Great engineering - this is a family car (Ford Mondeo (2000 on) in general)

Member Name: bucksfizz66

Product:	Ford Mondeo (2000 on) in general
Date:	04/08/09 (107 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great leg space, good boot space, economical

Disadvantages: Controls on the right on the steering wheel

I was lucky enough to be offered a comapny car this year and had the opportunity to pick from a restricted list of cars. I opted for a Mondeo 1.8TDCi Titanium X and it was delivered in March 2009.

I could speak robotically straight from the Ford website and car manual about performance and brake-horse power and at the end of this review all you would have learnt is that I am able to read and regurgitate words. I am not a car person per se, not a fanatic - there will be no phone calls asking me to join Top Gear.

So lets get down to my real opinions on this car. I chose a Mondeo as I had one previously in 2002 when the "new versions" first came about and it was a car I loved then for its space - tall adults can sit in the front and there is still plenty of room for tall adults in the back without the need to surgically remove their knee caps. The boot was also massive and as my daughter had just been born this space was invaluable for transporting the baby roadshow. This was a petrol version I didn't take much notice of the fuel economy.

Due to a change in circumstances I ended up having to change cars and had a Ford Fusion (sorry long story) and now fuel economy mattered so I had a diesel and it was great. When the company car choice came along I again jumped for a diesel because of the fuel economy - not as good as a fusion but it still achieves about 42 mpg.

A good example is that on a recent trip I averaged 8.7p per mile for work which is great as they only pay 10p per mile - for a lot of vehicles this can be tricky to achieve. Not admittedly the vehicle only achieves this on long runs through your ability to use the 6th gear, notwithstanding this even on short runs (14 miles to work) it achieves the 42mpg.

So yes it has a great 6th gear - which I found great going up the gears but I tended to always be running behind changing back down - this is a quirk I have got used to.

The cars interior is contemporary and spacious just like the previous model. The stereo now has a digital radio which you can pre-tune 10 stations and load 6 CDs. So room for your CDs and the childrens. The stereo can communicate with your phone via bluetooth and it can also play off an MP3 player as there is a USB in the glove box.

Parking sensors come with this model which to be honest is a god send - parking this car is like berthing a tanker, although when you drive down a narrow track with hedges either side it can sound like you are composing a tune - luckily there is a button on the dashboard to switch this off if you require (or your children are asleep).

The dashboard is abit like a computer that has series of menus for the phone / CD/ radio / odometer etc. The controls for this are on the right hand side of the steering wheel - I find this abit of a pain as I'm left handed. The controls for the stereo volume and skip up / down CD tracks is on the left of the steering wheel - no problems with this one.

I suppose most importantly with this car - you use the key fob to open the doors and then you can just put that in your bag / pocket or I put it in the centre console. There is then a button on the dashboard that you press to prime the engine and activates the dashboard - then if you depress the clutch and press the button again the car starts. Quirky.

THe key fob opens and closes the doors and boot, there is a manual key hidden in the fob just incase the battery goes on the key fob.

By holding down the open down button - you can make all the windows open and vice versa by holding down the car lock button on the fob you can close all the windows in the car. Also when you lock the car the wing mirrors fold in. This doesn't happen on the titanium only the titanium x ( I only notice this as I parked next to a titanium and noticed the mirrors werren't tucked in and the cars were the same age.

There is a 9V socket in the front and the rear of the car - useful for the portable DVD player - the position of the socket in the front makes it awkward to find a space to put your phone whilst it charges.

Next to the socket in the back is an ashtray I opened this once and nearly lost a finger closing it - haven't bothered since.

The space in the car for adults front and back is still there and the boot is enormous. I have bought a load mat to cope with muddy boots and dirty pushchair wheels.

The headlights of the vehicle move as you turn the steering wheel, you can use the dashboard computer to put a delay on the vehicle handbrake removal for when carrying out a hill start, and to be honest there are all sorts of things in here you can do - which I haven't explored - the car manual blew my mind abit. There are rain sensors to automatically start the wipers and an adjustment to automatically determine what level the lights need to be at on the car.

The internal lights are really useful - with individual ones for each passenger. The best thing about the rear ones is you get some light for doing the rear seat belts on your chidlrens car seats, or if my daughter wants to read she can do.

It is a smooth ride in this car and extremely comfortable for long journeys.

And of course the main thing I love about Fords the quick clear front screen to save scraping the front windscreen in the winter.

Summary: A great car to drive - that offers space and features

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