi, none of the TDCi issues

 

as above the older TDDI engines suffer from lesser issues than the TDCI

 

If you're going petrol then I wouldn't worry. They seem pretty bulletproof although the 4 cylinder models do seem to use oil.

 

There are always a few petrols listed on ebay as spares or repairs needing engines? More than likely that people have run them out of oil?

 

Not sure. Could very well be!
I know my Father had a 51 plate 1.8 LX brand new back in 2001 and he always used to go on about the oil consumption. From new it would use a litre over 2000miles. It never got any better or worse though.
There's a fair few threads on talk ford with people mentioning their duratecs use oil.

 

I don't think the duratecs are as good as they are made out to be. They all use oil and aren't uncommon for ring / bottom end failure. I had a 2001 tddi and it was brilliant, mate of mine has got it now. It's done 100k in our ownership and has done over 200k now. Only problem has been a broken wire in the fuel pump wiring plug but that was easily sorted by an auto electrician.

 

If you are buying a high milage car you want an Audi or VW, not a Mondeo. Unless you want practuce at fixing things every weekend.

 

plenty of cheap early passats for sale great cars the tdi go for that instead

 

I did have my eye on a couple of Passats also. I love driving my wife's Mk 5 Golf GTI. I will keep my eye out for tddi as well though. I will be sad tor see my hilux go but rust doesn't go away like a fwe mechanical isues do.

 

I just found a 2.8 Passat 2004 wagon for sale wit 130k on the clock. Would that be a reliable wagon ?

 

You want the 1.9 tdi

 

In fairness the tddi models will go on and on like a vag 1.9 pd?

The duratec as someone else said i dont think are that good and tdci's forget it.

Mk1 and 2 mondeos with the zetec engines were alot better at covering high milage imo

 

Used diesels just don't seem to be on the maret down here in NZ.