Ford Mondeo

The Ford Mondeo is a large family car, billed as Ford's 'world car', also sold in North America as the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique. The name Mondeo is derived from the Latin for world, mundus.

Background

The Mondeo is produced at Ford's European plants in Germany and Belgium, as a sedan (saloon), a 5-door hatchback and a wagon (estate). It replaced the Ford Sierra in Europe, and the Ford Telstar in a large portion of Asia and other markets, while the Contour and Mercury Mystique replaced the Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz in North America. Unlike the Sierra, the Mondeo is front wheel drive. Instigated in 1986, the design of the car cost Ford dearly — at $6 billion, it was one of the most expensive new car programs ever.

The Mondeo was significant as its design and marketing was shared between Ford-USA in Dearborn, and Ford of Europe. Its codename while under development reflected this; CDW27 signified that it straddled the C & D size classes and was a "World Car".

The car was launched in the midst of turbulent times at Ford of Europe, when the division was bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars and had gained a reputation in the motoring press for selling products which had been designed by accountants rather than engineers. The infamous fourth-generation Escort of 1990 was the zenith of this cost-cutting/high price philosophy which was by then beginning to backfire on Ford. The Sierra had never sold as well as the all-conquering Cortina before it, its archaic engines and rear wheel drive layout were out of step technologically with the opposition, and sales were dwindling fast. Previously loyal customers were already turning to rival products and by the time of the Mondeo's launch, the future of Europe as a Ford manufacturing base was hanging in the balance. The new car had to be good, and it had to sell. Ford Mondeo MK1 1993-1996 Ford Mondeo MK2 1996-2001 Ford Mondeo MK3 2000-2007

Technology

A large proportion of the incredible development cost was due to the Mondeo being a completely clean-sheet design, and used Ford's then-new Zetec engines, all-new manual and automatic transmissions and a sophisticated suspension design which gave it class leading handling and ride qualities. Subframes front and rear gave it executive car refinement. The automatic gearbox featured electronic control with sport and economy modes plus switchable overdrive. Safety was a high priority in the Mondeo design with driver's airbag, side-impact bars, pre-tensioner seat belts and ABS (higher models) as standard features. Other features for its year included adaptive damping, self-levelling suspension (top estates), traction control (V6) and heated front windscreen, branded Quickclear.