Keith Adams
The Bangernomics high priest is hankering after a Mondeo.
Iam finding myself with a bit of a hankering for a Ford Mondeo at the moment. I guess it’s all the talk about the current model, which is due to shuffle off this mortal coil next year, bringing to an end a continuous line of family saloons that kicked off in 1962 with the Cortina. I’ll put my cards on the table right here: I’ve always been a little ambivalent about Fords, figuring that there’s so much love for them that they don’t really need any help from me – so in the list of 250+ cars that I’ve owned, there are very few Fords.
But the Mondeo is in there, and I’d love to have another. But not the type you might expect. The original 1993 edition was a brilliantly engineered thing, blessed with shrinking violet looks that meant you’d never know it was a dynamic masterpiece without getting in and driving it on your favourite B-road. The 2001 version was a big step up in looks and interior quality, but MKIII really did see the Mondeo grow up – and it’s that one that’s currently floating my boat. Next time you see one, take a closer look at a Titanium X in black or silver and on big wheels and tell me that’s not a handsome beast that still looks modern.
Big and beautiful
But it’s not just a good-looking car. Like all Mondeos, the MKIII is a big beast that’s just perfect for carrying people and their luggage for hundreds of miles without breaking into a sweat. It’s spacious, wellequipped and honed for the motorway. It’s also available with the 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine used to power the second-generation Focus ST, and lest we forget that James Bond drove one in Casino Royale, too. Now tell me you don’t want one.
I bought a Mondeo MKIII on a whim back in 2017 for £780. It was a 210,000-mile 2.0 Ghia saloon in doom blue with a beige cloth interior featuring enough unsavoury stains to challenge your local forensics lab. It was down on power, had wobbly discs and featured some interesting love taps on all four corners.
But once cleaned up, engine light reset and reshod with decent tyres and brakes, this 10-yearold example proved to be a brilliant thing to drive. It was relaxing and economical, and even had a great stereo and working air-con. Considering its galactic mileage, it still felt tight and could easily have passed for a car with 100,000 miles on the clock – and a well-built one at that.
It’s sad that the current Mondeo is the end of the line, as new car buyers move away from big, comfy saloons and into less efficient and more cramped SUVS. It was part of a cultural phenomenon that already feels increasingly distant from today.
Sometimes evolution doesn’t go the way it should, and here’s a great example of that. I guess that means if you’re a softie for a Mondeo, the next few years are likely going to be rich pickings as they fade away into automotive obscurity. Such a shame.
Confessions
My fleet’s been earning its keep this month. The recently purchased Rover 75 Tourer has already had a set of factory 17in alloys bolted to it (they came with the car sans tyres), while one or two of the electronic gremlins have been sorted. The larger wheels and lower-profile tyres have had a slight detrimental effect on the ride quality, but the handling has been transformed. It’s now precise and grippy – and is so good that my usually-fussy son is borrowing it for use as his daily hack (the upside is that I get his Peugeot 306 GTI-6 in exchange).
My Audi A3 Quattro ended up being taken on a bit of a driving adventure over the rooftop of England, too, which was a real eye-opener. Despite most of the north groaning under the weight of campers and caravans, I managed to find some brilliantly empty and wonderfully challenging B-roads in Country Durham and Cumbria. A few motorcyclists and I shared them, proving that you should never give up on really enjoying a drive in the UK. I felt positively recharged after that, especially as the little A3 proved perfect for the job.
Keith has had a distinguished career in motoring journalism. He created and runs aronline.co.uk and has worked for PC and Octane as well as editing Classic Car Weekly. He is currently editor of Parkers.