So you don't think the price of a new mondeo to trade up is a rip off...
No...you should sell all your cameras and condemn your family to medical experimentation just for the privelige of looking through the windows at a Ford showroom...let alone being allowed to
touch one.
I've experienced at first hand what 'cheap' cars built to a budget actually means in real life. I own a 2008 Ford Mustang - rrp $32,000 which was about £17,000 when I bought it due to the exchange rate - the base model is deliberately cheap and nasty as most buyers will customise them according to their needs - drag-racing, road-racing, cruising etc. The top-end Mustang is only about $3,000 extra, as the 'extras' are only things like sat-nav and speakers... even buyers of the top model still want to choose upgrades based on their own driving styles (and also want the ability to do the work themselves, as I did).
At the same time, a Shelby GT with enhanced suspension and a few shiny bits on the dash was a whopping $10,500 over the cost of a basic GT.
I enhanced the suspension myself, with Hotchkis racing components, Eibach springs and Koni shocks - all of which are better quality than the Ford Racing components used in the Shelby and it only cost me $2,500 shipped to Germany from the USA. Took me eight hours to do all the work myself.
You couldn't DIY the suspension on a BMW 3-series even if you wanted to...
European buyers don't want to be bothered with all that fuss, so the difference in cost between base models and the loaded top models is quite a lot as the work is done for you.
Luckily for you, Ford cars come pre-wired for all the extras regardless of the model, so DIY-ing those extras is very easy. Likewise the cost of better tyres and alloys is negligable compared to specc-ing them from a dealer, so buy the base model and customise it yourself.