What to do...

Hi all, looking for some advice, i know the answer will be a little biased so i'll take it under advisement

We have three cars, the wife has a ford KA, i have a 2005 mondeo and the disco 1-1994 ES manual.

I am toying with the idea of getting rid of the mondeo and using the disco as a daily runner but its a hard decision, here are a few pros and cons...

Pro's.
Disco service yourself, mondy is garage only,
Disco service is about £100, mondy is £200-300
Disco insurance is £150 less,
Parts are cheaper but more are likely needed,
Will tow my trailer,
Is fun to drive,

Con's.
Disco does 30mpg, mondy does 55mpg,
Disco likes 55-65mph, mondy will eat tarmac at 80+ all day,
Mondy will not tow my trailer,
Mondy is like driving a 3-seater sofa, comfortable but boring,
Disco has ABS issues, oil leak at H/B drum, and needs timing belt doing,
Disco tax is £205, mondy tax is £186 ( i think)

I guess that both motors have about 5 years before the repairs get expensive/prohibitive. The disco has some minor rust on B+C pillar bottoms, the mondy is just showing some stonechip rusting. The disco is a very tidy car inside with grey leather in good nick and working aircon plus no leaks yet Mondeo's have a tendency to eat rear subframe bushes which is an expensive repair-i sold the last one due to this fault

So i guess the question is, is a 16 year old disco a serious daily runner, the commute is 25 miles each way, we also camp so the holiday mileage can be quite high too. I do have the option of borrowing the KA if the landy is off the road (but i'd rather not)

Answers on a postcard please...

Dave

Get rid of a few of um,and buy a freelander.
Once you get the initial probs sorted you'll have a decent motor.
You could still pick up a low milage (125k)L series for under a grand or a bit more for a well kept one.

Nah, dont like the Freelander looks, really like the Disco 1.

I always wanted a RRC due to the looks but they love the rust, the disco 1 has similar lines to a RRC and i like it, plus there are very little gizmo's or ECU's to feck up on me which i also like.

I would have bought another series 3 but the mpg is crap

Moving to the Discovery forum, more relevant.
Thanks.

run the mondy into the fukkin ground and mint the disco while its not being used when the mondy kiffs it sell it scrap on weight value and get at the mo £150 back towards the next lot of tax for the disco
my mate i used to work with loves disco 1's and regularly clocked up 700 miles a week in his m reg with next to no probs and all his tools in the back till after he put the big tires on with 3" suspension lift snorkel spotlights full roofrack rear door ladder farm jack and hey presto it got nicked this june
the odd little bit of welding on the sills is all it ever needed to get through 3 mot's i used to do his services cheapand teach him how to do it
regards john

Thanks for that, sorry to hear about it getting nicked, bastards.

Running the mondy into the ground would likely take 5-10 or so years, each year taking tax and insurance and mot money, plus tyres coming up too. It seems better to get shot now while theres still some value in it.

davek0974 said:

Thanks for that, sorry to hear about it getting nicked, bastards.

Running the mondy into the ground would likely take 65 or so years, each year taking tax and insurance and mot money, plus tyres coming up too. It seems better to get shot now while theres still some value in it.

Click to expand...

sounds a better plan than mine as its fairly new at the mo im running me escort / orion mk6 into the ground while i look for something else ive done it with 2 mondeos now the last one was a td running off crisp n dry i ran it into the ground literaly when i scrapped it it had 300.000 on the clock before that stopped working interior half burned out where the kids had tried torching it but wouldnt take due to the seats wet through due to the leaky sunroof it did its last 150.000 miles on the same cam belt and still ran like a goodun the only time it ever let me down was when i took the missus to hospital in labour it froze solid but threw a bucket of boiling water over it waited a min and off it went
i never serviced it not even washed it and used it basically as a works van just till i didnt need it anymore did well for the £200 i gave for it got 2 years out of it

1) Why dont you service the Mondeo yourself? I do mine
2) Only early Mondeos eat subframe bushes, it was sorted out by the time they did the facelift version which you have.

I assume its a TDCi in which case if you have already done so it will at some point require

Flywheel
Clutch
Injectors

and if you are unlucky a turbo as well :doh:

I dont find my Mondeo boring at all, goes like stink compared to the Disco and handles really well for what it is

I like having both as they both have a job to play, the disco is more of a toy plus takes me to work and the Mondeo is used when we need a more presentable car or travelling a longer distance.

Thats fine but i really dont like having to pay 2xinsurance, 2xtax, 2xMOT plus the chance of 2xrepair bills. Its financial mostly, loads of cars is a luxury and i need to make a decision on whats best.

Dave