By Jon Quirk
14 April 2008
The Mondeo has had a makeover of such éclat, its given what was a rather stale saloon a new lease of life. That’s the reason why we decided to put one on our long-term fleet and nearly twelve-thousand miles later, EF07 VHK is still looking fresh and performing dutifully. Having said that, we are still struggling with the car’s humungous proportions. Just look (below) at how far the Mondy sits outside its office car space. And this isn’t because Sky has stumpy parking bays, it’s because the new Mondeo is actually longer than a Volvo V70 estate.
Should you ever decide to get the bucket and sponge out, rest assured you’ll be scrubbing the gargantuan body panels until night falls. And that’s a day in your very busy life you’ll never get back. It’s the reason why I’ve found myself cheating more than a few times this month, preferring to have the car cleaned ‘professionally’. I hate doing that.
The size has been stumping the car cleaners too: the Mondeo is positioned in their pricing portfolio as a medium-sized car, but there’s nothing medium about it. Sure enough, it may offer limo-levels of space in the back - handy for when I’m taking a few friends to football - but I don’t take advantage anywhere near enough. Unless you worked as a cabby, I don’t think you would either.
With every reverse-parking manoeuvre, there’s a lingering regret as to why we didn’t specify park assist. The £400 option would have made urban life so much easier, as well as boost the car’s residual value. While I’m on the moan, I may as well tell you that the 2.5-litre five-pot isn’t getting any more frugal either. In fact, they’ve taken an all new low - I’m now on first name terms with my local garage manager.
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