Today I will be testing a car whose development I have, by coincidence, followed closely over the last twenty years. For example, when I was a small child, I viewed the world from the back seat of our family’s first-generation Ford Mondeo. When I grew old enough to timidly start noticing the girls around me, the car I was riding in had already become a second-generation Mondeo — those with the angular design. Then, by the time girls started noticing me, the family car — which I occasionally got to drive on my luckier days — was a third-generation Mondeo. And now, as a fully grown man, it was finally my turn to sit behind the wheel of Mondeo number four.
To be honest, I somewhat lost track of the development of this latest generation. A few years ago I was following it closely, but at some point Ford Europe made a mess of things, which resulted in the market launch being delayed by around two years, and during that time I simply forgot what, why and how everything was happening.
Still, what matters is that the Mondeo is finally here, and whether it will manage to recover the lost time on the market is something we will find out later. Right now I am interested in just one thing — was the wait worth it?
To answer that question, Moto-Pfohe provided me with a four-door Mondeo equipped with a 1.5-litre petrol engine, Titanium trim, several optional extras and a final price of around €28,500.
Design
Do you remember the film Casino Royale from the James Bond series? In it, Bond briefly drove the previous-generation Mondeo. There is no question — it looked completely out of place there. Well, Ford’s designers clearly made an effort to ensure the new model would suit Mr Bond better in case the spy ever had to drive a Mondeo again instead of his typical Aston Martin. They achieved this by using styling elements strongly reminiscent of the British brand, particularly the front grille. Is it annoying? No — actually it is rather attractive.
Apart from the Aston Martin-inspired touches, the Mondeo follows the design language established by its predecessor, although significantly further developed and modernised. The car genuinely looks impressive on the road, especially in the right colour, and the four-layer red metallic paint is perhaps the best option in the palette.
The silhouette distances itself from classic proportions due to the sloping roofline and short boot lid. In fact, if I were one of those modern automotive journalists, I would probably say it has a coupe-like silhouette — which naturally is not true. The serious and aggressive front end contrasts with the elegant and flowing side profile and rear section.
And let me just add that I genuinely do not understand who buys the five-door version, which simply cannot compare to the sedan in terms of style and presence. The Ford Mondeo is a sedan.
Interior
Stepping inside the car, I enter a world that combines classic lines with almost extraterrestrial details. I am not convinced my photos captured the spirit of the interior particularly well, but there is definitely something quite high-tech about it. Personally, I like the interior design, and the quality is perfectly appropriate for the class. The only thing missing — even as an option — is the replacement of the plastic trim pieces with metal ones. If that had been available, the Mondeo’s cabin would have felt genuinely premium.
Otherwise, the car offers a sufficient number of storage spaces and some of the deepest cupholders I have ever seen in a vehicle. I also like the deep storage area behind the centre console, which reminds me of Volvo models.
The seats are comfortable, although the base cushion is slightly shorter than ideal. They also provide decent lateral support, although not particularly around the shoulders. Interestingly, the Titanium trim comes with “sports seats”, but honestly they did not feel sporty to me at all — just normal seats. Which makes me curious to try the supposedly non-sporty standard seats.
In the rear, things are slightly worse than I expected — not bad, simply below my expectations, which were based on previous generations of the model. The rear seats are mounted lower than before, while the front seats also sit lower. What does that mean? It means that although knee room is plentiful, sliding your feet underneath the front seats is not particularly easy, and personally I do not find the lower seating position especially comfortable. Still, it is obvious why Ford designed it this way — to leave sufficient headroom for rear passengers, which would otherwise suffer because of the sloping roofline. So once again, compromises have been made in the name of beauty and design. But let’s not forget that this is a family car, and children or not-too-tall teenagers — the people most likely to sit in the back — will not have my problems.
