Had a wonderful opportunity to test drive the Ford Mondeo Ecoboost yesterday evening.

The handling, NVH, performance basically knock any of the locally available price range segment car... dare I say even better than the brand above Ford.

Strictly on paper spec and on the road performance, Accord 2.4/Teana 2.5/Camry 2.4/Sonata.... can play far far...

The NVH is very very quiet, you hardly hear much noise as it so well insulated and the powershift is great! Much smoother than DSG on traffic crawl. Left it on D, you wont feel a thing.

Usually traditional slushbox ie those with ATF fluid... tend to be able to absord shift shock better than manual stick or DSG, but with the higher gear count of 6, the DSG/SMG/AMT etc are catching up on the smooth gear shift and the narrow gear gap avoid that "forward/reverse" feeling that many noob describe...(**Human body can detect relative speed change but not absolute speed hence a lot of noob on DSG/SMG/AMT tend to complain on the less than smooth gear shift) However if one to try the Ford Powershift or Volvo equivalent, you will be impressed...However the Powershift in Ford Focus TDCI hatch that I tested was no where near this. Not sure why... same design and ratio... perhaps a different mapping for the wallop torque... The Mondeo Ecoboost is so smooth, I wish they have the paddle shift even for such a long exec car... that usually you wont drive like a mad man...

On some of the short twisties I tested. I put it to S mode and was on 2 coming out of a turn and I gun it manually...to 3rd, 4th, and 5th... its virtually undetectable. and then coming to a 90degree bend, slam it down to 4,3, and 2nd.... there was no bad forward jerk (usually happen when one down shift too high of rpm), although I did not pay attention to full details, I pretty sure the ECU blip the throttle to sync the down shift resulting is super smooth gear transition.

The cornering... WOW! for such a big car and long rear overhang, its impressive considering the suspension is on soft side without any trickery of adaptive damper (although the X Sport version in Europe does...) Pot holes and bump is being soaked up wonderfully.

The audio system and Ford Conver+ was impressive as well. The sound quality is way ahead but not the unit itself... the user interface is crappy and the display was in red vs the car overall whitish illumination setup (heck the car come with 4 LED ambience/map light which each 4 corner passenger can control). The biggest disappointment is no GPS/Multimedia... not even USB/Aux in or reverse cam. If they give the same unit in the previous Mondeo (non ecoboost), the center display in between the meter would have additional navigation display capability.

Price at just less than 179K, its a bargain compare to non ecoboost version. With 7 air bag, 3 years warranty and 3 years free maint...its really a no brainer from spec and street cred perspective.. until you get to the point of typical malaysian mentality... resale value.

But with free maint up to 3yrs or 60k km, that is about 5k worth of maint, and keep it for 5yrs... the losses is lesser. The camry/accord/sonata in the 2.4-2.5 range fare no better either at 45-55% losses and worst, they tend to change model every 5yrs... so 50% off you do and with the new camry coming next year, the current camry will take a hit.

If you are one that enjoy driving more and have budget to own this level of pricing, then resale value should not be your concern..if you care so much about resale, then take a bicycle or kapchai because their absolute losses is peanuts,... at the expenses of everything else. So while the Mondeo owner may lost up to 80-90k in 5yrs vs 50-60k for the Jpn/Kra ride, but I bet you the mondeo driver have better enjoyment and safety ride that the 30k over 5yrs should meant of lesser priority...

How I wish for another car...with BHP and Torque that rival Golf GTI and Passat CC,.... its drooling...

In summary, great spec and performance, great alcantara leather, 2 electric chair w memory on driver, 7 airbags, ESP, TCS, ABS, EBD, rear B pillar AC for rear passenger,....powershift 6 speeder...2.0 roadtax for 3liter performance,

Down on the poor HU/lacking GPS, steering wheel could be a bit more beefier, no sunroof, and 17in wheel, and limited service center

Great review!

