Ford Mondeo Range Overview and Review

I can't remember the journo who came up with the phrase, but there are 'ten metre' cars. These are the ones that as soon as you drive off in one, and indeed within ten metres, feels so natural that you just know it's going to be a good one. The Mondeo is one of those, although there are a few weak points that let the side down.

The one problem with the new Mondeo is that it's a bit porky. Ford proudly points out that the chassis is 150 percent stiffer, which required the use of plenty of extra bracing and the like, but the company obviously forgot that the old Mondeo was stiff enough already.

In fact the Mondeo has pretty much been the benchmark for every mid size car built since the Mondeo first appeared. Arguably the previous Mondeo was better to drive than the current best selling Mazda6.

Translated, that means that the new Mondeo never really feels a spritely as it should. It handles bloody well in corners of course, but the engines can't seem to supply the sort of verve the powerplants in the old Mondeo served up. The 2.0 litre auto tested here just doesn't really feel like it's got all its horses working away, even when you've got five speeds.

But at least there are five speeds available, as the old Mondeo had to put up with an antiquated four speed auto, which did the car no favours. Ford expects sales of the automatic Mondeos to be much higher because of the gearbox, which actually does do a good job of switching gears smoothly.

Since this is the new Mondeo you could pretty confidently predict it would handle better than the old one and of course you're right. The chassis can take everything you can through at it and just get on with the job. It really tight corners you get the traditional understeer, tuned in so the car doesn't spin off the road, but even with the stanbility control turned off, instead of sldgeing right off the road as you apply more steering lock, the car merely turns in tighter.

This is good, because the instinct of any driver is to turn the wheel more if the car understeers too much, and in other cars that can just make the situation wore. In the Mondeo it's as simple as reacting to the problem and driving the car through the corner.

The styling of the new Modneo has brought it right up to date. I especially like the big creased character line that runs along the car's sides. In the right light it looks sharp enough to cut yourself on, and in the full kitted up example you see here the car really does turn heads, which is something a mid size car doesn't normally do - unless it's on fire.

Inside you get some nice soft touch trim and good looking dashboard and thankfully no trace of fake wood anywhere. The controls are laid out in a sensible manner, although it can be tricky to use the steering wheel controls to scroll through the instrument panel options screens.

For those who happen to live in the 21^st century you can also plug your iPod or MP3 player into a jack in the glovebox, although you can't access any of the functions through the car's systems. You also have to pop open the glove box every time you want to change a song or turn the iPod on or off - or at least I had to because the lead I use is about five centimetres long and wouldn't reach the centre console.

So the new Mondeo is a big improvement over the old, but you have to wonder if it had to be quite this good. All the extra strengthening and gear have pushed the weight up, and while it handles exceptionally well, and is very refined, you will have to wait for the Mondeo XR5 with it's 166kW turbocharged five pot engine if you want the straight-line performance to match the car's ability to scream around corners like a sports car.