On the road
Once I started driving, I realised that the Mondeo has finally matured. The positive side of this is a huge improvement in comfort. Isolation from external noise is at premium-car levels, whether we are talking about road noise, aerodynamic noise or engine sound. The suspension follows the same philosophy — clearly comfort-oriented, dealing with bumps and rough roads very effectively.
Here, however, comes the problem. Until now, the Mondeo has always been the car in this class that offered the sportiest road manners and the greatest driving pleasure. Apparently from now on the emphasis will be on riding comfort instead. Still, it is only fair to mention that while driving on the road between Borovets and Dupnitsa, just before reaching Dupnitsa, I came across what appeared to be an abandoned runway and decided to torture the car a little. As expected, the Mondeo reacted with significant body roll during abrupt manoeuvres, but grip remained very good and the ESP system controlled the car with short, albeit rather harsh, interventions.
The engine, meanwhile, is the base option for Titanium trim — a 1.5-litre petrol Ford EcoBoost producing 160hp and 240Nm of torque. It accelerates the car from 0 to 100km/h in 9.2 seconds and consumes 5.8l/100km combined.
Let’s begin with the question some of you may ask — isn’t 1.5 litres too small? My answer is no. The engine is perfectly adequate for comfortable travelling and would be sufficient for most calm and mature drivers. Its operation is very balanced, and anyone unaware of the specifications would hardly guess that this is a turbocharged engine. It lacks a bit of power at low revs, but it is flexible enough to allow relaxed cruising at low rpm. The engine really wakes up above 4,500rpm.
As for fuel consumption, I recorded around 5.5l/100km on the rural roads around Bozhurishte, 6–7l/100km on first-class roads with inclines, around and above 8l/100km in the city and 9.5l/100km on the motorway. In reality, the difference from the official figures is not huge — Ford claims 7.8l/100km in urban driving — and with more careful driving they are probably almost achievable.
For those wanting something more than merely “adequate transportation”, the Mondeo also offers more suitable engines, such as the 2.0-litre petrol with 240hp and the 2.0-litre diesel with 210hp, both capable of accelerating from 0 to 100km/h in under eight seconds. And for people planning to use the car mainly in the city, there is also a hybrid version promising urban fuel consumption of under 3l/100km, priced at around €28,500 — approximately €1,500 less than a Toyota Prius.
Technology
In my opinion, one of the most interesting innovations in the Mondeo is the integrated rear-seat belt airbags. Their purpose is to distribute impact force over a larger area and therefore reduce injuries.
Another feature deserving praise is the headlights. They are adaptive, fully LED and provide an exceptionally high level of illumination. They are definitely worth having, even if their €1,300 price initially seems slightly steep. During my test, however, they did temporarily malfunction — they failed to position themselves correctly when the engine started. But then I looked at the little label shown in the photo below and remembered what you are supposed to do in situations like this — restart the system. In this case, restarting the engine solved everything immediately.
Speaking of that photo, the SYNC system handles voice control for functions such as the phone, climate control and audio system. It works flawlessly, although it tends to over-explain things a little.
As for the infotainment system itself, its controls are somewhat unintuitive and require a bit more time to get used to. Otherwise, it offers pleasant and clean graphics, as well as duplication of certain information onto the driver’s instrument panel. The panel itself is very practical, looks good and… is slightly complicated to operate because of the excessive number of buttons on the steering wheel.
Conclusion
I believe Ford lost quite a few sales because of the serious delay with which they launched the Mondeo. The car is genuinely very good, but without the delay it could have crushed the competition, whereas now it will have to fight much harder against it.
Otherwise, the Mondeo leaves the impression of a car without any major weaknesses — everything about it is consistently good. What stands out most is the design, the high level of comfort and isolation from the outside world and… the headlights.
A very well-equipped Mondeo with a powerful engine costs around €33,000, which is a good price considering what you receive, although still quite a high figure given the depreciation levels in this class. The sensible choice would be a Titanium model with a few optional extras, exactly like the test car.
Eng. Tsvetan Iliev
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