Taxi driver Brian Holmes (Bernie) with his Ford Mondeo which is about to clock up one million miles.
He has been taking holidaymakers to and from Manchester Airport in his red Ford Mondeo since he bought the vehicle for £14,000 on December 16, 1996.
Now, 16 years later, he has completed the 120-mile return journey from his home in Preesall around 8,330 times.
And when the Aspen Estate’s odometer strikes one million, its original 1.8 turbo diesel engine will have travelled enough miles to have gone around the earth 40 times.
Bernie, 67, of Sandy Lane, said: “When you buy a vehicle you don’t think too much about how long it will last. It’s a bit of a landmark.
“It currently reads 999,694. I’m picking up a couple on their way back from holiday, and I think that should do it.
www.lep.co.uk/news/weird-world/who-wants-to-be-a-million-fare-1-4637019
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Wonder if the engine is like triggers road brush in only fools and horses
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbha4XclSMU
Instead its had 6 new heads, and 3 bottom ends
Last edited by: mazda chris on Thu 14 Jun 12 at 17:26
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Fantastic !
Isn't the ability of sceptics to be, well, unreasonably sceptical just wonderful though? If you read the comments below the original article there's someone there sucking his online teeth and having a little dig at Ford reliability !
I've written more than enough on here about how pleased I was with my Mondeos and how reliable they all were. Seems this guy is too.
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Just worked out the fuel bill for a million miles on a totally non-scientific basis of 40mpg and an average fiver a gallon...
Eeeeek !
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Up until march this year i had always owned a ford (22 yrs).I owned 3 mondeos 1 of each mark and a focus all petrol though, but sadly i now own a mazda 6 but then ford did own 33% mazda so i dont feel to bad.
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>> . . . but sadly i now own a mazda 6 . . .
It's not often you see an owner saying words like those about a Mazda 6.
I like the Mazda. The only thing holding it back from being seriously considered as a potential purchase for me is the lack of a variant that offers a diesel engine with automatic transmission.
On Topic, a really great advert for Ford to have a Mondeo do a million miles. Mercedes Benz World has an exhibit describing a taxi driver in the Canary Islands who did over a million miles - but local conditions there are more favourable to longevity, I would suggest, than the UK.
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I've posted on here and elsewhere about the DPF equipped Mazda6 I had for 4 years. The DPF was never an issue and I do mostly short drives these days. In four years it average about 11k miles per annum (roughly).
I did see the oil levels go up and kept an eye on it and long before it was an issue I got the lease company do an oil change. Long before it was a problem I'll add. But I was not going to take any risks as it was a lease car. And when I asked them about the risks they wouldn't either.
Would I have another Mazda? Quite possibly if the deals are right. I've not had this car for a year yet. But the next Mazda6 is looking interesting to me. Or the CX-5.
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>>>It's not often you see an owner saying words like those about a Mazda 6.>>>
When i say sadly i didnt mean it in the context the mazda is bad its the opposite it fantastic.
Very well put together, refined, smooth 2.0 petrol engine with vvt and plenty of punch and 32mpg around town.
Best feature being the BOSE 6 disc multi cd player with 6 speakers and a sub woofer in boot.
Just sad that im no longer a ford owner 22yrs and 10 cars iv never had a bad one.
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Been sort of half looking at the CX5 as a replacement to something in the current fleet...(!)
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>> Been sort of half looking at the CX5 as a replacement to something in the current fleet...(!)
The 2wd 150PS diesel in manual form has adequate performance and low emissions. Important for me in the next car. So the Mazda6 will be even better no doubt. But the 175PS diesel engine with 420Nm torque might be a little more appealing in Sport trim.... or whatever they call it.
If it looks similar to the concept car with a more normal interior and wing mirrors I'd consider one. Even comes with TomTom sat nav as an option (integrated).
Trouble is will I miss adaptive suspension if it's not an option on my next car?
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Clearly not a very busy taxi driver to do so few miles a year, but why, if its going to be your office, all day, every day, for so very, very long, get a basic estate?
He must be a masochist.
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...Clearly not a very busy taxi driver to do so few miles a year...
Depends how hard he works, but it's wrong to assume taxi drivers all do millions of miles.
Most of the journeys are short, and there's waiting around for jobs.
