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2015 Ford Mondeo Could Be Illegal to Fully Load, Heavier than Claimed

Although the 2015 Ford Mondeo is a great sedan (which we are currently testing, so stay tuned), someone must have messed up with the numbers, turning it dangerously overweight. The Swedes from Teknikens Varld are the ones who discovered the truth by simply putting the new sedan on the scales.
2015 Ford Mondeo 1 photo
Photo: Ford
If you were to take a look at the registration certificate of a Mondeo Titanium 2.0 TDCi 150 bhp S6 MPS, you'd see it has a curb weight of 1,601 kg (3,530 lb), so it should be OK to load it up to it’s max weight limit.

But then you’ll be doing something illegal, because the curb weight seems to be 279 kg (615 lb) higher than what official specs say, counting in for 17.4 percent more than Ford claims.

Yep, with a full tank and the driver (as many EU countries measure the curb weight of a car), the car weighs 1,880 kg (4,145 lb) and throwing four other adult passengers plus luggage inside will exceed the total accepted gross weight.

How bad that is?

Well, apart from being illegal, the car has been found to turn dangerous in the moose test, with those 279 kilos of extra weight taking their toll on the car’s handling and performances in case of an emergency evasive maneuver.

How do you find out there’s too much weight on the car? That's simple, because loading it at the “full” capacity is said to make the rear wheels scrape against the wheel arches, which you’ll definitely hear.

The guys have found the car to behave normally in the moose test when the load is only 100 kg (220 lbs) above the actual maximum load limit, which translates into 179 kg (395 lbs) less than what’s written on the vehicle’s registration.

Last but not least, the Swedes have discovered that more other cars could be affected by the same weight miscalculation. The new Mercedes C 220 BlueTEC Estate (or T-Modell in Germany) is the first one to start with.

Our advice? If test driving the car of your dreams and safety is a major concern for you, tell the salesman you’d like to weight the car at one of those truck scales. Do it and compare the result with what the official data says.

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