Ford Australia imports its smaller vehicles from Europe not from Asia, and plans to use this strategy against its biggest rivals, all of whom have connections with the countries to Australia's north. This ties in neatly with the tough and sporting reputation Ford has enjoyed over the years.

Mondeo comes from Ford Europe and is built in Belgium. It's a large car, only being about half a size down on Falcon. In Europe it's regarded as a top end vehicle in the affordable range, but is still struggling to find a major place in the minds of potential Australian buyers.

A major makeover of the Mondeo could change all that. After careful consideration, Ford has dropped the four-door sedan from the import list. Not only was it competing (with little luck) against Falcon, it looked to be a twin to the five-door Mondeo hatchback – only the best of car spotters could pick the two apart from a distance. This may have made sense in Europe, but not here.

Australians love their station wagons, so Ford has replaced the sedan with a big station wagon. While not as big as the huge Falcon wagon, Ford Australia is delighted to announce the Mondeo wagon has a larger luggage volume than the Commodore station wagon. That situation arising because the previous long-wheelbase Commodore wagons were discontinued at the time of the changeover to the VE series and the latest GMH wagons are more boutique-Euro than hulking Aussie in their theme.

We drove the new Ford Mondeo station wagon as part of the road test program organised by Ford Australia in country Victoria, and came away generally impressed with it. The load area is not only large, but also easy to load. However, the tailgate hinges up a long way to achieve this, and shorter people may struggle to reach it to pull it closed. The hatches suffer from the same problem.

 

There's some booming from the wagon’s load area when it's driven on rough roads. But it's minimal and similar to that in most other wagons in this class. On good roads it has a nice feeling of refinement and the ride is well controlled and comfortable.

At the same time as the wagon was launched, Ford Australia also introduced a new model to the range. Ford Mondeo Titanium is the luxury model sitting above the existing Zetec series. It is sold only in the hatchback body and features a sunroof, 18-inch alloy wheels on lowered suspension and adaptive cruise control. Titanium appearance changes are the use of sporting style front grilles, a full body kit, and foglamps front and rear.

The result is a sporty looking model with plenty of class on the road. Titanium complements the full-on sports Mondeo, the XR5 Turbo, which has a 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine putting out a very healthy 162 kilowatts of power, and up to 320 Newton metres of torque. That torque is on tap all the way from 1500 revs to 4800 rpm. The result is excellent acceleration that's nicely linear across the range, making the car most enjoyable and safe to drive.

 

Ford has pushed the Mondeo into the high-tech end of the car market. Even the base Mondeo LX has voice activated controls, something that’s normally only found in upmarket European cars costing tens of thousands of dollars more. Then there is Bluetooth connectivity. Both of these features will prove particularly useful to those using a Mondeo for business trips. Ford Australia is presumably planning a big push on fleet buyers with this updated model.

Safety to Australian NCAP standards for occupant protection has been rated at the maximum of five stars. An ESP (Electronic Stability Program) and ABS brakes help prevent crashes, and should a collision become inevitable occupants are looked after by no fewer than seven airbags, including one to protect the driver’s knees.

The complete Ford Mondeo range, with prices (excluding government and dealer charges) is:
LX 2.3-litre petrol five-door hatch: $31,990 (automatic)
LX 2.3-litre petrol five-door wagon: $32,990 (automatic)
Zetec 2.3-litre petrol five-door hatch: $36,990 (automatic)
Zetec 2.3-litre petrol five-door wagon: $37,990 (automatic)
Zetec TDCi 2.0-litre turbo-diesel five-door hatch: $39,990 (automatic)
Titanium 2.3-litre petrol five-door hatch: $42,990 (automatic)
Titanium TDCi 2.0-litre turbo-diesel five-door hatch: $45,990 (automatic)
XR5 Turbo 2.5-litre turbo-petrol five-door hatch: $44,990 (manual)