Company Car Review of the Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi
What is it?
The business flagship of the Ford car range, given a fresh face, updated cabin and revised engine range in a new generation Mondeo.
Although it has been a long time coming, the new Mondeo – now it is finally here – is worth the wait. It looks good, is a nice place to be for a long business trip, and has driving dynamics to satisfy your Lewis tendencies.
What do you mean, long time coming?
Well this Mondeo is hardly brand new in world terms, even if it has just arrived here. The car was first unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show in 2012, and has been on sale in the U.S. badged as the Fusion for more than two years now.
Ford is down-playing that little detail, but making much of this being “the most technologically advanced Ford vehicle ever introduced in Europe”.
So does it justify that description?
In a word, yes. There is lots of safety kit including some we haven’t seen in quite this form before. Ford’s new Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection is very clever, and makes urban driving safer. It can ‘see’ people in the road ahead, or crossing into the car’s path. If the driver doesn’t react quickly enough to warnings, the system automatically applies the brakes to avoid or diminish an imminent impact.
It works by collecting information from a camera in the windscreen and radar in the front bumper, then instantaneously checking it against a stored database of pedestrian shapes, to distinguish people from inanimate scenery.
This is the first Mondeo that can park itself while you just sit there covering the brake, and includes parking into kerbside spaces as well as car park gaps.
Some of the other features available on the new Mondeo are Active City Stop to minimise traffic jam bumps, traffic sign recognition, LED headlights with an adaptive function, adaptive cruise control and a lane-keeping aid.