Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £18,045 to £29,245
Great drive, good quality, practical, excellent value for money, cheap to run.
Much larger and more pretentious than it used to be.
Always more than just a workaday rep or hire car, the excellent Mondeo has been smartened up and kitted out with the latest gadgets.
The Mondeo has always been a good drive, and this one carries on the tradition. Wider than before, it initially feels like a considerably larger car to drive, but its low centre of gravity, excellent weight distribution and balance, and super-accurate steering make it easy to place on the road. Its handling is always predictable, its stability and grip superb, and with all the controls laid out in an intuitive fashion it's an easy, rewarding drive which should satisfy most. It's one of the few large family cars you might actually take out for fun.
We've only tried the 128bhp/236lb-ft 2.0 TDCi diesel and 217bhp/236lb-ft 2.5 petrol so far, and both are fine examples. The diesel's the more practical option for everyday use, of course, but is by no means the poor relation when it comes to performance - 130mph (127mph for the estate) and 0-60mph in 9.5 seconds (9.7sec estate), thoroughly respectable for a car this size and weight, and figures which don't do justice to the mid-range strength. A temporary 'overboost' lifts peak torque by another 7.5lb-ft, augmenting the already excellent flexibility.
The 2.5 turbo petrol engine, meanwhile, does a claimed 150mph and 0-60mph in 7.7 seconds, but doesn't actually feel an awful lot quicker in normal road conditions. Whichever your preference, either is very well suited to the Mondeo. Both come with a six-speed manual gearbox, with well spaced ratios and a sixth gear that's comfortably set for motorway cruising.
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