2015 FORD Mondeo Review

Your body will resist my light shove and you won’t lose your balance. But if I thrust you with all my muscle power, I exert a way too big kinetic energy for your body to anticipate and also resist without losing your balance.

Much of the same applies when steering a Mondeo into a corner - don’t take the vehicle’s steering and suspension by surprise, just be progressive and smooth, that’s the key to get the best out of its capabilities.

Be it 2.0 TDCi sedan, 1.5 EcoBoost estate or the Hybrid, with or without the adaptive suspension, this technique is pretty much bulletproof. Speaking of these three body styles and their respective powertrain options, let’s go through them.

Firstly, the 2.0 TDCi turbo diesel is a fair mill all things considered, which pulls thoroughly from first to fourth and it’s no slouch when you’re trying to overtake a slow coach on the freeway. The six-speed stick shift isn’t spectacularly precise or smooth, but it’s good nonetheless.

If you want to talk economy figures, the 180 hp 2.0 TDCi sedan returned up to 6.5 l/100 km (36.1 US mpg) on the long run and 7.2 l/100 km (32.6 US mpg) in the city.

These figures are a bit off from what the manufacturer promised, but once you vector in details such as four people and their luggage, wintery weather, climate control on at all times and an alert driving rhythm you’ll understand that’s a fair mileage for a car such as the Mondeo. 

The 160 hp 1.5 EcoBoost wagon was, expectedly, not as frugal with its 7.2 l/100 km (32.6 US mpg) average fuel economy at the end of our test-drive. But the Hybrid truly shined on economy figures.

Whatever we did to the 187 horsepower Ford Mondeo Hybrid, we couldn’t make it go over or under 6.5 l/100 km (36.1 US mpg), be it city driving or a hooning on spaghetti-like mountainy roads.

Furthermore, it’s whisper quiet inside in pure EV mode, but only if you’re careful with the loud pedal. Once you properly flex your right foot to get off the line in a fashionably quick manner, the Atkinson-cycle 2.0 petrol engine fires up audibly, but I guess this can be classified as nitpicking because I'm no friend of eco-friendly cars.

The next step on the Ford-Global Car strategy after the outgoing Focus hatchback and US-spec Fiesta starts from €24,300 for the 1.5-liter petrol sedan or €250 more for the 1.6 TDCi with 115 ponies.

With the Volkswagen Passat 1.4 TSI 125 horsepower and 2.0 TDI 150 hp holding a starting price of €22,400 and €25,500, respectively, the Mondeo is perilously close to the yardstick in the front-wheel drive spectrum of the D-segment. Nevertheless, the Mondeo trumps the Passat in one very important aspect, which is standard equipment.

Even the entry-level Trend specification comes with automatic dual-zone climate control, cruise control, start-stop for all engines, leather on the gear knob and steering wheel, 16-inch steelies, electric power-folding and heated side mirrors, as well as an 8-speaker radio CD MP3 audio system with USB and buttons on the wheel.

As a matter of fact, you get a whopping 22 buttons in total on a 2015 Ford Mondeo steering wheel. Looking around at cheaper alternatives in the segment, the Skoda Octavia is significantly less costly in its back-to-basics guise, but you’ll have to spend a little fortune on comfort creatures a modern driver in this segment can’t manage without.

If you’re still having questions about the sticker price of the Mondeo, we are happy to inform you Ford has some neatly equipped pre-launch offers all over Europe.

But you can do a whole lot better if you’re prepared to pay a bit more for the Titanium trim level and couple it to the extensively kitted Titanium Premium 3 optional pack, which adds everything you wished for inside and out.

A 2015 Volkswagen Passat sedan in Highline trim with the 150 hp 2.0 TDI and six-speed manual transmission starts from €30,593 without even looking at the optional extras list. 

We configured this model with equipment/similar to what the previously mentioned Mondeo offers and the price hiked to €36,350, making the Blue Oval’s liftback sedan a bit better in terms of bang for the buck.

