Ford Mondeo

An impressive evolution of this staple of Middle England, the new Ford Mondeo is capacious, stylish, intelligently designed and enjoyable to drive. And what’s more, it’s still fairly cheap.

• Comfort

  This is what the new Mondeo is all about. It wafts about like a premium saloon. Think Jag or Lexus. There's a ‘Comfort' mode alongside ‘Normal' and ‘Sport', and the ride is serene when you select it.

  

• Performance

  There's a big choice of engines but it's a big car, so the smaller engines - even the 1.8-litre TDCi -are sluggish. You can choose this engine in two flavours, 99bhp or 123bhp, and we'd advise steering clear of the lower-powered version, because the 123bhp effort isn't exactly flush on power. With just one person in the car the engine response is sprightly enough, but load the Mondeo up and things turn a trifle sluggish, especially at low revs. The solution is simple: the 2.0-litre, 140bhp turbodiesel is just a few hundred quid more, yet offers near-identical economy with a much-needed dose of power. Thanks to 217bhp the 2.5-litre petrol doesn't have any trouble swatting this big car down the road. There's a jazzy warble to its sound and the turbo cuts in early, blowing hard all the way around the rev clock.

  

• Cool

  Mondeos used to be exceptionally uncool, and we doubt the name will ever shake the rep image, despite the car deserving better. Time for a new name then, Ford?

  

• Quality

  Ford has made bigger strides than Johnny Vegas's tailor, and the Mondeo both looks and feels of a vastly higher quality than previous incarnations. The cabin design is a lot less plain than before, but all these extra plastic pieces have luxury textures and fit well. For a start, the doors are wrapped in soft materials that Ford never bothered with in the past.

  

• Handling

  The ride is magical, especially when the Interactive Vehicle Dynamics Control system is switched to Comfort (there's also Normal and Sport). It's big-car comfy, like a Jag, and certainly a lot better than most German 'luxury' cars. It doesn't just soak up potholes and ridges, but smothers cats eyes too. But if the ride is soft and the car heavy, how's it going to manage the nimble feeling that was always a Mondeo speciality? The sad truth is, it doesn't. You have to swing the steering wheel energetically to turn it into a tight bend. However, body roll is well controlled even if the road dips during a corner.

  

• Practicality

  What with being the size of a small country, the Mondeo is definitely practical in all arenas except the one that requires you to parallel park into a tight space in front of a group of smirking builders.

  

• Running costs

  The diesels all return excellent mpg and fall into affordable company car and road tax bands. The entry 1.8 TDCi returns 50mpg and 149g/km of CO2 puts it in VED band F. However, as noted earlier this isn't a punchy engine and although the 2.0 TDCi 140bhp is faster, it still returns 48mpg and falls into VED band G.