Ford Mondeo Estate 2021 long-term review
With the Mondeo’s end in sight, we welcome a hybrid wagon for one last hurrah
*Why we’re running it: *To see if the Ford stalwart is still fit for purpose in its final year of production
-Month 1 - Specs-
-Life with a Mondeo Hybrid: Month 1-
*Welcoming the Mondeo to the fleet - 25 August 2021*
It must have felt like the end of an era – well, more like five of them – when the Ford Cortina came to the end of its life in 1982, after 20 years and five generations. Likewise the demise 11 years later of the Sierra, which represented a quantum leap in styling terms at its launch yet carried the Blue Oval’s family car baton for more than a decade before handing it over to the ‘world car’ Mondeo in 1993.
And now here we are again, waving goodbye to another long- serving stalwart – indeed, it has outlasted both of its forebears – from the Ford line. Or, more precisely, we will be in March next year, because its maker has decided that from spring 2022, the Mondeo will be no more. The bad news for Ford fans is that this time there won’t be a like-for-like replacement, ending 60 years of gentle evolution from that original Cortina.
But the good news is that it gives us time for this, one last hurrah in the outgoing former favourite in its final, fourth-generation form (albeit often known as the Mk5, due to the facelifted Mk1 looking so different from the original). And while this is a car that may not enthuse hordes of buyers any more, with sales in the UK having dropped from a 86,500 annual high to fewer than 2500 in 2020, my prior encounters with the Mondeo tell me that it’s likely to be a pleasure to live with across the coming months.
Much of that previous experience was acquired in a 2.0-litre diesel estate with which I hauled a caravan to the Scottish Highlands and back, but repeating those kinds of heroics might be more challenging this time, because I’ve opted for the Hybrid. Launched in 2019, this version offers the most up-to-date form this supposed dinosaur takes today, but it produces a relatively meagre 128lb ft of torque from its combination of Duratec 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine and an electric motor with a 1.4kWh battery pack.
There’s 184bhp of power at a fairly lofty 6000rpm, but you rarely feel motivated to reach for those kind of heights, not least because the engine is hamstrung by being mated to a droning continuously variable transmission that doesn’t encourage you to drive the Mondeo in the racy fashion that its sporty styling pack encourages.
Those sharp threads come courtesy of the generous ST-Line Edition trim of our car, which is hard to fault: a panoramic roof and a reversing camera are the only things that might have been nice inclusions, but that’s me being spoiled.
Aside from the slight disappointment of the performance, the first few weeks with the car have served only to back up my Mondeo preconceptions. The big Ford remains a very appealing daily companion, with delightfully accurate, well-weighted and responsive steering, a supple ride (in spite of my car featuring ‘Sports Tuned’ suspension and sitting on whopping 19in rims) and a roomy, practical and comfortable cabin.
And as well as the Mondeo Estate Hybrid officially emitting a relatively meagre 106g/km of CO2 (just 12g/km more than the Toyota Prius), the first few hundred miles suggest that it’s going to be pretty economical. I’ve been restricted to mainly town use so far, and it has returned a perfectly acceptable 45.9mpg, with the electric and petrol power units working in seamless harmony. It pulls away silently on self-charged battery power, with the combustion engine only kicking in once you want to make more confident progress.
The boot is slightly less impressive, however. Even in standard form, the Mondeo Estate’s 500-litre load bay is bettered by roomier rivals, but in the Hybrid, that’s cut to just 403 litres by the location of the additional battery pack beneath the boot floor. It’s still a useful space, but it’s disappointing when you consider the car’s overall dimensions, and it really underlines the fact that this is a model that wasn’t designed with an electrified future in mind and has instead been bent to the will of the buying public, slightly against its wishes.
Being so low-slung and sporty in comparison to the SUVs that have taken its place higher up the sales charts means it’s harder to accommodate that all-important battery, but it’s also easy to forget just how well a good estate can drive.
Instead of the high-set, commanding driving position of an SUV, you get a relaxing, cocooned feelrelaxation seems to be the order of the day in the Mondeo: the seats are cushioning and well shaped, if a bit short in the squab, and the ergonomics refreshingly simple and well laid out. There are even proper old-school buttons instead of the often-frustrating touch-sensitive controls that are becoming ever more prevalent.
Perhaps that’s just my age talking, and I should learn to embrace such new tricks like this old dog has. I have plenty of time to learn from it, and first impressions suggest that life as one of the UK’s last Mondeo Men is going to suit me very well.
*Second Opinion*
You might imagine the hybrid powertrain and ST-Line Edition trim make for something of a contradiction, but don’t forget Ford knows how to deliver a capable chassis. A short stint behind the wheel showed me the Mondeo can still entertain on the right stretch of road.
*Tom Morgan*
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-Ford Mondeo Estate 2.0 Hybrid ST-Line Edition specification-
*Specs: Price New* £31,690 *Price as tested* £32,540 *Options *Lucid Red premium paint £850
*Test Data: Engine* 1999cc, 4cyls, turbocharged petrol, plus electric motor *Power* 187bhp *Top speed* 116mph *0-62mph* 9.2sec *Fuel economy* 50.4mpg *CO2* 127g/km *Faults* None *Expenses* None
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