Ford Mondeo – Driven by Telepathy
The Ford brand has an interesting history in Malaysia. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, they were selling decent numbers of the Telstar and Laser, both derivatives of the Mazda 626 and 323 respectively. Boy racers from that era will no doubt be familiar the legendary Laser TX3.
Even after the TX3, Ford continued to send good cars in our direction, like the Lynx RS and Escape, albeit in smaller numbers. But somehow, cars with the blue oval badge found themselves drowned out in a sea of Hondas and Toyotas. For a time, Ford’s brand presence was sustained almost solely by the Ranger pickup.
Things certainly did not get to a good start in 2009, when Ford Malaysia announced its official withdrawal from the market, handing distribution and marketing operations to distributor Sime Darby Auto Connexion Sdn Bhd. Many had predicted that to be the final nail of the brand’s coffin in Malaysia, but to the pleasant surprise of many, SDAC was having none of it.
They were quick to get to work, facelifting the entire Ford range in Malaysia within a year. By August 2009, the Focus, Ranger, Escape, and Everest all had new faces. But the big one for them came in November 2009, the award-winning Ford Mondeo, SDAC’s first launch of an all-new model since assuming control of the Ford franchise here.
Though the nameplate is just only making its debut here, the Mondeo is already in its fourth generation since debuting in 1993. This latest Mondeo, based on the highly-acclaimed Ford EUCD platform, was launched in 2007, and has been well-received by both press and consumers in Europe.
In Malaysia, the Mondeo marks Ford’s return to the D-segment, in which it was last represented by the third generation Ford Telstar, which, ironically, was the model that the first generation Mondeo replaced in many markets.
Overseas press reviews lavished great praise on the Mondeo, proclaiming its excellence in multiple areas, most notably build quality, driving dynamics, and refinement. The abilities of the Mondeo are not in doubt, but as the Mazda6 and the Peugeot 407 can testify, it takes a lot to crack the combined dominance of the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry here.
Specifications
On paper, the Mondeo is comparable to most class rivals, excelling in some areas, but lacking in a couple. It has 6-speed automatic transmission, which is a class-leading feature, but does without traction or stability control, an omission questioned by many in our forums.
Equipment that the Mondeo does have include leather upholstery, power adjusting seats, level-adjusting headlamps, cruise control, trip computer, and all-round parking sensors. A particularly useful feature is the EasyFuel capless refueling system that is able to differentiate between different fuel pump nozzles, enabling only the right one to go in.
Nested up front is Ford’s 2.3-litre all-alloy Duratec engine. Its figures are described as respectable at best, producing 159hp @ 6,500rpm and 208Nm @ 4,000rpm from 2,261cc. With a portly 1,541kg of kerb weight to pull, Ford claims a modest century sprint time of 10.2 seconds and a combined consumption figure of 9.3 litres/100km.
Indeed, Ford saw very little reason to make the Mondeo’s engine a technical highlight, with the brochure focusing on its ride, handling, styling, interior, and safety features. There are ISOFIX child seat mounting points and seven airbags in the cabin. ABS & EBD is par for the course. However, with no traction or stability control, the Mondeo arriving at our shores is not exactly a EuroNCAP 5-star vehicle, but it should be reasonably close.
The Mondeo’s trump card against its rivals lies under its skin, in its chassis. Disc brakes are standard all-round for stopping power. Strutting the Mondeo up front are the usual MacPherson struts, while the rear gets Ford’s highly-acclaimed and patented Control Blade multi-link rear suspension. Additionally, for collision protection, the engine room is built with a compartment cross-beam and energy-absorbing subframe.
The Test Car
When SDAC handed me the keys to our two-month old test car, it had already clocked 5,724km on its digital odometer. The test unit is finished in Thunder Grey colour, while the interior is all black. As tested, this is only spec level of the Mondeo available in Malaysia, and it costs, including insurance, RM178,888.00 in the Peninsula.
Choices in this price range include the Mazda6 2.5 (RM178k), Honda Accord 2.4 VTi-L (RM172k), Toyota Camry 2.4V (RM175k), Volvo S40 2.0 Powershift (RM175k) and a somewhat distant alternative in the VW Jetta 1.6 (RM171k). Among this clutch of cars, the one that the Mondeo is realistically going head on against is the Mazda6, both of which push dynamic superiority as key selling points.
