Quote:
Originally Posted by gsd112
Hi Guys,
How is everyone liking there Mondeos? Im seriously looking at a Titanium ecoboost and was looking for some more update reviews.
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We've just had ours for a month and in short, we really love our car so far.
I've found the greatest strength of this car so far has been its overall refinement and polish. I guess if your looking for a more engaging car, this might not be the one for you, but for something which would eat country miles, this would be the perfect companion.
I've found the ride quality to be excellent, on normal suspension settings, the car manages to cosset over large ruts and potholes on the road, yet is still able to corner fairly flat and maintain nice body control in the corners. I tend to skip comfort mode as i find it too wallowy and soft without being much more comfortable. I do like sport mode when your in the mood. It transmits more high frequency bumps into the chassis giving you a greater connection to the road, however for outright performance i don't think it makes the car handle any better in that sense.
Steering is good, i wouldn't call it excellent however i wouldn't call it bad as some reviews have stated online. It has decent weighting off centre, has a nice amount of feel and resistance and is sufficiently quick as well. It isn't as communicative or as chatty in being able to deliver what's happening on the road as some other car's i've driven, but at the same time it still does provide a decent amount of feedback.
I think the car has a decent amount of power, nothing out of this world, but definitely much better than the 4 cylinder competition such as the Mazda6. One of the main reasons why we chose this over the Mazda was the engine, and its in gear acceleration and response. With the Mazda it would need to rev the crap out of the engine to get any meaningful acceleration especially when overtaking on a highway, but it is pretty easy and effortless with a turbo engine such as the Mondeo. Gearbox is super smooth normally and works well in being able to adapt to your different driving styles. I just wish it had a sequential shift gate on the lever rather than having just the paddles on the steering wheel.
We really like the various electronic driver aids/assistance features that the Titanium offers, they all work as intended and complement the car well. I was very impressed with the radar cruise control when we were travelling down a steep hill on one of our recent trips, whereby the car was smart enough to downshift a few gears to use engine braking to maintain speed rather than constantly feathering the brakes causing premature wear. The only thing i wish the car would be able to do with radar cruise control is to guide the car to a complete stop, as in normal traffic it will brake the car as intended when heading to a red light and disengage at around 10 km/h. I guess if you didn't apply braking then the car would automatically activate the smart city braking system which would prevent it from rear ending the car in front, however it would be very abrupt and is intended as an emergency assistance feature only.
Fuel economy has been average, driving in city traffic with an average speed of 40km/h as indicated on the trip computer, we are getting 10.2l/100km using 95 ron fuel. On the highway, the instantaneous fuel consumption hovers around the 7 litre/100km mark, however as with all cars, i find the start stop traffic to consume the most petrol, which is understandable as the engine has to haul over 1.6 tonnes of car every time you accelerate.
I really love the styling of the car, and most of our friends who have seen it also really like what Ford have done with the Mondeo. I wish the Titanium models come with the 19 inch wheels as featured in the UK model and US Fusion. With the large slab sided profile, i think even the 18 inch wheels are lost a bit and some 19's would fill those guards and balance the side profile perfectly.
Interior wise, the car has really nice quality leather seats, i find the front seats to be very comfortable and with the various electronic controls, you are able to find the perfect driving position. The dash is nice however a bit generic, and does lack some of the flair which is offered in other competitors like the Mazda6. It is very high quality though, for example the glove box and centre consoles are lined in velvet and close with a nice solid thunk rather than a hollow clang as is in many other cars i have been in.
I find the Sync 2 is slightly too slow switching between screens and menus, and can become a safety issue as you are diverting more of your attention away from the road than you should to access basic car functions. I find the menu transitions too slow and annoying, and they should either speed it up or remove them alltogether to increase response times. I'm not sure if anyone else has this issue as well, but on the Ford Dashboard website, it says there is an update avaliable for Sync for my Mondeo, however i get errors everytime i try to download it, despite following all the instructions listed on the website.
The car is very spacious, and the boot is very nice and large, and is perfect for those who need to lug around a whole family and their associated gear and luggage. The power operated tailgate is nice and works as intended, however i find it a bit funny as it doesn't have a soft close feature and will lower the tailgate to maybe 10 centimetres or so and then let go so it will slam it shut like what you would do when you were trying to close it manually.
Overall the Mondeo is a very nice car and definitely worth considering for someone looking for a high quality, refined and feature packed family car.