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The guy deserves a medal. Firstly because its an Aspen, and secondly because I recall the 1.8 TD being horrible.
The mondeo is a fine car, but he must have picked the worst model out of the range there. I had a 2.0 GLX and it never gave me any grief - we parted company at 160K- sold it in the local rag to a guy who appeared to be a dealer, and then spotted it pottering around Bath for at least another couple of years.
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>> The guy deserves a medal. Firstly because its an Aspen, and secondly because I recall
>> the 1.8 TD being horrible.
>>
Is that horrible as in horribly reliable ?
www.autoevolution.com/news/1999-ford-focus-reaches-1-million-kilometers-33881.html
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>> >> The guy deserves a medal. Firstly because its an Aspen, and secondly because I
>> recall
>> >> the 1.8 TD being horrible.
>> >>
>> Is that horrible as in horribly reliable ?
>>
>> www.autoevolution.com/news/1999-ford-focus-reaches-1-million-kilometers-33881.html
>>
The ones I drove had a very small power band and ran like tractors. IIRC the 1.8 was a derivative of the engine used the the transit. I don't think at that point Ford had realised how important the diesel market was going to be.
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I have never had the experience of driving one.
I was just thinking how it's funny some brands make a big song and dance of this kind of thing other makes don't even get a mention at these kinds of mileages and yet how many people on here have even taken a car close to this kind of mileage ?
A few years ago 100,000 miles was a bit of a milestone, cars can easily do twice that today but I don't recall anyone here closing in on 500,000 miles unless Mr Pope has a Volvo heading that way.
Do we bin our cars too early these days ? Not every car is traded in because of a faulty DMF, DPF or whatever other piece of electrickery is added.
People are holding onto cars longer and skipping services due to finances but they're not being dumped two deep at the side of the road, they're still going.
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>> IIRC the 1.8 was a derivative of the engine used the the transit
So was the Ford 2.0 and 2.2 TDCi used in Ford, Jaguars and presumably Land Rovers. Eventually replaced in the Fords with a PSA/Ford engine.
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>> >> IIRC the 1.8 was a derivative of the engine used the the transit
>>
>> So was the Ford 2.0 and 2.2 TDCi used in Ford, Jaguars and presumably Land
>> Rovers. Eventually replaced in the Fords with a PSA/Ford engine.
>>
The 1.8TD was a development of the 1.6 diesel devoped for the mk3 Escort and mk2 Fiesta. The 1.8 first appeared in the Sierra, replacing the ancient Peugeot designed 2.3 diesel.
Unlike many diesel engines of its era, it was designed from the ground up as a diesel unit, rather than being developed from an existing petrol unit.
Used in turbo and naturally aspirated forms in passenger and commercial derivatives of the Fiesta, Escort and Sierra before they fitted it to the Mondeo. It went like stink in the Escort, although it was crude and rough sounding even when it was current.
It also got fitted with common rail injection and a few other tweaks and appeared in the mk1 Focus TDCi
Early engines used to be known for snapping cambelts, which were modified in later engines, and had change intervals reduced to 40k on the older ones. Otherwise a typical old school diesel that trundles on forever if even half looked after
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>> The guy deserves a medal. Firstly because its an Aspen, and secondly because I recall the 1.8 TD being horrible
I used an M-reg 1.8TD GLX estate as a taxi in 2000. Bought it for £1600 with 272,966 miles showing and took it up to 328-something before selling it on for what I paid for it. Oil and filter changes every 6,000 miles with the correct semi-synth stuff kept it going, the guy who bought it slopped 20w50 in it and blew the turbo within a month.
A colleague had a brand new P reg Mondeo Aspen estate*, IIRC it had power steering, remote central locking and electric front windows. In that line of work, what more do you need?
*It was written off in a flash flood one July in SW Scotland - no body damage but the water filled it with dodgy bacteria.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Sat 16 Jun 12 at 21:05
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Well yes but...
A base model might be preferable because, it has fewer clever bits to go wrong, the tyres are usually smaller and therefore cheaper, the wheels would be steel and less prone to expensive damage, or if damaged, would be cheap to replace. An estate would be a practical choice for someone specialising in airport / holiday runs when the passengers might well have a lot of luggage.
