‘One Ford’ may apply to the model, but it certainly doesn’t apply to the Mondeo’s power line-up. As befits a car that will be sold everywhere, the new Mondeo has a massively broad engine range.
The smallest petrol is the 1.0-litre EcoBoost, before the range moves through to 1.5 and 2.0-litre EcoBoost units in various states of tune. There’s also a 2.0-litre petrol-electric hybrid, which is only available as a four-door saloon.
Diesels run from 1.5 litres through to the 2.0-litre engine of our test car. The 2.0 TDCi can be had with up to 207bhp, but the meat of the range will be in 148bhp or 178bhp form. These latter two models are all available with Ford's Intelligent All Wheel Drive system, which sends power to the rear when it detects a loss of traction at the front wheels, but predominantly defualts to front-wheel drive mode in normal driving conditions. Our 148bhp test car was mated to a six-speed manual gearbox.
The Mondeo’s platform is Ford’s latest ‘CD’ architecture. In previous generations it has underpinned not only the Mondeo but also the Land Rover Freelander and Volvo's models. The breaking up of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group means it won’t any more, but it will still sit beneath the Ford Ford S-Max and Ford Galaxy.
As is the way with new platforms, the latest architecture is stiffer and lighter than before. Ford says up to 25kg has come out of the Mondeo, when you compare a 1.5 petrol model with its 1.6-litre predecessor. At 1599kg, our diesel estate was hardly a lightweight, but then this is the heaviest engine in the heaviest body style. Many rivals weigh plenty more.
