Full article here: http://www.topgear.com/blogs/drives/048-ford-mondeo/

 

wow thats great.

 

Did you read all the comments afterwards? People lamenting the fact that they can't buy it in North America...just like the responses on Autoblog.

Hello, Ford...get a clue.

 

I know what you mean...
Do market researchers and strategists at Ford still think that all engines below 2.5L should stay in Europe? Do they really think there is no market in the US for a high-quality, great-performing sedan with 200+HP just because it doesn't have a big displacement engine?!

 

I think this should come to America myself. But I also think Ford shouldn't make the mistake of trying to bring this to market in a position where it will be a failure if it doesn't move in high volumes. I say this because nobody has mentioned it yet in this thread. This car would be on the expensive side of the mid-size equation here without question, and unfortunately internet interest has never proven to be a reliable indicator of how a vehicle will move especially if pricing is questionable.

The GTO and Contour/Mystique were both perfect examples of the problems this scenario can lead to. Neither did very well here with both owing a great deal of their woes to high production costs. To be fair both suffered from styling issues as well which many seem certain wont plague the new Mondeo, but the GTO had the benfit of the blogs and fan sites just as this car does and there was never any serious indicator that styling would be so troublesome. Even when placing any subjective styling analysis aside we cannot realistically place such sweeping failure on the shoulders of styling alone.

which brings me back to cost and pricing .The problems high cost brought to the table have simply never gotten their due in either of the above cases IMO. Put bluntly this isn't an Accord, it's a Passat, and as such a Mercury badge makes far more sense than the blue oval.

 

c'mon we want the mondeo!!!

 

I had one as a rental car two weeks ago. When it was delivered to my house, it had 27 miles on the clock. It was the TD model. pretty quick, and the build quality seemed to be excellent (you would hope so on a brand new car). Best thing? on a 400 mile journey, it returned 55mpg (46mpUSg). Not bad for a car that size.

 

I also rented the current model last summer when I was on holiday (TD model too) and I was impressed with it, especially compared to the 1st generation Mondeo and my dad's 2001 Passat TDI. I don't think the new one will reach the refinement levels of the 3 Series or the C Class, but it will surely be right up there with the A4 and the Volvo S60 in terms of quality and performance. And the best part is, it will be cheaper than those two.

 

Louie,

The model you rented was the old model. They have just released the new model in the last few weeks. Take the one you drove, and improve on it.

 

I didn't know the new one was already out, I thought it was due in summer. My mistake.

 

Louie,

I stand corrected.

Here you are chaps, here's what you could have had!

http://www.ford.co.uk/ie/allnewmondeo/-/-/-/-/-/

 

That's the new one indeed. I'm already after its engine start button: http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showthread.php?t=65088