Exterior
The Mondeo is styled with clean and inoffensive lines, though we hardly call it boring, especially when viewed from the front. It has that likable quality of understated aggression. Ford’s Kinetic styling has worked well up front to give the Mondeo a handsome fascia.
The good work then continues down the flanks, with the strong shoulder line and flared wheel arches giving character to the side profile. The effect would have been cleaner if the door handles were lined along the shoulder line instead of below, but it has been a case of so far so good.
Then we arrive at the rear end, where it doesn’t look so good anymore. The near vertical tail with lights mounted right at the top corner of the boot suddenly gives the Mondeo excessive visual bulk at the rear.
Which is unfortunate, because from other angles, the Mondeo hides its extra inches pretty well, convincingly camouflaging its sizable 4,844mm x 1,886mm footprint. In comparison, the Accord measures 4,945mm x 1,845mm while the Camry is at 4,825mm x 1,820mm respectively. The Mazda6, at 4,735mm x 1,795mm, is comparatively dwarfed.
On the whole, the Mondeo is a good-looking car, but Ford was too modest with itself in certain aspects. The Mondeo could actually use a few sprinklings of aggression in certain areas. For a start, they could expose the exhaust pipes. If you run a two-muffler exhaust system, you really should flaunt it.
Interior
Stern examinations of the Mondeo’s credentials begin when you step into the cabin, especially because more than one foreign publications were drawing comparisons against Audi and BMW, both known to build the tightest fitting cabins in the industry.
Drawing comparisons with the German marques, for any brand, is a risky affair, because expectations increase accordingly. While the Mondeo’s cabin isn’t exactly at Audi or BMW standards, the differences are sufficiently small that you won’t feel short-changed. Remember, you are paying a full RM70k less than you would for an entry-level A4 or 3-series.
The dashboard is neatly laid out, with controls easy to operate and understand. Programming my five favourite channels (the system can actually take 40) into the Sony-sourced audio HU was a painless affair, but the same could not be said of the Bluetooth handsfree system. I was at it for over 10 minutes before finding out that the Bluetooth support function was disabled in Malaysia, though the telephone buttons were still left in place. (ed: SDAC eventually explained that the Bluetooth function is disabled for our market due to incompatibilities.)
Where the Mondeo’s interior misses out on top marks is not in fit & finish, but rather ergonomics, in which a number of errors were made. First was the odd positioning of the driver’s power window switches behind the door handle, hindering operation. Secondly, the starboard A-pillar was also guilty of obscuring vision, blocking your line of sight with right-hander apexes.
When driven in bright daylight, it was also obvious that Ford’s designers haven’t spent a lot time driving under sunshine. In what appears to be an increasingly common mistake among Continental car makes, the shiny metallic dashboard surfaces reflect glare from the sun straight to your eyes. Glass surfaces covering of the instrument panel similarly produce reflections that obscure proper reading of the meters.
Finally, we arrive at that big round circular thing protruding out of the dashboard. Buttons operating the cruise control, audio, and trip computer are all mounted here, and it is adjustable for reach and rake. While we call this thing a steering wheel in most other cars, I hesitate to use this term for the Mondeo, because it felt more like a telepathic connection between your brains and the front wheels.
Ride & Handling
Oh yes, we have now come to the Mondeo’s biggest trump card – its handling. You don’t so much as steer the Mondeo in the direction you want to go; you just think it, and it goes. Steering response was precise and ultra-quick. It was rich in feedback, and very beautifully weighted. High grip levels further add to impressive cornering capabilities.
Indeed, one motorcyclist has these attributes to thank for after suddenly swerving into our path less than 10 feet away without notice. With two quick flicks of the steering, the Mondeo neatly side-stepped the motorcyclist, and went around him with so little drama that he probably didn’t realize how close he was to meeting his maker.
Earlier, we talked about how the Mondeo’s styling nicely masquerades its bulk. Behind the wheel, the illusion continues, as the 1.5-tonne sedan handles with all the agility that you would expect of a Focus. Unless you’re moving up from a Perodua Kancil, you are unlikely to be intimidated by the Mondeo’s size.
Front-wheel drive cars are considered to possess good handling if they can ‘gamely resist understeer’. The Mondeo doesn’t exactly resist understeer ‘gamely'; it is understeer-proof. Even with the four Goodyear Excellence tyres screaming for dear life, the Mondeo’s chassis retains the calmness and composure of an army-trained sniper, staying firmly on course, without even touching the road markings.
