TOP GEAR Drives New Mondeo..

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I remember when the launch of a new Mondeo was a knee-tremblingly exciting event. We'd hold the front page, and several others besides. We'd talk about the future of family motoring. Now we don't.

Partly that's because Ford has been teasing us along for far too long now - from the Iosis show car in September 2005, through a conceptised version of the real thing, then Bond's hire car which was itself a little way from actual production trim... sorry guys, just how elevated do you imagine our boredom threshold to be?

But more significantly, the launch of a new Mondeo isn't so newsworthy because cars like that have slipped down the agenda. Rather than have a top-spec Ford or Vauxhall or Peugeot, people now opt either for premium metal - the 3-Series, A4, Lexus IS and the rest, even if that means putting up with a slow and sparse base spec - or swap sectors completely and go for, say, an SUV.

This five-cylinder turbo Mondeo shows they're missing out. I've nothing against the likes of the 3-Series but I really couldn't be putting up with the sloth of the cheap versions when there's this Mondeo for the same money. It's big, well-equipped and fast. So it shows up well on paper. On the road it's even better.

We know a lot about this car already because it's closely related to the Galaxy and S-Max, and indeed to the Mk2 Volvo S80 and V70, and slightly more distantly to the new Freelander. Ford is clever at re-using suspensions and engines, safety systems, aircon units and all sorts of hidden and frankly rather dull gubbins (window winding mechanisms or fuel tanks, anyone?).

The Mondeo has a five-cylinder Volvo turbo engine at the top of the range, and below that a 140bhp four-pot 2.0 diesel.

There's a selection of five and six speed gearboxes, and three bodies, saloon - which will be widely ignored in Britain - hatchback and estate. Since Bill's had the diesel hatch, I'm immersing myself in the big petrol engine and the estate body.

I think the estate is the best looking of the Mondeos, and I've always held the belief that estates, if they've got something proper under the bonnet, aren't just more useful than four-doors but emphatically cooler too.

The Mondeo is the first car designed from scratch since Ford took on Martin Smith as its design chief and adopted his 'Kinetic Design' theme. Martin's a bluff northerner who doesn't usually use such flowery figures of speech, but the car itself explains the theme better than the word kinetic can.

All Fords from now on will have that trapezoid lower grille. The headlamps stretch back to the front wheelarches, there's a big shoulder with a crease beneath it, the side glass kicks up at the back and the rear screen has a characteristic six-sided shape. Smith also loves his bling details - check that egg crate grille, and the chrome on the rear lamps.

The Mondeo is big, too, and about 100kg heavier than the old one. That's the legacy of sharing so much with a big Volvo luxo-barge. When I tried the diesel I did think it was a bit sluggish, especially as Ford's 2.0-litre TDCi has a narrower torque band than the best modern diesels. Before long the Mondeo will have a 2.2-litre twin-turbo diesel option. Dieselists, wait for that if you can.
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