The Mondeo MK4 brings more questions based on reading the article. Cannot see that gearbox doing close to those miles without rebuild. Would have thought around 2 to 3 rebuilds potentially. Also the Mazda Duratec 2.3 lump still has issues in the MK4's with swirl flaps despite it being more common on the MK3 were they changed and how many times as the latest part to my knowledge is still plastic and still wears out. Was the fuel pump changed? I run a Mondeo petrol with 256k miles and my fuel pump died just over 200k miles.

gb, they talk about Land Cruisers in the feature. Perhaps best to go directly to Autocar website to read the article. Apologies HJ for this encoragement.

I did just that, thanks for the suggestion.

That early Landcruiser/Prado 95 (named Colorado here) in the article is probably the pre common rail 3 litre turbocharged unit almost same as in my present common rail fuelled 120 series, only boasting something like 130bhp pre d4d, i had the same engine in my 70 series LC many years ago, its as simple a Diesel fuel system as you will find anywhere, the lack of bhp didn't mean a thing, that engine had lorry like stump pulling torque right down to stall revs, in fact in a manual you really would have to try very hard to stall the engine at all, and despite its lack of euro numbers, not a single trace of black smoke (nor any other colour) to be seen no matter how hard it was pushed.

It might be an early d4d, its on the later wheels from when d4d was introduced, but with either fueling system a fine vehicle and a good bet for someone who needs something like it, MOT history is very good, minor failures only on the odd tyre, faded rear fog light lens (common, cheaply fixed with red led fog light bulb) and the odd bottom bush worn, no mention of corrosion anywhere.

I'd be very interested to see under that example, its rust at the rear end of the chassis, and the top suspension mounts of the live rear axle which kills them off, otherwise and given its been maintained by the main dealer all its life, which means its had regular changes of all the transmission oils inc the auto gearbox, if that one is fairly rust free underneath, it could easily last another 20 years and put another 270k on without much going wrong at all, if i was looking for one i'd definately check that one out.

The weak spot on that model, if its auto, is the transmission oil cooler built into the bottom of the radiator can fracture between the two liquids, allowing coolant to get into the auto box, i would suspect that vehicle has had a new radiator at some point which many owners did as a preventative measure....many MB's suffered the same fate with Valeo radiators during the noughties.

Edited by gordonbennet on 22/04/2019 at 10:18