Having had my Mk4 Mondeo for nearly a year now i thought that a review was in order.
The car is a 2.0 litre diesel Titanium X hatchback.
The first thing that has to be commented on is its size.I am 6foot 4"tall and with my seat in a perfect position,my son (who is 6 foot) can easily sit behind me.
The car is very well put together with lots of cupholders and storage places.My model has heated front seats which in this weather has been a Godsend.The other day i came out to the car to be presented with a full hard frost on the windows.I started the engine and switched on the front and rear demist.Within 2 minutes the front had melted enough to use the windscreen wipers to clear the water!.
I am getting 37 miles to the gallon around town and 51 to the gallon on a long run.For such a big car i find this acceptable.
The ride(even on 18" wheels) is very good.Parking sensors are a must because reversing visabilty isn't too good.The engine is very quiet.This is my first diesel and it sounds no noisier than any previous petrols i have owned.
The car has voice recognition to control the stereo and bluetooth phone.I am amazed how well it works and the hands free pairing of any bluetooth phone is very easy to set up.
If i have any gripes then it would be with the auto wipers.They seem to have a mind of their own,quite often wiping when its dry and staying stubbingly still when its drizzling.
The car has 60/40 rear seats that can be lowered and the seat base can be pulled forward so when the rear seats drop then the load area is completely flat.
The boot is massive and i would have to climb into to boot to reach the back!.
Refinement is excellent,with hardly any tyre noise and wind noise kept to a minimum.
Nothing has broken in the year i have had it and can honestly say that the car reviewers are right when they say its the best in class for a family car.Any questions feel free to ask!.
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Sounds an excellent car, er...VD...
I might have an estate one of those sometime. Would want roof rails and a sunroof though ideally.
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Lovely car. Mondeos always feel absolutely huge whenever I drive one though.
In NZ they seem to be heavily out-sold by the equivalent Mazda 6 for some reason. Pricing I assume. Some might say that the Mazda is prettier, but it's all subjective I guess!
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The best incarnation yet of what has always been a ridiculously capable car since its launch back in 1992. Now it finally has the interior fit and finish to rival the Germans which, resale values / badge image aside, are about all that an Audi A4 had on the last model for the thousands of pounds extra they charged you.
Shame so many people will never look past the badge.
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I've had my 2.0 litre diesel zetec hatchback for just over a year.
To be fair, I don't have a huge amount to compare it to, because before I bought it I had only driven driving school cars.
That said, I am very happy with my purchase. It is quite a big car and it felt huge after driving such small cars. I also live in an area with very narrow streets, and lots of cars parked both sides, but after driving it for a while it now doesn't feel that big to me at all (I guess it is just what you are used too).
Plenty of space inside and the boot is massive (there have been several occasions when I have been grateful for the space).
I personally find the bluetooth-phone connection to be dodgy and it seems to often lose the connection. It is not intuitive to get it to connect, and I really don't know how to do it now, just a lot of random button pressing. I also don't find the voice commands very useful. The most that I can get it to respond to is "redial", but maybe that is just my accent.
I tend to get about 35 mpg, but that is with a lot of short trips.
It is not noisy inside, but the engine does seem to be quite loud when you are outside the car (my wife always claims that she can hear me from the other end of the road).
Handling seems fine to me and the ride comfortable (but, again, not much to compare it to).
I have had problems with the rear passenger windows misting up (advice on this forum has helped, but it is still an issue). The internal heating and the front and rear window heaters work a treat though.
Visibility does seem poor to me, especially reversing (as mentioned above), but I also often find myself having to strain to look around the driver side A pillar in certain situations.
It only has the Zetec interior, but it seems good quality to me (controls included).
Niggles aside, I am very happy with the car. It is good to drive, very practical with all the space and very comfortable. I definitely feel that I made the right choice, and would definitely be very likely to plump for another Mondeo in the future.
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>> >> I personally find the bluetooth-phone connection to be dodgy and it seems to often lose the connection. It is not intuitive to get it to connect, and I really don't know how to do it now, just a lot of random button pressing. I also don't find the voice commands very useful. The most that I can get it to respond to is "redial", but maybe that is just my accent.
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Ask the dealer, the Bluetooth in my Focus ST is brilliant and it must be a similar system. The voice control however is pointless IMO, clever I guess though pointless.
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I find the voice control very useful.I usually have a cd full of mp3 music with over 150 tracks on it.If you are on track 2 and wish to listen to track 89 then you'de be pressing the button alot of times.Instead i just say track 89 and it plays instantly.
My friend has a focus with the voice control and wanted to tune the radio into 96.5fm.As he started to say the frequency he sneezed near the end and so he ended up saying 96...chooo.The car then responded with "playing 96.2".That cracked me up.
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>> Ask the dealer, the Bluetooth in my Focus ST is brilliant and it must be
>> a similar system. The voice control however is pointless IMO, clever I guess though pointless.
To be honest, I don't use it enough to be that bothered, only when I am picking my wife up from work and I can't really park up to call her. I suppose I can have a read up in the manual (my point being, just that it isn't very intuitive).
As for the voice control, on the test-drive the salesman tried calling his office to show it off, and it kept doing all kinds of funny things until he gave up and said "yeah, that really doesn't work very well" :)
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Ford Mondeo IV - Mondeo Mk4 review - Runfer D'Hills