The PowerShift dual-clutch automatic transmission adds €1,000 to the price, while the 2015 Ford Mondeo Hybrid in Titanium specification starts from around €28,800. As you might’ve figured out by now, the Mondeo is edging towards Passat territory when specified generously, but you do get a lot of car for the dough you’re paying.

While the sedan makes do with a boot capacity of 525 liters (18.5 cuFT) with the rear seats up, the wagon is just a tiny bit roomier with its 550 liters (19.4 cuFT). By comparison, the VW Passat and Skoda Octavia in both sedan and estate format claim better storage capacities.

But those few liters of available storage you lose are not in vain. The 2015 Ford Mondeo is more spacious for the rear occupants thanks to its bigger wheelbase. When all is said and done, you’re left with a very simple choice here - a bigger boot or improved comfort for the three adult rear passengers.

It’s frugal, it’s competitively priced, accommodating and a hoon to chuck around in the corners, but the 2015 Ford Mondeo’s character isn’t dominated by all of the previously mentioned.

The extensive list of passive and active safety technologies, joined by the onboard entertainment are the real icing on the cake. With first deliveries slated for early 2015, when the Ford Mondeo nameplate celebrates its 21st year of existence, there’s a lot to like about standard and available gizmos.

If you ignore the modern CD4 platform and integral link rear suspension, you’re left with a lengthy list of high-tech features. Multi-contour seats with Active Motion massaging are there to raise the bar for the driver's back on long motorway journeys, while an active noise canceling feature employs microphones and the Mondeo’s speakers to cancel unpleasant noises from the outside.

The Mondeo’s segment-first inflatable rear seat belts also come as a bit of a surprise. In a crash situation, an airbag inflator fitted inside the belt rapidly expands to disperse accident forces across a chest area five times greater than that of a conventional rear passenger seat belt. It's rather simple by design and the buckle is somewhat bulky and hard to anchor into place, but it's very effective.

The Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection is also handy because it can detect a potential collision with a pedestrian. If the driver doesn’t respond to the audible and visual warnings, the feature prepares for full-power braking, but if there is still no response from the driver, the brakes are applied automatically by this system.

As for the adaptive Ford Adaptive LED headlights, these babies can concentrate a beam to illuminate the signs on the side of the road. Aside from the traditional automatic transition between the low and high beams, this system automatically chooses between one of seven operating modes according to speed, ambient light conditions, steering angle, distance to the vehicle in front and how fast the windscreen wiper is working at that moment.

Last, but certainly not least, the Active Park Assist which features Perpendicular Parking simplifies the otherwise nerve-racking parking duties of a vehicle the size of the 2015 Ford Mondeo.

You only need to operate the pedals and put the transmission into first/drive or reverse when the system instructs you to via the 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system. Once the system is engaged by pushing a button on the center console, it will find notify you when it has found an adequate parking spot only if you turn on the indicators toward the side you want to park.

This system enables the driver to detect suitably-sized parallel parking spaces and reverse completely hands-free. Park-Out Assist is also available, helping the driver when exiting parallel parking spaces. Side Parking Aid warns drivers of obstacles to the sides, front and rear of the car.

The 2015 Ford Mondeo will give you the impression the Blue Oval never offered such a high-quality family car in Europe before, though some people regard the Mondeo as better suited for rental or company fleet duties.

Once the Vignale treatment arrives for both the Mondeo and S-Max people carrier, only then it will be OK to properly assess if the Mk V Mondeo has what it takes to edge into premium territory like the eighth generation Passat does.

Motorists that are smart enough to look beyond the brand snobbery affecting every car wearing the Blue Oval logo do know what they’re getting for the money - a straight, down-to-earth family hauler, which doesn’t excel in any particular domain, but it’s good or very good at mostly everything.

Whatever the salesman says your ideal 2015 Ford Mondeo costs, a little bargaining will either lower the price or add about €800 worth of optional equipment. When you think about it, a Volkswagen dealership accepting to do so is as rare as hen’s teeth.