Ford have taken a different view on future direction, sourcing it's products mainly out of Europe. Each and every one of them is smaller than Falcon and targeted at small car buyers – those who have deserted Falcon and Commodore in a trend that started around 1997-8. Ford has now cottoned on to the reality it is not just the Falcon company, but needs growth in all segments. This is reflected in recent advertising campaigns plugging the small car products more than ever before in the company's long Australian history.

To this background we collected our weekly road test car, a Ford Mondeo Zetec hatch, built in Belgium. Mondeo sits in the highly-competitive mid-size four cylinder segment battling against the likes of Honda Accord Euro, Mazda6, Subaru Liberty and dominant player Toyota's Camry. Interestingly, Mondeo sales are fifth out of this five, but to date in 2010 Mondeo is showing the best year-on-year growth, so Ford's marketing is kicking in.

The Zetec hatch is on the second tier of a four model range and will set you back $36,990 before on road costs. Despite Mondeo having the obvious rivals mentioned above, in the current climate of uncertain fuel costs and a move to smaller vehicles we see Mondeo as a rival to Falcon for loyal Ford fans. The reasons for this are varied, but the car is a bare half-size down from Falcon and in some cases rivals, and actually surpasses Falcon in a couple of critical areas.

In overall length the Mondeo hatch is 4778mm (Falcon 4955mm) width 1886 mm (Falcon 1868mm) and height 1500 mm compared to 1453 in the Falcon. In real terms this equates to slightly less front headroom, quite a bit more leg room, less shoulder room while in the back pew there's slightly less head, shoulder and leg room. We had a tall, large rear seat passenger who thought Mondeo was one of the better cars he had been in in terms of leg and head room.

While we had the Mondeo for a week we also had house guests, so the car's seating and luggage capabilities were tested to the limit. Living in Queensland in February also tested the car's air-conditioning as this is one of the hottest summers we can recall in the south-east corner of the state. The system works well, but unfortunately there are no vents for the rear passengers. As a result to keep them reasonably cool we in the front had the have the system turned on near or full fan which meant we were too cold. Comfort wise the Mondeo is excellent, living up to the data that shows it's just a tad smaller than Falcon.

We took our house guests to Brisbane International Airport – they were moving overseas – and the Mondeo boot swallowed up their not inconsiderable amount of luggage and still had room for more. Impressive. Mondeo Zetec is fitted with a myriad of features and safety equipment – including seven airbags – and voice control and represents excellent value for money. The interior is best described as high quality.

Mondeo has no bad road habits that we could find and in most cases totally at ease in cornering, braking even if a little breathless when under full throttle. Perhaps the bottom line is that this car does everything right with a minimum of fuss. It's enjoyable to drive for that reason. If we were in this market we'd probably prefer the diesel engine variant which has a combined fuel economy of 7.3 litres/100 km and 320 Nm of torque on tap between 1750 rpm – 2240 rpm.

Petrol

LX hatch 2.3 L 6 spd Auto $31,990*

Zetec hatch 2.3 L 6 spd Auto $36,990

Titanium hatch 2.3 L 6 spd Auto $42,990

XR5 Turbo Man 6 spd man $44,990

Turbo-Diesel

Zetec 2.0 L 6 spd auto $39,990

Titanium 2.0 L 6 spd auto $45,990

Wagon

LX 2.3 petrol 6 spd auto $32,990

Zetec 2.3 petrol 6 spd auto $37,990

*(Prices do not included dealer or government charges)

ABS Brakes: standard

Air Conditioning: standard

Automatic Transmission: standard

CD Player: standard

Central Locking: standard

Cruise Control: standard

Dual Front Airbags: standard

Front Side Airbags: standard

Curtain Airbags: standard

Stability Control: standard

Traction Control: standard

ENGINE:

Capacity: 2.3 litres

Configuration: 4 in line

Head Design: 16 valve DOHC

Compression Ratio: 10.6:1

Bore/Stroke: 87.5 mm x 94.0 mm

Maximum Power: 118 kW @ 6500 rpm

Maximum Torque: 208 Nm @ 4200 rpm

Driven Wheels: front

Manual Transmission: N/A

Automatic Transmission: 6 spd auto

Final Drive Ratio: 3.33

Length: 4778 mm

Wheelbase: 2850 mm

Width: 1886 mm

Height: 1500 mm

Turning Circle: 11.45 metres

Kerb Mass: 1552 kg

Fuel Tank Capacity: 70 litres

Towing Ability: 1200 kg (kg with braked trailer)

Front Suspension: MacPherson strut

Rear Suspension: Independent control blade multi-link

Front Brakes: Ventilated disc

Rear Brakes: Solid disc

0-100 km/h Acceleration: N/A seconds

Type: 91RON

Combined Cycle (ADR 81/01): 9.5 L/100km

Greenhouse Rating: 5.5/10

Air Pollution Rating: 6.5/10

3 years/ 100,000 km