Mondial T Cab

The Mondial T basically shares the same drivetrain as a 348 - i.e. the engine is "North/South". That means that some of the major service items are engine out jobs & carry commensurate costs. Suggest you look at the service records & familiarize yourself with the car's service schedule to make sure you arn't going to walk into a huge service bill in the immediate future.

Other than that, these are Italian cars & they can & do rot if not looked after or kept in Arizona so have a good look round for signs of "tin-worm"

Try & find a specialist or a dealer who will do a vehicle inspection for you - they'll most likely charge for it but it would be worth your while to get a report done on any car you are serious about. This is obviously more difficult with cars being sold through dealers.

Other than that, if you find a car you like then post the details on here & doubtless folks will chime in with questions for you to ask/things to look out for.

HTH

I.

 

Definitely try searching the archives, there where some very useful threads on Mondials in the past few months. I'm sure you will find them helpful.

Dave

 

They do not require "engine out".....so major service can be half as much...but, the later Mondial has much more power, and refinement (and complexity for service).

 

Lots of info on Ts on the board...I tend to post in these forums so you can search my name to find "comparo info" so I will skip that.

I would like to get into the differences in the model years for Ts though. I had a 92 and now an 89 T Cab. Later models in the T range in the US had the knee bolster and the auto belts that came over your inside shoulder and rolled into a center console between the rear seats. Lap belt was a seperate piece that came out of the center. Weird feeling setup but more importantly, very hard to get tight when driving. Not saying I cinch them down but they were always more loose than I liked. Beyond that, the mouse driven pieces tend to break. I ended up using the hard attachment all the time but that left the belts hanging all over. Add to the large bolster between the rear seats to hold the belts...argh! In short, they were a pain in the ass and having my kids pull on the belts was driving me crazy. Since I drive it almost daily, I knew that when I replaced the 92, I would either replace all of that stuff or find a clean 89 (mine had about 7k miles when I purchased).

- JMG

 

You know, this is often cited, but every mechanic I know yanks the engine, says it's quicker and easier to work on the car than keeping the engine inside.

 

Performance issues aside, I found the 3.2 seats uncomfrotable after about 30 mins but I know folks that don't have any issues. Maybe it's because I am an XXL kid of guy.

90 on belts were mandatory for US spec. They could be retrofitted if you could find the belts...my 92 had all of the fitting but I would have to come up with a bunch of trim pieces to fully go "old style" but I would guess that would be a super cost to do now. I have a picture on my rear seats up here somewhere...someone was asking about the 4 pointers I put in for my kids. That's a great setup but doesn't do anything for the driver.

I looked at the model on ebay...definitely the mouse belts and I notice that they hide that in the pictures. You can see the bolster in the rear but the front belts are disconnected. If you are thinking about that one, I would ask for a picture up view as well as a status on the 30k service. It would be due...

Gotta run, pm me if you want to talk and I can send you my phone to chat about both the newer and older Ts.

- JMG