Car has extra aerial and Nokia Car Kit... Taxi?

lucifersangel87

Hi all,

i'm looking at buying a new car. (My old one is giving me about 26MPG and I want something of similar size with better economy).

I have been looking at a Ford Mondeo Estate 03 Reg Diesel - Ghia X spec. Looks gorgeous on the inside and on the out. No signs of any damage. The engine sounds sweet as a nut, and it's got just over 100k on the clock.

But one thing really bugs me and is giving me second thoughts about buying - And that is that there is a Nokia Hands-free kit wired directly through the dash (as in, big cables slipping between dash panels and a "nokia button" seperately closer to the handbrake and gearstick. On the back quarterlight there is also a seperate glassmount aerial.

Is there an innocent explanation for this, or is it a dead cert that this car has been used as a taxi in a previous life?

Thanks in advance.

Martin

maninthestreet

Any signs that, at some time, other taxi 'paraphenalia' was fitted to the car??

lucifersangel87

There was a strange octagonal "dent" or lowered section on the middle of the dash, which looks as though the veneer had been placed over a hole of some kind, but I wasn't sure whether that was something entirely intentional and/or to do with airbags, etc.

vax2002

Is this a 130 or 110 engine, if it is a 130 then it will be needing a dual mass flywheel any time soon unless it has paper work for a new one already.
If it is a 110 hp then the clutches and flywheels tend to outlive the car

maninthestreet

A taxi/private hire plate would have been fitted to rear of the car if it was either of those at some time in it's life.

lucifersangel87

That's really useful advice. Thanks for that. It's a [130] model and it has only service book stamps from the dealer up to 80,000 miles.

I assume that is a common problem across the duratorq engines?

vax2002

The 130 tdci is a menace for bending the clutch plates and flywheels, they did not think out the extra torque bit correctly, after 2006 they sorted it out.
The 110 last a lot longer due to the lower torque in top gear.
Performance wise, there is not a noticeable difference other than low torque in top gears

Strider590

Do the maths on the running costs first, it's probably not worth buying a new car just to save on fuel.

http://www.fuel-economy.co.uk/calc.shtml

I work out for my car doing 34mpg, that just my work commute mileage works out to say 10k a year, that's £1872 a year in fuel.

If my car did 44mpg, that's £1446 per year.

If my car did 54mpg, that's £1178 per year.

So let's take a best case scenario, I get a 54mpg car and I save £694 a year on fuel.

Sounds great, but now i've got finance to pay off and it had crap tyre's, that's cost me £400 to replace, the brakes needed changing, that's £300, the cambelt is due (it's the main reason people sell their cars), that's £300-£400........
Of course it's also a Diesel, so you've got £1000 worth of DPF and £1000 worth of DMF.

Suddenly id be left wondering why I got rid of my old but reliable workhorse, which had all of the above done to it several years ago and hasn't cost an extra penny since.

Buying a new car, to save money, is near on impossible.





Was this car your looking at, a taxi?

Run a magnet over the bodywork, if it's full of filler than it was a taxi.

fred7777

Could have been a sales reps car or company car.

Lots of businesses used nokia phones wired in before blue tooth got really popular.

Whats the wear and tear like? For a taxi I would expect lots of scuff marks and scratches around the passenger and rear doors but for a sales reps car I would expect most of the wear to be around the drivers seat and controls.

vax2002

Slack rear door handles is the give away for a taxi or private hire car.

Lum

100,000 miles in 9 years. That's less than the supposedly average mileage of 12,000 miles per year.

More likely to have been an ex repmobile. Since when do taxi drivers fit handsfree kits when they can just illegally drive around with their phone held against their ear and then tell the police they were on their CB?