Ford Mondeo New Range > Reviews (11)

My husband and I recently purchased a 2 Litre Ghia Automatic in metallic silver. Having driven a Renault Laguna for years, I was agreeably surprised by my first impression of the Mondeo. To begin with, I like the retro styling, with the black walnut effect interior and the silver colour of the door release handles, a finish which is echoed on the silver spokes of the steering wheel, on the hands and face of the traditional style clock, and on the outside with a smart set of alloy wheels.

I love the 6 CD interchanger which allows a whole library of favourite music at once. And if you ever need to change a CD you can load and unload without having to scrabble around in the boot or under the front passenger seat. The Mondeo’s incredible sound insulation also makes it possible for you to actually hear the radio even on a busy motorway. The sound quality is also extremely good, with speakers mounted in the rear passenger doors for a real surround sound feel. There is also a remote control toggle feature on the steering wheel allowing the driver to control the stereo whilst driving, although this feature was (I suspect) copied from another manufacturer and with rather less success as the toggle is located on the wrong side and has far less functionality than the Renault equivalent.

The Mondeo comes with air conditioning but no sunroof, although this is a fairly common either/or in many modern cars these days. But what you get is actually so much more than just air conditioning, it is a complete climate control system, you just set the temperature you want and leave the car to do the rest.

In practical terms, the Mondeo has a far larger boot than the equivalent Laguna. The rear seats don’t fold up as neatly as on the Laguna but I can live with that. Neither is there a small elasticated box in the boot to store things such as de-icer, and plastic scrapers which are not in constant use all year round. However, I love the fact that the Mondeo, depite feeling extremely roomy inside, is actually slightly narrower than the Laguna, so reversing into our small driveway at home has become much easier.

Anyone who has rented American cars in the past will be pleased to see the provision of two cupholders for the front seat passengers, although strangely, the rear passengers have been ignored. Also our particular model, although an automatic, arrived without the customary foot rest, so there is nowhere to put your left foot whilst driving. The cigarette lighter is sensibly located in the centre column between the seats, so mobile phones can be placed inside the armrest whilst charging and the cables don’t get in the way of the gear stick. The same is true of sunglass holder, which is located at head level on the drivers side in many cars but is more sensibly located above the rear view mirror in the Mondeo, within easy reach of both driver and passenger. I especially like the lights located in the footwell which come on whenever the engine is switched off at night, giving an impression not unlike the theatre at the end of the evening’s performance.

Very limousine like!!

One slightly annoying niggle is the position of the button controlling the central locking for all doors. My husband sometimes pops into the office to collect papers late at night and if I am waiting behind in the car I have to lean over to the drivers side to operate the lock and do the same thing to unlock the doors when he returns. My personal view is that all passengers in a car should be able to quickly lock or unlock the doors in case of danger or emergency and in order to do that a panic button should be located somewhere in the middle of the car.

There are two instances where I think Ford has been a little stingy. First of all, they provide floor mats but only for the front seats, which I think is an unnecessary half measure considering that this is supposed to be a family car. I have bought new cars from both Renault and Fiat in the past and their policy is either to provide a set of four mats or nothing at all. Secondly, of the two keys provided, only one is a ‘plip’ key allowing you to disengage the alarm and immobiliser, the second key is just an ordinary door/ignition key which lets you open the door of the car but then sets the alarm off. As my husband and I share the car, this is intensely annoying and I can see us having to shell out around £200 to get a second plip key made. This is not something I expected having paid for the supposedly ‘upmarket’ Ghia model.

Despite some niggles, on the whole I have been agreeably impressed with the options available within the Mondeo range and I look forward to many years of driving a comfortable car which, although slightly more thirsty than the equivalent Laguna in the automatic version, is certainly a far more powerful and responsive engine. It holds the road really well and corners like a dream. It also turns more than a few heads in the car park. Well done, Ford!