What's the weather like were you are?

[slr]

Maaaybe In a mondeo by any chance?

[Madstuntman]

slr said:

Maaaybe In a mondeo by any chance?

Why yes!!

[Deleted]

I nearly ended up being a Mundano driver

They're nice cars to drive though (even the Mk.2 I would have ended up with.)

I prefer French cars though... No particular reason, but I do. It's just one of those things.

I've had a '97 Laguna Estate for a week and bits have started falling off of it already

[Madstuntman]

azurael said:

I nearly ended up being a Mundano driver

They're nice cars to drive though (even the Mk.2 I would have ended up with.)

I prefer French cars though... No particular reason, but I do. It's just one of those things.

I've had a '97 Laguna Estate for a week and bits have started falling off of it already

NOTHING WRONG WITH A MONDEO!!!!! We'll having nothing bad displayed on a screen in this house thank you very much!!! ;D ;D

I just sold a 97' Laguna Estate!! After the tailgate caught fire while driving alone one day I didn't feel that same about putting my kids in it!! Got an Escort in its place

[Deleted]

Haha... Fire?

I'll watch out for that one I know about the exhausts falling off, and the heater matrix failing, and all the other common faults with Lagunas I'd have avoided by buying a Mundano though

[Madstuntman]

azurael said:

Haha... Fire?

I'll watch out for that one I know about the exhausts falling off, and the heater matrix failing, and all the other common faults with Lagunas I'd have avoided by buying a Mundano though

I had to hose out my heater matrix, All the wiring in the tailgate caught fire one afternoon when i switched on the heated rear window, fortunatly it was fitted with a fire extingisher. I had to replace all the wiring on the off side (heated rear window and high level brake light) but the fire also cooked the hi brake light wiring... which is connected to the other brakelight wiring... which is connected to the indicator wiring... which was connected to my headache. made a mess of the tailgate spoiler too, plastic and fire don't mix!!! Tailgate central locking motor never worked again ether... oh and it leaked a lot through the near side rear door... I think the near side of the car was slightly longer than the off side ;D

Also exhaust back boxes are expensive (£50+) Mine fell off and look out for the metal straps the hold the fuel tank in place, mine disolved!! (rust) Oh and wheel bolts are made from slightly too soft metal and can snap (common problem according to my RAC man father in law!!) so make sure you don't over tightnen them!! ;D

Sure you still don't want a mondeo???

[Deleted]

My back-box cost £22

Euro Car Parts is the place to go.

Getting the old one off was a right b*****d though. The angles I had to contort myself into to get the clamp off the joint between the mid and rear sections of the exhaust pain me just to consider. Unfortunately, the piping attached to the back-box joins up with the mid-section of the exhaust just forward of the torsion beam, and right where the jacking point on the rear of the car is, so you've got a great big chunk of metal right where you need to get a spanner to undo the bolts, and an axle stand preventing you getting right under the car from that side.

In the end, I had to go under the car from the back and hacksaw through one of the bolts because even after liberal applications of WD-40, the b******s just didn't want to come undone.

To be honest, I didn't want a Mondeo for two real reasons - I do actually like them very much, having driven both the mk.1 2.0 petrol estate and mk. 2 1.8 td hatches my dad had - they were a much more responsive and involved drive than any other cars of that era and size I've driven. However, all the diesels use Lucas fuel pumps, which destroys any chance of running the car on vegetable oil easily, and secondly, reading of all the premature timing belt failures on those Endura DE engines scared me off of even considering one that hadn't had a recent belt change. Yes, there are lots of Mondeos on the market, but finding one in decent nick, in the price range I was looking at that had also had a recent belt change was going to be a pain in the ass, especially when I needed a car in a hurry.

My first choice of cars was actually a Xantia, primarily because I always thought they looked kind of cool. I know they have a reutation for poor reliability surpassed not even by the Laguna, but that mostly appears to have been down to neglect of the hydraulics, which I trust according to many owners, are actually vastly more hard-wearing than a traditional suspension system given proper preventative maintenance. The PSA XUD9 engines are certainly a proven beast, with many passing 300,000 miles without any substantial rebuild work - even the Germans can't consistently compete with that, though I'm sure with, say, a VW, the rest of the car would be holding together better at that milage!

After a somewhat depressing two weekends looking at cars at various dealers in the Westcountry and South Wales, we went to see this privately sold Laguna - it looked a bid scruffy, but reassuringly, the owner was actually still using it. It had just had a new clutch and belts changed less than 20k ago. That wasn't the best bit though - I fell in love with it on driving it - it was the smoothest, quietest, least creaky 11 year old diesel car I've ever driven.

So that was it, I had to have it. That and the fact that it's absolutely huge, which keeps Kitty happy with the assurance we're not going to have the problems getting all our gear to re-enactment events in the summer months. I would probably have ended up with a very different car given more time to search, but despite the back box falling off, I do like the car very much.

Edit: Why is b*****d censored but not the plural?

[Deleted]

Bright & sunny

[Deleted]

Lol Euan... we haven't seen you in ages...

Bright and sunny down here also, although 30 mins ago we had a total downpour - almost killed off my iPod

[Deleted]

Indeed it was had the sunglasses on driving the first 47 to ladywood this morning, second trip was X47 and you`ve guessed it terminal ipod weather!

[Deleted]

Apr 29, 2008 14:18:35 GMT @expressliner2 said:

Indeed it was had the sunglasses on driving the first 47 to ladywood this morning, second trip was X47 and you`ve guessed it terminal ipod weather!

LOL ;D ;D

[john]

Woke up to glorious sunshine.....now it's peeing it down and i haven't voted yet!!! Also had some thunder lol

[Deleted]

May 1, 2008 11:45:26 GMT john said:

Woke up to glorious sunshine.....now it's peeing it down and i haven't voted yet!!! Also had some thunder lol

Thunder

Haven't had anything of the sort down my neck of the woods... yet.

[john]

Well, i'm looking out of my sitting room window and all i can see is black cloud. Oh. and waterlogged grass, which isn't good lol

[lc1]

All the rain last week was excellent, it meant the rail engineering works were cancelled, however they never cancelled the bus so for 2 nights all I done was drove from BX to Gravesend sat and watched the train go, gave a little wave to the passengers then drove from Gravesend back to BX and hours work (if you can call it that) and I still get paid for the full job which works out to about £64 before tax ;D ;D