Man replaced $269 Ford Mondeo with $23,000 Volvo V90 so he decides to do 125-mile test to see if upgrading is really worth it
Published on Jan 11, 2026 at 9:59 PM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid
Last updated on Jan 08, 2026 at 10:15 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Kate Bain
A man who bought a 2008 Ford Mondeo for just $270 decided to see how it performed against the $23,000 Volvo V90 that replaced it.
The Ford Mondeo had been with the same owner for a decade and had 213,000 miles on the clock.
When the owner decided he wanted a new car, he sold it to his brother for under $300 and replaced it with a 2018 Volvo V90 that cost around $23,000.
But was the replacement worth it, or would he have been better off holding onto the Ford?
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He replaced his old Ford Mondeo with a newer Volvo V90
Getting your hands on a low-cost used car isn’t as easy as it once was.
So, when car enthusiast Tim, from the Barn Club Cars YouTube channel, found out his brother wanted just $270 for his old 2008 Ford Mondeo, he snapped it up.
Tim wanted to use the car to find out if buying a low-cost used car, would work out cheaper than leasing a car over a 12 month period – you can see how that little experiment played out here.
However, he also wanted to see if his brother made the right move by replacing the Ford with the Volvo.
So, he decided to set up a new challenge.
He topped up the tanks of both cars and he and his brother set off a 130 mile journey to work out which car came out on top when it came to real-world fuel economy and how it handled the road trip.
As you could probably have guessed, the Volvo offered a smoother ride compared to the Ford, which was a decade older and had some age-related wear and tear.
The V90 also came with some nice modern features such as adaptive cruise and drive modes, whereas the Mondeo was a little more basic, but he had forked out for some upgrades, including Apple CarPlay.
But how did they compare when it came to fuel economy?
Well, it was actually a very close run thing.
After reaching their destion, the duo calculated that the Mondeo gave 33.47 miles per gallon on the 125 mile trip compared to 39.82 miles per gallon for the V90 over the same distance.
This meant that the Ford cost about $5.30 more to cover 125 miles than the Volvo.
Not exactly a life-changing sum, is it?
When it came down to whether replacing the Mondeo was worth it, Tim said it depended what you were looking for.
He noted that there were some advantages for the new model, including comfort and convenience, but he said when it comes to saving cash, it’s hard to look past the Mondeo.
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Claire Reid is a journalist who hails from the UK but is now living in New Zealand. She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites. Claire covers a wide variety of topics, with a special focus on cars, technology, planes, cryptocurrency, and luxury.
