Ford Mondeo – Affordable Continental Sedan
The Ford Mondeo, recently launched by Sime Darby AutoConnexion, is Ford’s offering of a continental car at Japanese car prices for the local market. Looking at it from the silhouette view, you might mistake it for the Volvo S80, as the lines are quite similar, and knowing that the two used to be from the same ‘family’ till the Chinese took over the Volvo brand, I also thought that there must be some platform sharing – however, this does not appear to be so, as the Mondeo wheelbase, at 2,850mm, is 15mm longer than that of the S80. It is also not sharing the Mazda 6 platform, which stands at 2790mm, a good 60mm shorter. I looked at the Jaguar XF, but that was yet another two inched longer, so I must conclude that the Mondeo has its very own platform, which seems to be a very strange situation – I would have expected that it would make complete sense to build on an existing platform than to venture on a new one, with variations of a couple of inches between the Volvo, Mazda, Jaguar and the Ford. From an overall exterior point of view, the Mondeo looks great.
What the Mondeo offers is a large size sedan, slightly longer than the Toyota Camry, and slightly shorter than the Accord, but is just a little wider than both. Without quibbling over a few millimetres here and there, it would be quite safe to say that the three are about the same size. Inside, the dashboard is ‘functional’ – everything you would need is there, but the centre dash panel could do with a more decent material than the painted plastic that comes as standard.
Equipped with a DOHC, 4-cylinder 2.3 litre Ford petrol engine driving the front wheels, and delivering 161PS at 6,500 rpm, with 208Nm of torque, the Mondeo loses out a wee bit in terms of absolute power compared to the Camry 2.4 litre and Accord 2.4 litre models, and is priced just above the two at RM174K (price-on-the-road without insurance. What you are getting, in effect, is a continental car at Japanese car prices. What you don’t get is traction control, which is available both in the Camry 2.4 and the Accord 2.4.
One up on the Camry and the Accord is the 6-speed automatic transmission, which gives the 1.5 ton Mondeo a zero to 100 km/h acceleration of 10.2 seconds (not so quick off the mark as it stands), and a top speed of 207 km/h. Fuel consumption is claimed at 9.3 litre per 100 kilometres, no doubt helped along by the 6-speed transmission.
Standard equipment includes leather seats, seven airbags, ABS with EBD, EBA, ISOFIX child seat mounts, a collapsible steering column, side impact beams, anti-intrusion pedals, and Euro NCAP 5-Star rating.
On the road, the Mondeo is quite well behaved, sticking to its line through even the sharpest of corners – it does not feel as powerful as its Japanese competitors, but there is enough power to keep Mr. Joe Average satisfied. If you really put your foot down, the response is not so bad, but then the engine starts to protest as the rpm goes up. The Mondeo is best at between 100 to 160 km/hr, and if you are used to driving at these speeds, it really does make a nice drive. If you lean more towards outright acceleration and high speeds, you might find the Mondeo a little tame.
On the whole, the Mondeo is a fresh new shape, and offers an excellent value-for money proposition for those who do not want a Japanese sedan, yet are governed by a desire not to pay much more for a continental make of the same size.
