money.aol.co.uk/2012/02/13/end-of-the-road-for-the-ford-mondeo/
Not sure if I agree. Having had MPVs and SUVs I still favour estate cars. Don't like the sitting on a bar stool feeling you get in tall cars.
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>> money.aol.co.uk/2012/02/13/end-of-the-road-for-the-ford-mondeo/
>>
>> Not sure if I agree. Having had MPVs and SUVs I still favour estate cars.
>> Don't like the sitting on a bar stool feeling you get in tall cars.
heard this so many times over so many years. Sure the market is more diverse (in the old days the choice was small/medium/big) but the standard large family car survives.
Cars have changed size anyway.
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i have not looked so i am not 100% sure but what about cost?
i suspect the mondeo doesnt compare well to a focus for value for money.
maybe some buyers would opt for a two year old BMW compared to a new mondeo.
this kind of feels like when vauxhall stopped the omega and ford stopped making the granada. no market compared to bmw?
just a gut feeling.
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Hasn't the Mondeo's replacement already been released in the USA?
I thought I heard it was being released here next year.
Perhaps this is a rumour put out by Ford to get prospective Mondeo buyers to keep buying the current model.
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The 3-box family saloon has been under pressure for nigh-on 30 years now, as hatchbacks became trendy in the 80s (Escort, Sierra,... to name but 2). Now the Marketing and Lifestyle gurus want us to think that anything "family" is uncool, and we all need to have an estate-cum-SUV 4WD impersonator.
The growth of 2 car households have probably also led to the demise of owning 1 sensible all-rounder family wagon, when you can have his n'hers niche models instead.
So Yes, goodbye Mondeo, hello Kuga, Sharalaxy, S-Max, C-Max etc.
In Oz, the Ford Territory 4WD killed off the venerable Falcon estate family wagon very quickly.
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I too favour estate cars: the children are grown up and we don't need a people-carrier any more, but it's surprising how often I put the seats doewn and use my Octavia as a van.
But I don't need a current Mondeo (or a Superb) - good cars as they are. The D-segment has got bigger and bigger with each new model, and people who might have bought a Cortina, Sierra or Mark 1 Mondeo (itself quite a lot bigger than the original Cortina) will go for the next size down.
I don't think the segment will die altogether: there will always be people like you, Humph, who genuinely need something that size.
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I hate people carriers. It's an aesthetic thing.
If you want a practical car that can carry a bit of a load or a lot of luggage when necessary, and your hatchback won't do it, get an estate. It's still a car. Only disadvantage will be slight noise penalty, but there may be a slight aerodynamic upside.
If you need a van, get a van. Vans are much nicer than people carriers. To me that is.
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>> I hate people carriers.
Me too. Incidentally, I wonder why they're known as people carriers ~ all cars are people carriers.
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People carriers are the ideal tool when ferrying babies / very small children around, as the extra height, and taller doors / roofline make it much easier to put the baby into a modern child seat with its heavily bolstered base and seat back. You have so much more room between the seat and the roof, and a much bigger door aperture. This for me is THE reason to own an MPV, yet it seems to get very little publicity. They also have genuine van-like load carrying capacity with the seats removed.
Of course they are not essential, and people managed with conventional cars for years.
Much as I hated its reliability towards the end, our Grand Scenic was a near perfect family car. Adjustable rear legroom to bootspace ratio, huge doors to lift our newborn baby in and out, loads of glass for a nice, airy interior, occasional use "jump seats" in the boot if we needed to ferry friends kids around for any reason, totally flexible seating, and truly a reasonable sized van with the seats removed. Oh and it performed and drove like any other 2.0ish diesel car.
My problem with the current Mondeo? It is ridiculously large.
Last edited by: DP on Tue 14 Feb 12 at 09:06
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...You have so much more room between the seat and the roof, and a much bigger door aperture. This for me is THE reason to own an MPV...
Agreed, DP, but I'll add another: the best ones have three individual second-row seats that can each be adjusted fore-and-aft. This makes it possible to fit in three boosters or Group 1 seats, or a combination of children and adults, that simply won't go even in most big saloon or estate cars.
But the ease of loading comes at a price. The tall body needs stiffer springs to keep it stable, which - at least in our Toyota MPV - makes the car fatiguingly jiggly over long distances. The Galaxy that my local taxi firm occasionally sends to take me to the airport is also nowhere near as comfortable as the big saloon car I usually get.
So I feel there's a place for the MPV, but - as I've written at length here - once the need is just for a vehicle into which four, and occasionally five, people can load themselves, a regular saloon, hatch or estate is a nicer way to travel.
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>> But the ease of loading comes at a price. The tall body needs stiffer springs
>> to keep it stable, which - at least in our Toyota MPV - makes the
>> car fatiguingly jiggly over long distances. The Galaxy that my local taxi firm occasionally sends
>> to take me to the airport is also nowhere near as comfortable as the big
>> saloon car I usually get.
The ride in the Scenic(s) has never been anything less than superb, and whilst there may be a bit more body roll than a saloon, the road holding was never anything less than very good.
Once you learn to drive them smoothly, they were more than capable of surprising someone in the twisties. My Scenic 1 was brilliant - and reliable.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 14 Feb 12 at 10:25
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>> Agreed, DP, but I'll add another: the best ones have three individual second-row seats that
>> can each be adjusted fore-and-aft. This makes it possible to fit in three boosters or
>> Group 1 seats, or a combination of children and adults, that simply won't go even
>> in most big saloon or estate cars.
