Well, as the sun's come out, I thought I'd finally put you lot out of your misery. No, I'm not leaving the site :P Here are a couple of photo's

My trusty Fabia just before he was sold:

And my shiny new Mondeo that replaces him

Chris

So when is it booked in for a little 'tuning'

Looks nice and clean inside, what's the mileage on the new one?

Chris

My girlfriend had one of the first TDCi 130 Mondeos (press demo fleet ) in January 2002 and still has it. Nothing much has gone wrong with it but I can give you a few + and - if you want them ?

+

Straight-line stability

Lack of bodyroll

Good roadholding

Excellent motorway grunt

Seats, driving position, room

-

Noisy at idle

Eats front tyres (Rotate them every 8-10k)

Clutch biting point / stalling with aircon on (At low speed only give it a touch of revs)

Rear 3/4 visibility (Is bad)

Wind rustle from side windows

Its indicated 138 a couple of times abroad (true 128?), does 45mpg on the motorway if you keep it below an indicated 85 and you can really chuck it about. Only problems have been the trim peeling off the driver's door arm-rest and a recall from a handbrake mod. Other than that its been great to drive outside of town.

What ARE you thinking of doing to it ?!

Rob

hmm - that top one looks familiar :eek:

Glad you have the new wheels sorted mate, hope you enjoy it.

Car has done a shade over 32k miles and is 3 years old on the 22nd July so I still have a month of warranty on it, which I'm still wondering whether to extend, or just chance it as it's so low mileage.

Agree with your +ve's and -ve's Rob, although the stalling can be sorted with a tuning box apparently (overfuelling must raise the idle speed) so unfortunately I might be forced to fit one .... I see Tandem tuning are offering a digital one for

Chris

I'd be inclined to keep the ride-height the same to maintain the ride - as it doesn't roll very much to be honest - less than my Impreza did !

You'll find that when the rear tyres get nearer the limit (3mm or less) there is a slight but noticeable twitch from the back over bumps and it doesn't ride as well - particularly over sharp ridges, potholes etc. Its one of those cars where the chassis must make good use of the tyres, because you notice when you put new ones on !

Our Mondeo is a company one, so we haven't tuned it. I have had 2 boxes, 2 chips and a remap on previous turbo diesels, and if the price is important, I'd definitely go for a box that you have the option to adjust. My Hopa (Tunit? now) was great for power and you could stop black smoke as well by fiddling with the settings, whereas my Tuning Box performed well but was non-adjustable so gave lots of smoke at low revs if you mashed rather than fed it the throttle.

Rob

Nice choice of car. Is it better than the Fabia for performance / handling etc !?!? What is the road noise like - intrusive at all !?!?

I remember when i worked for renault in 2001, we went on a training day and test drove a pony 1.6 vectra, Mondeo 1.8 LX and a 1.9 DCI top of the range laguna - they wanted us to test cars back to back to see how they compared.

I nearly got sacked for saying the mondeo was by far the best - lol. And i still like the look of them now.

Good choice

Is this so you have more space in the back for "dogging" ?

We have a TDCi 130 mondeo at work and the turbo's always going on it. It does tend to 'skitter' about on bumps and pot holes. The interior has held up very well to indecent levels of abuse, but all in all (when it's on the road) it's a decent motor.

Very little road noise even at silly speeds, although a Green panel filter might change that Handling is leaps and bounds ahead of the Fabia and is probably better than my Impreza, but I've only had it four days so I'm still exploring the handling. Engine performance is much more refined than the Fabia so you don't get the shove as the turbo kicks in, it just pulls. I'm still getting used to the gearing though as it's a bit different to the Fabia. In terms of fuel economy, the computer is telling me I'm getting 43.7mpg since I've had it which has mostly been "keeping up with the traffic, officer" motorway and A-road runs so not too bad at all Just trying to decide on which tuning box to go for now

And yes Phil, the boot and rear seats are very spacious so plenty of room for "dogging"

Chris

Aaaah, remember this thread, Chris? Lol

Aaaah, remember this thread, Chris? Lol

I do indeed - the day the Fabia went was a very happy day indeed

Do I need to do another thread now?

Chris

I think you should do a thread about your memories of writing this thread, and comparing and contrasting the feelings and emotions of this thread compared with another italian related thread.

any1 know wot da best 29" alloyz for a fubry vRz dat wud fit unda my neonz mudflapz wud b?