Ford’s mid-cycle facelift for its flagship Mondeo puts its perceived quality on a par with “the best Ingolstadt can do”, according to Ford of Europe design chief –and former Audi designer – Martin Smith.
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“We’ve redesigned all the pieces we thought we could improve on the exterior and interior. For the interior we wanted to convey a sense of ‘premium-ness’, comparable to the best that Ingolstadt can produce,” he said, speaking in Munich at the Mondeo’s pan-European media launch.
To get there, Ford has made 1,365 changes to the 2007 Mondeo including a new interior, new front end and new LED lights, said programme manager Bernhard Mayers.
The 2007 Mondeo was the first car to champion Ford’s ‘kinetic’ design and, as Smith said, the theme has moved on since then so the design changes “bring Mondeo into line with the changes on the up-dated S-Max and Galaxy”. Revised versions of those models were launched last spring.
The objective was to boost the “perceived quality” and imbue the Mondeo with “sophistication and sportiness” so that customers moving out of the premium sector would feel at home.
The front gets the same ‘family’ look as the S-Max with new twin grilles that are also home to one of Mondeo’s breakthrough technologies, active grille shutter which can improve aerodynamics by up to 6% when fully closed and is used for the first time in a volume production car (BMW uses a similar system on its eco range of models).
Ford already had experience of grille blanking covers with its ECOnetic models. This new system produces significant cooling benefits; it is located ahead of the front radiator on the bumper beam and automatically opens and closes in up to 15 different positions with six-degree incremental stages, altering both the overall aerodynamic drag of the vehicle and cooling level for the powertrain.
Optimised to achieve maximum fuel efficiency and guaranteed to help the engine warm up to its most efficient operating temperature quickly, a control unit keeps the shutter closed as long as possible during the initial start-up phase. Operating temperatures are continually monitored to ensure that any specific driving factors – including for instance high or low speed driving and towing – will not create undesirable temperature variations.
Active grille shutter will be standard with the two-litre EcoBoost petrol and Duratorq TDCi diesel engines and will also be applied to other models in the future.
Other new technologies include lane departure warning, driver alert and auto high beam, all of which use a new high sensitivity camera unit located at the top of the windscreen in front of the rear view mirror.
Also extending to Mondeo are many features already introduced on the latest S-Max and Galaxy models, including a blind spot warning system which has had a 10% take-up on S-Max and is expected to increase in popularity, said Jon Gunn-Smith, large car manager for Ford of Britain.
He confirmed that the Mondeo sedan, which accounts for less than 1% of sales, has been scrapped in the UK. But prices of the new car are the same as the outgoing model, starting at GBP17,295 for the Edge 1.6-litre hatchback and rising to GBP26,995 for the 2.0-litre TDCI 163PS wagon in Titanium X trim.
The new Mondeo is the first Ford Europe model to feature a more powerful 240PS version of the two-litre EcoBoost engine. This joins the existing 203PS engine already available in the Mondeo and new S-Max and Galaxy.
Average CO2 emissions of 179g/km are achieved for the two-litre EcoBoost engine, regardless of the power rating or body style while Ford claims that EcoBoost technology offers fuel consumption and emission reductions of up to 20% compared with conventional petrol engines of a similar performance.
Other powertrain revisions include a significantly re-engineered 2.2-litre diesel engine, which now boasts a 12% peak power increase to 200PS, making it the most powerful Duratorq to date.
Existing 1.6- and two-litre Duratec petrol engines have also been retained, offering 120 and 145PS outputs while new 1.6-litre engines from the EcoBoost and Duratorq diesel engine families will be added.
The new 200PS diesel and 240PS petrol engines with Powershift (twin clutch) automatic transmission join the range from November.
Martin Smith’s claim that new Mondeo matches Audi for perceived quality might raise an eyebrow or two at Ingolstadt but are fully justified. In terms of fit, finish, feel and look the interior of the 2011 Mondeo is the best Ford has produced.
Add that to the renowned chassis of the Mondeo – supple, smooth yet taut when you want it to be on swooping bends – and you have a car that is a match for anything in the premium sector.
The 200km test route – mostly on winding side roads – was an ample illustration of the Mondeo’s capabilities and proof that this is an astonishingly refined and remarkably quiet car for the non-premium sector.