Yes, the Grand Scenic had this feature. You could also tumble or remove the seats individually giving, as you say, an incredibly versatile mix of configurations. They really are do-anything cars.
I also completely agree with Zero. The ride quality of the Scenic is first class. Soaks up most bumps so you hear rather than feel them. And although its no sports car, it's no disgrace either. We took ours over the Fernpass in the Alps, fully laden. It coped far better than we had any right to expect, and including this, and being maxed on more than one occasion on the Autobahn, gave us a 42 mpg average for the trip.
Last edited by: DP on Tue 14 Feb 12 at 11:12
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In Germany, the VW Passat regularly makes the Top 5 bestsellers, the Mondeo rarely makes the Top 20. I think it is a problem with the Mondeo, not with that class of car. The present Mondeo has outgrown its class, it's bigger than an E-Class, offers no accomodation advantage despite front wheel drive, and is quite expensive. The present Focus is actually bigger than a Sierra and nearly the size of a Mk1 Mondeo.
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>> In Germany, the VW Passat regularly makes the Top 5 bestsellers, the Mondeo rarely makes
>> the Top 20.
Is it because Germans are generally very patriotic and prefer German brands of car?
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>> Is it because Germans are generally very patriotic and prefer German brands of car?
Fords are considered by Germans to be German cars.
I think one mistake is the high list prices of Fords coupled with an expected discount. This is all well and good if you are buying privately, but most new cars here are company lease cars and the company car tax is based on the list price, not the actual price paid.
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>> company car tax is based on the list price, not the actual price paid.
Same in the UK for Benefit in Kind calculations.
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>> I hate people carriers. It's an aesthetic thing.
>>
>> If you want a practical car that can carry a bit of a load or
>> a lot of luggage when necessary, and your hatchback won't do it, get an estate.
>> It's still a car. Only disadvantage will be slight noise penalty, but there may be
>> a slight aerodynamic upside.
That is 100% how I feel.
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An Estate can look elegant and good looking too. A PC never can. Its a van.
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>> >> I hate people carriers.
>>
>> That is 100% how I feel.
...and, if i'm honest, we do need something bigger, with a 4 year old, 5 week old and two dogs.
I sat in my wife's friend's Galaxy the other day to see if it could tempt me...it couldn't, didn't come near.
A mate has a Chrysler people carrier which is truly enormous...but to me it's like being in a minibus.
I've thought seriously about a Land Rover Discovery, esp the two little seats in the back, but do we need 4x4?...no.......and the boxiness has never really appealed, so it would always be a compromise...then there's the lack of fuel economy...and LR's inherent expensiveness.... and apparent reliability issues on some cars.
So what will it be?.... 5 series tourer (if I can ditch the run flats and make myself ignore the wipers set up for LHD which really rankles..and the ride proves comfortable enough); E class estate (doesn't really excite, it would be a 'make do', it might impress the neighbours, but to me it's a German taxi)...Audi A6 Avant (that's a maybe, but my mate's A4 disappointed..badly..crappy silver plastics and very little space in the boot area)..or wait until I can afford the XF estate due out this year (but even that has some strange interior colour schemes).
Decisions. I've never been so wishy washy with my car wants. Is it age? Nothing really excites me anymore.
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>> Decisions. I've never been so wishy washy with my car wants. Is it age? Nothing
>> really excites me anymore.
I don't think it's just you. There's less separation between different makes, they're becoming more bland. They might have clever climate control but don't have nifty things like cold air through the centre vents at the same time as hot air through the footwell vents unless you choose Merc or BMW. Granted, they're more reliable, but I don't think the materials used are as tactile as the older cars.
The traditional family car is still a supreme distance coverer - it's much harder to make a small car aerodynamic without seriously reducing interior space. So family cars can be surprisingly economical for their size. People carriers are like breeze blocks.
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WP. Sante Fe comes with 7 seats. Not a bad bit of kit.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Tue 14 Feb 12 at 23:20
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>> WP. Sante Fe comes with 7 seats. Not a bad bit of kit.
>>
Thanks
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Nearly 60% of new car sales in the UK are fleet/company cars. I would think that in this sector Mondeo class cars will always be popular.
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I'm not sure the Mondy has had it's day yet, as far as Ford is concerned.
AFAIR the next version looks like an Aston (due in the UK in a year or so)
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The increasing size is one factor that is making people buy the C-segment (Focus) cars rather than the D-segment (Mondeo). Looking back over the years the lengths of what are now D segment Fords were: Cortina Mk1 4274mm; Cortina Mk2 4267; Cortina Mk3/4 4261; Sierra 4531; Mondeo Mk1 & 2 4481; Mondeo Mk3 4731; Mondeo Mk4 4844mm. This was with corresponding increases in interior space, etc.
In comparison the Scorpio was 4825mm.
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Westpig, if you want a Golf GTI with an estate body, an Octavia vRS estate like mine might be worth a look - or a Superb if you need the extra room. And if a Skoda seems like too much of a come-down after a jaguar, there's always the VW Passat.
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>> Westpig, if you want a Golf GTI with an estate body, an Octavia vRS estate
>> like mine might be worth a look - or a Superb if you need the
>> extra room. And if a Skoda seems like too much of a come-down after a
>> jaguar, there's always the VW Passat.
>>
Skodas are on the radar. Trouble is I read somewhere that as more people are cottoning on to the common sense of having a Skoda...so VAG started to scrimp on some of the available extras you can order, to keep Skoda in its' place so to speak.
I like the premium end of the market for the quality and equipment...couldn't care less what the neighbours think.
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End of the road? What do you think? - Zero
