► Month seven with our Ford Mondeo
► Ours seems to be the only one in Red
► Ride is good on 19s, but less taut as old model
Six months and almost 10,000 miles after the Mondeo joined us, I’m starting to notice more of its brethren on the road. But not one of them has been coated in the rather fine Ruby Red metallic our car wears. It makes sense to specify bright colours for test cars – it helps them pop out of photographs, but often leaves you driving a car you wouldn’t even consider buying. But in this case, the red really makes the best of the Mondeo’s starched-collar lines. It’ll be interesting to hear from our local Ford dealer whether it’s a trifle too sudden, and might actually hurt the resale values. We’ll find out when it goes in next week to have the jammed sunroof and mysterious underbody rattle attended to.
Those other Mondeos we’ve seen are mostly wearing puny 16 and 17in wheels, rather than the optional 19s on ours. These are predominantly reps’ cars after all, and big rims cost more and hurt fuel consumption to the tune of 1.2mpg and 2g/km of CO2. Sounds inconsequential, until you remember our average is still hovering below 40mpg, despite what the optimistic trip computer would have us believe.
The ride is surprisingly good on the 19s, but as we’ve mentioned previously, the new Mondeo feels considerably less taut than the old one, and there’s no adaptive damper option to firm things up. However, it turns out that there is a sports suspension option, again with fixed-rate dampers, available at extra cost. Check back next time to see how it compares.
Logbook: Ford Mondeo Titanium 2.0TDCi
Price: £26,865
As tested: £31,135
Miles this month: 1398
Total miles: 9857
Our mpg: 38.5
Official mpg: 56.5
Fuel this month: £185
Extra costs: £0
From the driving seat
+ Impressively hushed cruiser
– Disappointingly American interior trim
+ Massive cabin space…
– …but boot space only fair
+ Strong mid-range punch…
– …but not great on fuel
– It’s a big car with a big turning circle. Optional parking sensors a must