The Mondeo always was ergonomically sound even in its most basic form so comfort would unlikely to be compromised and they have always handled well. Not to mention the most obvious attraction of the car in base trim being the cheapest to buy in the first place I suppose.
Those 1.8 diesel engines weren't the most refined by any standards but they were willing and very reliable once you got the hang of them.
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...being the cheapest to buy in the first place...
Article says he paid £14,000 in 1996.
Wasn't that about the time when UK supplied cars were very expensive and imports were on the go?
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Well remembered Iffy. Now you come mention it, I remember a friend around that time saving a huge amount on an Audi A4 Avant by buying it in Germany. He was able to order it RHD, drove it back to this country himself on German plates and re-registered it in the UK.
It was a top of the range 2.5 diesel I think and I want to remember he saved something around £7000 - £8000 even after all the add on costs.
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Some people - like your chum - did well.
But there were horror stories of buyers losing the lot when the broker went bust.
Safest bet was to deal direct with the European dealer.
Some advertised in UK car magazines with 'English spoken' as an added attraction.
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That's exactly what this guy did. To be fair, not only did he have his own business connections in Germany anyway but he also had a UK resident but German father and indeed he himself spoke fluent German too so it wasn't too tough to do a deal direct with a German dealership.
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The CC3 wasn't a lot more than £14K in 2009, I expect a Mondy estate could have been had for the same price.
In other words, car prices were about the same in 1996 as they were 14 or so years later.
Most other stuff would have gone up a lot in that time, although computers, tellys and the like might be an exception.
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I still think one of the best deals I ever got was in the early 2000s. A six month old, Ford Direct, Mondeo diesel estate in LX trim with metallic and only 6000 miles for £9500. Possibly fairly stupidly, I sold it before its time when I got the chance of a Ghia X at a good price. Still, that became the famous "Betsy" so I suppose it wasn't all bad.
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>> I still think one of the best deals I ever got was in the early 2000s. A six month old, Ford Direct,
>> Mondeo diesel estate in LX trim with metallic and only 6000 miles for £9500
In 2003 I paid £3995 for a one owner 1999/T Mondeo Ghia hatchback with 85k miles. You don't see four-year-old Mondeos going for that price now - how much would an 08 plater retail for today, for example?
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I bought my 97,000 mile 2000/X TD LX in 2005 for £2100. Dirt cheap for a big, well made five seater diesel family car. Even though it was the pov spec LX, it was the final year of production, so Ford threw some extra spec at it. A/C, elec windows, remote central locking, Quickclear screen, electric seat height adjustment, ABS etc. There really wasn't much point in oping for GLX or Ghia by this point.
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>> The CC3 wasn't a lot more than £14K in 2009, I expect a Mondy estate
>> could have been had for the same price.
>>
>> In other words, car prices were about the same in 1996 as they were 14
>> or so years later.
>>
>> Most other stuff would have gone up a lot in that time, although computers, tellys
>> and the like might be an exception.
>>
>>
>>
I spotted this too, IIRC my company Vectra CDX registered at the same time as this Mondeo was GBP21K, I wouldn't pay that for a Vauxhall today....., SWMBO's Golf IV GTi in 2000 was GBP18K and her Golf VI TSi of higher spec and similar performance was less than GBP17K in early 2010. Until the BoE's Quantitative Easing in the UK, car (and other) prices had reduced significantly in real terms over these years.
Unfortunately there is an economic link between the exporting of manufacturing (albeit not of cars), reduction in real prices and the reliance on credit for growth.
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These engines are tough as old boots. Mine had 153k on it when sold, never needed oil top ups between services, and never gave me less than 45 mpg.
The water pump started groaning at 130k, but other than that, and routine maintenance, I never touched the engine in all the time I had it (from 96k)
Even the valve clearances at 140k were all within factory spec. They'd never been touched.
Old school diesel power, with both the good and bad things that go with it. Slow and noisy, but tough, economical, and ultra reliable.
Good car. I'd have another.
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Regular oil and filter changes with good oil will make any engine run for star ship miles, neglect is what kills them extended servicing or none.
500k at work we swap them as per contract with LH plant most come out still running well.
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Ford Mondeo 1 - The million mile taxi - Ateca chris
