Amazed

[Japster]

Coming from a ford mondeo i am amazed at the economy i am getting from the 2.0 hdi especially on a motorway run.

[gRoberts]

Welcome local ;)

What MK, engine etc did you have of the Mondeo? I'm actually looking to move from the 406 to the MK 3 (second from last.)

Gav (birtley)

[Welly]

The HDi always returns mega mpg's on the motorway (probably 20+ more than in town) mostly down to ultra-low gearing and the low down torque.

[Japster]

Had an old mk2 1.8 td, worked on too many mk3 mondeo's so i wouldnt touch one with a shitty stick

[Blue406]

Welcome local ;)

What MK, engine etc did you have of the Mondeo? I'm actually looking to move from the 406 to the MK 3 (second from last.)

Gav (birtley)

Why on earth would you want to do that?
Aside from the fact that the Mondeo is a very boring looking, overy common car. It's also a car you genuinely have to Fix Or Replace Daily.
Bad move in my opinion!

[gRoberts]

lol I actually think they look quite nice, especially the ST's.. But thats my view on things.

I love the 406's in general, but they haven't got around to making the interior better looking. It's like staring at the mona lisa all day. Interesting at first, boring for the rest.

[highlander]

Customize your interior, make it the way you want it to be!

- Indiglo dials, with or without chromed rings around the dials (or, see if you can get a set of white clocks from one of the late-model 406s)
- Fit either original Peugeot leather seats or after-market seats and dye them any colour or pattern you like - or have the existing seats re-trimmed
- Ditto with the steering wheel
- Spray-paint the dash board a different colour (or a multi-tone colour pattern)
- Ditto with the walnut dash inserts - apply a chrome effect to them, or paint them the same colour as your bodywork, anything you like
- Fit a new gear knob and/or shorten the gear stick
- Replace the pedals with some shiny after-market ones
- Put in some chrome detailing strips (or walnut effect, if that's what you like)
- Put in new floor mats and/or dye the carpet a different colour or pattern
- Rip out the entire centre column on the dash board and fit an in-car touch-screen PC (there's a thread on the Coupe Club where someone has done just that)

There's so much you can do to make any car your own. The 406 is no exception.

[gRoberts]

lol Highlander ;) I couldn't do all of that, the car would look worse afterwards

I love the 406 and how it looks as standard. Just certain things let it down.

If I get a new 406, it's likely to be a exec. Won't need much doing to it then. I just hope it doesn't suffer the same issues that I have with my current D8.

[eoin27]

They're some pretty mental modifications on that list there highlander

I think a nice D9 exec HDi 136 would put your interior woes to rest. You could spray all the fake wood silver like HimBigChief did. That would really bring it up a few years

[highlander]

OK, but the pedals and gear knob are dead easy. Door card replacements are amazingly easy too.

Getting the seats retrimmed is easy because it's not you doing it can be expensive though, depending on what leather they use and how it is dyed.

There's a guy on the Coupe Club that used a liquid leather dye to recolour the leather on his steering wheel to match the colour of the leather on his seats and door cards. Looked ace.

New mats are easy, and there are companies that will print graphics on them as well if you like.

The walnut trim is apparently easy to remove and you can ask a paint shop to recolour them if you don't fancy trying it yourself. There are folk on this forum who have done this and it makes a fair difference.

It just depends on what you want your interior to look like, and how much you're willing to try. I'd like to do a bunch of things on mine, but it's wiring that I get nervous about (things like fitting the exec-spec sun visors with the light-up vanity mirrors, and getting the little lights on the exec-spec door cards to light up too, and fitting an auto-dimming mirror).

[gRoberts]

If I go for a 406, I'm likely to be saving a few grand on top of what I would have spent on a different car, so I would probably do all of that, assuming it's not already done.

One thing that annoys me at the moment, is the radio. I have a Sony MX630 which has a flip out screen. I can't really use it because the angle in which the radio goes in at, makes the screen (whilst open) become parrallel with the roof.

I'd love to create a carputer. It's something i've been wanting to do for years but the little sh*ts around my area would have a field day trying to break in.

[sirwiggum]

I thought the TDCi Mondeo engine was a badge engineered HDi? Or am I mistaken?

Wouldn't have a Ford, after my last one, a 92 Orion

- Fuel tank leak
- Fuel gauge not working
- Rear wind-up windows not working
- Cutting out at junctions
- Erratic idle / took 5 minutes to settle to an idle
- Misfire
- Running on 3 cylinders
- Burning oil
- Wishbones gone
- Unpredictable handling
- Wheelarches made of filler
- Lights stopped working on a trip from England to Scotland. Guy at Tyne tunnel wasn't pleased.
- Indicators stopped working. Had to use hand signals like it was the 1950s. (and it wasn't even a COM2000 unit! )
- Fusebox blown
Apart from that it was a good car
All with 70k on the clock, and the car a mere 10 years old (ie. could you imagine a 2000 D9 406 as bad as this? Even my 97 Alfa GTV last year was a better built car!)