| Road Test Ford Mondeo 3.0 Ghia X Estate |
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I'll Take The Jaguar
It was really annoying, and in a week with the car I found the only way I could avoid a stall on pulling away from the lights was to adopt something approaching the technique of my elderly neighbour. She never stalls her little Daihatsu - she just keeps her right foot firmly to the floor while stationary and, with the engine screaming, slowly lets out the clutch for a noisy but stall-less departure. I found an overindulgence of revs in the Mondeo reduced the chances of an embarrassing stutter but it did nothing for my street cred or indeed the fuel consumption of the 200bhp power unit. The test car was an immaculate Ghia X estate in deep - or, as Ford calls it, Panther - black. Ford has used the Ghia label for many years, after buying the rights to the famous Italian design name more than 30 years ago. It's been stuck on countless models since then to signify the top-of-the-range Capri, Cortina, Escort, Granada and even Fiesta, and now Mondeo man can display it to show that he's a cut above the other salesmen on the road with his wood inlay trim, leather seats and 17" seven-spoke alloys. Certainly the car was crammed with top-of-the-range toys and most of them were standard, such as all the usual safety features including six airbags, climate front seats, cruise control and rain sensing wipers. But what else would you expect for £23,050? With some extra features my test car had an on-the-road price of a nice round £26,000, which despite the extra bits and pieces is still a huge amount of cash for a Mondeo. Would you not rather spend less and have a Jaguar body and badge on the same running gear and enjoy the status of the leaping cat rather than the blue oval? Frankly I can't see the point in spending £100 on silver painted roof rails, £300 on park assist and £1000 on a navigation system which I found pretty poor and certainly less user-friendly than almost any I've experienced in other makes. |
