Used Car Matt
AUDI A8
vs FORD
MONDEO
AUDI A8
MOT
failure rate
18.62%
Annual
Service
£325
Pads
and discs
£210
A tyre
£145.62
If you need to do a lot of
motorway miles, you need a
little comfort. But the question
is, do you buy the automotive
equivalent of Lidl’s best, or
Waitrose nearly-gone-off Car?
Y
our choice of car says something about you,
whether you like it not.
You can protest that practical concerns
like spending a lot of time on the
motorway, and wanting to feel fresh when you
step out at the other end is what’s behind your
choice, but even that says something about you.
With a decent budget, like £20,000 (well, low
interest loans are out there again), you have a lot
of motorway cruisers to choose from. My advice
would be to pick either a Ford Mondeo (top of
range Titanium X) or an Audi A8.
No other car magazine has ever put these two
head-to-head because they not competitors. The
Audi is a luxury limousine, designed to ferry
European leaders from the Parliament in Brussels
to Eurostar. The Ford Mondeo used to be aimed at
the middle income family man, now it’s posher,
but it’s just what you have if your company car
fleet is not with BMW or Audi.
One is a saloon, the other a hatchback. At this
budget you can have a one year old Ford or a four
year old Audi. One turns heads, the other
doesn’t. One is going to be very expensive if it goes
wrong, the other is going to be just expensive. One
is under manufacturer warranty, the other is ‘sold
as seen.’ The lack of similarity just goes on.
But they are both very good at cruising down
the motorway, at 45-50MPG, while supporting
your lower back. Both have Sat Nav, air con,
electric windows, good sound systems and well,
what else do you really need?
So how do you decide between the two? Well it
depends how you see yourself. Conventional, then
its the Ford, or more dynamic, then go for Audi.
FORD
MONDEO
MOT
failure rate
23.4%
Annual
Service