2.0TDCi 210ps Titanium X-Pack Powershift 5dr Hatchback

Ford have done a brilliant job with this car

Just over a month into ownership and I think Ford have done a BRILLIANT job with this car.

Previously I had a company Mercedes C300h(ybrid) AMG Premier Plus which was fast and economical but very unreliable and tight space-wise, especially the boot.

Bought the car (ex-demo) from a Ford main dealer. It was just under a year old with about £12k off list price (about 40%). Apart from the dealership forgetting to include the locking wheel nut key (resulting in all locking wheel nuts having to be changed) I've had no issues so far.

I have the 210 bhp diesel auto with Titanium X pack (leather electric front seats, keyless entry, LED headlights) and options including 19” wheels, body kit, blind spot monitor, panoramic roof, adaptive cruise, Sony stereo, rear camera and auto parking.

Build quality is good, doors shut with a nice thunk, not Audi quality but much better than I was expecting. Seats are SUPER comfortable, probably the best I've ever had in a car.

It looks fantastic in metallic black, at least for 5 minutes after it has been washed! For a car that is "none-more black", having the panoramic roof lets in some welcome light and the kids love being able to see up. It doesn't open, which is a shame, but is well worth having.

There is loads of space Inside and the boot is massive. The immediate thing you notice is how comfortable and VERY refined it is. Even on 19” wheels the ride is plush and the car just wafts along, especially at speed. There is very little noise or vibration, it’s more refined than the Merc.

The dual clutch gearbox is very well matched to the engine and the car really shifts, although given the refinement you often don’t notice how quickly until you see the speedo! I’ve averaged 48 mpg in mixed driving which is fairly decent, it will stretch to around 65mpg sitting around 60mph on my 50 mile run to the office (80% of which is on the motorway).

For such a large car the handling is very good, the steering has a strong centring action but it is very easy to place the car on the road. You need to be careful with your right foot when accelerating from low speed as the tyres can struggle for grip when cold or wet.

Most of the tech gadgets work well, blind spot especially and the LED headlights are fantastic with an excellent auto main beam. However, adaptive cruise often loses the car in front on (not very) windy roads meaning it surges forward and then backs off when it "sees" the car again. It also doesn't bring the car to a complete stop in traffic, unlike the same system in a VW. It disengages at about 10mph so you can't let it crawl along on its own in a stop/start jam. Not the best implementation I've used. Basically I just use it on the motorway.

The 12-speaker Sony stereo is acceptable but the Burmeister in the Merc was much better, the bass is a bit woolly and the surround sound mode best left off. At least there are two USB sockets and it does read HD audio from a USB stick (192Khz, 24-bit ALAC is fine), as long as your stick is USB2, USB3 sticks throw up a "too much power being used" error, for some reason!? The Sync 3 infotainment is responsive but sometimes there are too many button presses and from time to time it loses that I've got my iPhone plugged in and CarPlay won't start (switching the car on and off again fixes it, not that handy when you're driving). Speaking of which, if enabled CarPlay takes over a number of functions, including Sat Nav meaning you are forced to use Apple Maps for navigation (which is truly r****** at finding anything). The Ford Nav solution is really good, shame you can't choose for yourself.

So, back to the positive. If you want large, quick, economical, comfortable family car then definitely try a Mondeo, especially 2nd hand! You might be very surprised, I just went for a test drive and ended up buying there and then.

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