I'm a good driver. I really am. I know how to handle a car and I've spent the last 38 years perfecting my skills. So how is it that I couldn't master the clutch on the Ford Mondeo Estate I've been testing? Was it me to blame for the countless stalls - or is there a chance that there was something just a little bit tricky about the innards of the gearbox of this 3.0i Duratec V6 six-speed manual?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.The biggest question which troubled me on my travels, though, was why anyone would buy a three-litre V6 Mondeo in the first place, especially when there's a superb range of diesels, such as the 128bhp 2.0 TDCI, with a six-speed box. You can put that on the road for £18,650, just under £5000 less than my test car and for my money - if I was spending it - a more responsive and fun engine.I found the performance of the V6 disappointing. It was slow and sluggish from standstill - when I got away without a stall - and was decidedly lacklustre through the gears. There was none of the oomph I would have expected, and even on the motorway there was little of the effortless cruising which should have been there. I've always found the Ford diesels far more responsive and torquey and I would have happily exchanged this uninteresting unit for a smaller oil-burner.What is in the Mondeo estate's favour is its vast carrying capacity. With the back seats down there's a concert hall of space and even with five people on board there's still enough space for all of them and their luggage for two weeks by the seaside.As always it's the small things that are the most annoying. Most manufacturers are falling over themselves installing cupholders in their cars - what is this obsession with having a drink on the move? - and sensibly in this anti-smoking climate many have done away with the ashtray, while keeping the lighter but rebranding it as a power unit.But in this Mondeo, while there was a premium telephone pack (basically a holder with wiring adding £300 to the price), there was a distinct lack of storage for bits and pieces such as a mobile phone. I hadn't planned to use it on the move - I just wanted to put it somewhere. I ended up leaving it on the passenger seat, only for it to be jettisoned on more than one occasion into the passenger footwell. So, Mr Ford, cut out the clever stuff and just give me a cubby hole.
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