The Assistant Editor's brother came to visit for a few days, bringing several other family members with him. Almost the first thing he said to me, having parked his fairly new, but previous-generation, Mondeo 2.0 TDCi, next to the test car, was, "That one makes mine look twenty years old!"The new Mondeo does indeed have an imposing presence, though I think it looks far better in light metallic colours (which cost an extra £350) than in darker or solid ones. Perhaps that's because the lighter shades disguise the car's bulk, which is very considerable compared with that of the older car.There are positive aspects to this. The previous Mondeo was already roomy, but this one is almost lavishly so, with enormous amounts of space for front and rear passengers. In four-door form, as tested here, it also has a more than ample luggage volume, and you can extend that - unusually in a saloon - by folding down the split rear seat.Do that, and you have a very long load floor, though the gap underneath the rear bulkhead is fairly small. Still, as long as you don't need to carry anything especially bulky, the saloon will probably suit most purposes just as well as the hatchback or estate versions.This particular car uses the two-litre TDCi turbo diesel engine, which has remained one of Ford's most impressive efforts since it was introduced several years ago. It now seems almost unbelievable that we used to say, "Oh no, not another terrible Ford diesel".Them days is gone. Officially, the Mondeo TDCi has a combined fuel economy figure of 47.9mpg, and although these numbers are often hard to reproduce in real life I had no trouble beating it - and indeed exceeding 50mpg a lot of the time - while covering well over 1000 miles in less than a week.The economy situation was helped by the fact that I didn't spend very long in city traffic. There was a lot of twisty A-road stuff, though, but even that didn't stop me exceeding 600 miles on a single tankful. And I wasn't hanging about, either; the TDCi's ability to push this large machine out of tight corners with ridiculous ease was too tempting to resist.This, however, is not the Mondeo's home territory. It's much better on long journeys where you don't have to do much braking, turning or accelerating. The test car was fitted with a £500 Sport Pack which consists of 18" wheels rather than the standard 17s, correspondingly low-profile tyres and uprated suspension (and would also have included a rear spoiler if this were a hatchback), but I can think of better ways to spend £500.In this context the word "sport" should be treated with an indulgent smile, and perhaps a mildly ironic chuckle. There is no sport to be had. On interesting roads the Mondeo seems surprised by its own size, as if a thin person had woken up one morning in the body of a fat person. The standard suspension isn't wonderful, but it's better than this.I partly blame the low-profile tyres for this too, and also for the level of road noise, which is far higher than in the lower-spec 2.0 Edge model (see road test). From as little as 10mph there is a loud rumble throughout the cabin, and it's still noticeable above all other sound sources on the motorway, making the car a less effective high-speed cruiser than it might otherwise have been.The test car's trim level is called Ghia, which used to be reserved for the fanciest Fords but is now the midpoint of the range, above Edge and Zetec but below Titanium and Titanium X. Our model had a lot of plastic trim which pretended to be wood but was clearly nothing of the kind, and which didn't particularly help the look of the interior.The car would cost £20,645 in this form, thanks to the extras already mentioned, plus a £150 Bluetooth hands-free and voice control system for mobile phones. This and the metallic paint are sensible options, but don't bother with the Sport Pack. Engine 1997 cc, 4 cylinders Power 140 bhp @4000 rpm Torque 236 ib/ft @1750 rpm Transmission 6 speed auto Fuel/CO2 39.8 mpg / 189 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 10sec Top speed 127 mph Price From £25238.00 approx Release date 03/03/2008
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