Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi 130 Ghia 5dr Review

Overall Rating

Loads of car for the money. Good fuel economy. Plenty of mid range pull from diesel unit.

Weak clutch.

Bought this Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi from new with delivery miles only. First 12 months absolutely without fault. Great spec on the Ghia - all the toys. Using this car as a towing vehicle upset a great relationship. On the road, this motor is more than capable of towing a suitably matched caravan - fifth gear on a steady climb without breaking a sweat - once on site, the clutch is not up to the job (not on mine anyway - anyone else suffered?). A few trips left the clutch/flywheel completely destroyed with only 38k on the clock - £780 to put right. Engineer at dealers stated that they fix around 6 Transit vans a week with the same poor clutch. Up to this point I would have put money on me buying another Mondeo - now I'm not so sure.

Members' Comments onhillpaul's Review

• GJTyler on 25th Mar 2007

  I have had two Mondeo 2.0 TDCi 130 Estates as company cars. The first was an LX supplied new in 2002 and when this was due for replacement I chose a Ghia in early 2006. Both have proved to be frugal, reliable and great drivers cars when driven solo and when towing. However, both cars suffered from the same clutch weakness when towing. Both cars have let me down when stuck in a long traffic queue on a hill whilst towing, after about ten hill starts in close succession the clutch overheats and starts to slip. If the clutch is left to cool it bites again and everything is OK, so far I have not had to have a clutch replaced and the first car covered some 80,000 miles before it was swapped for the Ghia.

• Phil Cantlay on 12th Aug 2007

  I have a 05 mondeo- the clutch has just burned out at 24000 miles after a 100m reverse up a steep hill! I am waiting for the local dealership to re-open on Monday so I can see what they have to say as still in 3 year warranty! I will report back in a few days.

• ipmmm on 7th Sep 2008

  2007 Mondeo Ghia Estata 2.0 TDCi 130 Ghia. In August I towed my caravan to SpI have ain once we arrived I attempted to reverse the caravan up a slight incline to put it on its pitch whilst doing this I burnt the clutch - the smell was horrendous. Anyway we gave up and got the other campers to man handle it on to the pitch. Whilst I felt worried about the clutch I carried on using the car without problem for two weeks although the smell didnt go away. We decided to leave early and go to another camp site 40 miles up the road as we approached the camp site the clutch started to slip. So I decided to contact the AA who recoverd the car and took it to the local Ford dealer. They immediately assumed the caravan was to heavy for the car and quoted a minimum of 1500 Euros to put it right (which isnt true I went to great lengths to choose a light weight caravan) because of this they concluded this was deffinately not a warranty job.
  The AA where now able to withdraw any additional help as the car could be repaired and anyway your caravan is to heavy.
  I contacted ford dealer in UK they suggested might be warranty if not around £500 to put it right. As the cars clutch only slipped whilst towing we decided to put the caravan into storage in Spain (220 Euros for the year) and we travelled home without any problems. By now the smell has gone and I took it into my local Ford Dealer who cant find anything wrong with the clutch no slipping and was reluctant to take it apart when their doesn't appear to be a problem. I now have the car back working perfectly. What happens next year when I attempt to tow the caravan back home?