One version of the new Mondeo unavailable at the launch in France was the 1.8-litre model that's likely to be the best seller. However, there was then a chance to drive one on home ground, and on familiar roads it proved to be just as agile as the others, and by no means left lagging behind in performance.The 1.8 Zetec is one up from the LX specification, and in the familiar Ford way it costs the same as a four-door saloon and as a five-door hatchback. There'll be a £1000 premium for the forthcoming estate version.If the new Mondeo is very roomy compared with the opposition in the two-litre and larger classes, it crushes its rivals in the 1.8-litre space race. Less starry-eyed, perhaps, than at the original launch exercise, when the latest Mondeo seemed a Great Leap Forward from the previous design, I still liked the interior treatment, although I'm now inclining more towards the lighter metal-effect finish than to the all-black approach.And I still admired something I forgot to mention in the original report: the very stylish oval clock, less amusing (to those of us who think that when the hands are showing half-past ten or half-past one it somehow looks like a puffin . . . is there a psychiatrist in the house?) than the one in the Ka, but a rather elegant feature to have in view.Another thing in the test car was a bit of a pest. This Mondeo came with remote radio controls below the left-hand part of the steering wheel, and I kept banging my knee off the stalk when lifting my foot from the clutch. Not everybody will have that problem, of course, and it was caused partly by the fact that, though fairly long in the leg, I like to sit with the seat quite close to the wheel, and the back well reclined.Some hotter-shot testers have reported on the Mondeo's high-speed handling, but I tend to enjoy cars better on twitchy little country roads, up in the hills wherever possible. Some territory of that nature was handy when I had the 1.8, and that's where I inevitably headed.Well, you have to rev this Mondeo harder than its larger-capacity petrol-engined relatives, and it doesn't have the low-down grunt of the turbo diesel. Once you settle down to the job, though, it will take narrow roads, bumpy roads, climbing roads, brows, cambers and tightening turns in its stride. I thought it was a fine performer in these conditions: stable and precise, with a slick gearchange.It's a relaxed enough motorway cruiser, too. Noise levels seem lower than in the previous model, and it wafts along, attracting admiring glances from people to whom it's still a less than familiar sight.That won't last long, of course. Supplies of the new Mondeo aren't exactly pouring through, but there should be more of them around later this month, and the estate versions plus the knock-their-eyes-out Zetec S (well, it's the fancy wheels on that one, mostly) will turn up from January.Having been involved in a Car of the Year vote in which the Mondeo didn't win anything, I'm ever so slightly paranoic about it. But it's the simple truth that, having now put in some miles in the model with the entry-level engine, I'm still highly impressed.
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