FORD Mondeo Sedan 1997-2000 Photos, engines & full specs

The facelift for the first Mondeo generation came sooner than it was planned since the customers started to complain about the new, one-billion-dollar car.

When Ford switched its mid-size sedan from the RWD platform on the Sierra to the new FWD platform for the Mondeo, things didn't work that smoothly. The initial investment was one billion dollars, and everyone expected to have a great vehicle, able to rock the Passat supremacy on the European market. Ford brought the refreshed version in 1997 after it changed 1400 parts of the car.

Apart from the door panels and the roof, everything else was changed on the bodywork. Even if the windows looked the same, they were not quite exactly the same. At the front, the bigger headlights solved the problem with the lighting since the non-facelifted version just barely lit the road ahead. Due to that, the hood had to be changed, and the grille featured the oval-shaped style. In the back, the taillights were enlarged to offer better visibility from behind.

The interior was tightened-up to cancel the rattles and squeaks that accompanied every road with a non-facelifted Mondeo. A pair of cup-holders was installed in front of the gear-stick, at the bottom of the center stack, by removing the ashtray.

Under the hood, the car featured a choice of engine, both diesel and gasoline. A 1.6-liter powered the entry-level while the top version was a 2.5-liter V6. The standard transmission for the entire range was a 5-speed manual, and a 4-speed automatic was available for selected engines.