In true Continental fashion, the Mondeo’s suspension is given a firm setup, which accounts for its excellent stability in high speeds and corners, but with a slight trade-off in comfort. It’s not bone-shakingly stiff, but you’ll be a lot more comfortable in a Toyota Camry. Surface undulations can be felt the cabin, but the dampers work well to quickly flatten them out.
All-round disc brakes give the Mondeo good stopping power, but I found the brake pedal a little over-servoed, so, delicacy is needed when stepping on those anchors. While this isn’t an issue for our market, we have read some foreign reviews commenting that smooth heel-toeing of manual Mondeos can get very tricky because of this. The brake pedal on our test car started to develop squeaks just before we returned it, but fortunately, the brakes themselves remained strong and firm throughout.
Performance
Although the Mondeo has a chassis of unquestionably world-class design, the same cannot be said of the Duratec engine moving it. Compared to its Japanese rivals, the Mondeo’s 2.3-litre powerplant is down on engine capacity, although it still features variable cam timing trickery.
So, not surprisingly, the Mondeo, with 159hp and 208Nm on tap, finds itself at a horsepower and torque disadvantage against each of the flagship variants of the Honda Accord (2.4 – 178hp, 222Nm), Toyota Camry (2.4 – 165hp, 224Nm), and Mazda6 (2.5 – 172hp, 228Nm) respectively. The Ford does, however, claw back lost ground with one extra ratio in its 6-speed automatic transmission compared to the 5-speeders used in the others.
On the go, it was quickly obvious that the engine has just sufficient grunt to move the Mondeo on briskly. It won’t be burning any tarmac, so traction control would have been redundant anyway even if it was included. In light-to-moderate throttle applications, the engine was sufficiently refined to get the Mondeo progressing at an acceptable rate. However, we do not recommend that you get into any drag races, the Mondeo’s strengths do not lie in straight roads.
It is a good thing that the Mondeo has a six-speed gearbox, which helps to keep revs low on the highways. This is useful, because besides reducing consumption, the Mondeo’s engine isn’t particularly refined when pushed to the red line, sounding strained as the tacho closes in on its upper limits. In the low-to-mid range however, the engine revs smoothly and gets the Mondeo up to triple-digit speeds without much fuss.
Like the Focus, but to a lesser degree, the Mondeo’s engine fails to fully exploit what is a fantastically engineered chassis. In my reckoning, the powertrain setup that could really do justice to the Mondeo’s abilities, would be the 2.0-litre Duratorq turbodiesel (138hp, 320Nm) paired with a 6-speed manual transmission.
Verdict
In our experience covering SDAC launches, the company has always, without exception, publish retail prices excluding registration, road tax and insurance. I was therefore, very surprised during the Mondeo’s launch to note that SDAC had quoted, in print, the Mondeo’s price on-the-road inclusive of insurance.
It is most likely, that this sudden departure in practice by SDAC reflects a genuine belief within the company that it is offering a value-for-money package with the Mondeo. Considering that it is a full import from Belgium, RM178,888 all-in for the level of equipment specified is a rather good price. Though having said that, we may also wonder why SDAC did not source the Mondeo from closer plants, such as Rayong.
OK, we may lambast Ford for not equipping the Mondeo with traction control, or push-start, or a sun-roof, or auto headlights. I’ll leave the traction control argument aside for now, but ask yourself this, do you really need more goodies having already been given cruise control, power seats, level-adjusting headlights, and auto climate control?
On the topic of electronic stability or traction control, my view is that the fluidity and competence of its chassis means what you really need with the Mondeo are not driver aids, but trust in the sure-footedness of its chassis. We have however suggested to SDAC to consider installing TC for the facelift, though I personally have no issues living without it for this car.
The Achilles heel of the Mondeo is its engine, which lacks serious poke to exploit the immense talent of its chassis. However, in urban or highway conditions, this powertrain is more than sufficient to meet the needs of most motorists. It is when you take it on a spirited trunk road sprint that the engine is somewhat knocked out of its element.
Now, the Mondeo isn’t quite the BMW 3-series beater yet, but at its price, earning the comparison is recognition enough of its impressive abilities, and remember, this is a car sold at the price of an Accord.
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