I've booked this Mondeo even I'm due to test the car for the first time on Tuesday. The spec on paper alone is awesome.

Ford's brand image should goes up few notch more following introduction of few excellent cars, eg, Fiesta & Mondeo. :-)

Great Review indeed!! The new 2.0L Ecoboost is also making it competitive among the Jap brand.

turbo..turbo...thats all i wanna hear abt a car in our market.

My apology on the spelling n gramatical error. Did not do any proof read as I'm trying to type as fast as I can while recalling the fun I had.

I tested accord n camry on same week so the comparison is very fresh.

This post has been edited by gamenoob: Sep 25 2011, 01:11 PM

Great great car, best selling in the UK speaks for itself.

from TS post, seems like a lot of noobs driving DSG/AMT/SMT car

how bout s-max??

Fact is it's a new car and new design. No surprise if it outshines the rest of the d segment cars.

try to wait the new camry. See how it goes.

i think not even come close,
ford got good reputation of their vehicle, that got pretty good handling.
somemore with 179k this price you only can get new camry with 2.4L or 2.5L(don't know malaysia will follow us equip with 2.5L engine or not) with properly 17x hp to 200hp, but new 2.0L ecoboost mondeo, 240hp , pretty bargain deal, you pay for 2.0L roadtax, you get a good handling and powerful car.
i saw taiwan magazine review, get pretty high rating.

How can u conclude camry is not even close to mondeo when the car isnt out yet?

Well, feature wise-mondeo gonna win in term of performance. Camry isnt made for performance either. More toward luxury and comfortable. For ford, it is a little bit hard to find the spare-parts in east malaysia.

Probably the same 2.0 or 2.4 with dual VVTI mated to a CVT.

In my opinion the problem isn't Toyota, the problem is UMW. Toyota has lots of options for the new Camry yet UMW will almost always choose the lowest possible option, probably to save cost, while keeping their prices among the highest in the Japanese D-segment market.

Why is the top of the line Camry today still stuck with 2 airbags and a 4-speed automatic while the equivalent Honda for example has better specs?

The Camry isn't specced for performance by UMW, but it's not specced for safety or fuel efficiency either. Let's all be discerning buyers and stop giving UMW our hard earned cash blindly.

Camry still using hard plastics in their cars?

I'm looking forward to the new 2012 Camry as well. If the Malaysia version materialize like what shown on the web, then its a fairly big departure of the typical boring Camry interior. Its almost as if Toyota hired a PS3 or Gameboy fan to design the steering!

If indeed we have 6sp/2.5L/DVD/GPS console/min 6 airbags, then Camry will be very hard to beat!

One will argue why need such for the new Camry..? Because the current Camry driver typical profile are not keen on fancy and tech design, so with the 2012 design, it may be a bit of shock and could alienate the typical camry driver ie older/middle age uncle! Those goodies will compensate so to speak on the "radical" design for them....

And those goodies will also make it a trump point for those who willing to forgo the driving dynamic without giving up too much... We all can conclude the next Camry and Accord is 100% unlikely on forced induction so driving performance and dynamic will be poor compare with anything non asian...

But as someone mentioned, the problem lies at UMW going for the lowest base model.... for goodness sake they still on 4sp tranny... And to correct some, camry is not luxury car... for goodness sake and Mondeo is not new... its already out there for last few years...

Again, my POV is strictly based on the car merit and driverability more than anything else. If we want to get into resale value and sales chart... its a different ball game entirely and might as well start another flaming thread on A vs B and end it with ."...........Although B is good but suck resale value as such B will fail........."

This post has been edited by gamenoob: Sep 26 2011, 08:32 AM

Gamenoob,

What do you think about the interior? Does it hav the luxury feel compare to Accord 2.4/Camry 2.4/Teana 2.5/Mazda 6 or any other car at its range?

Thanks!

Mas Chan

The Mondeo interior is way ahead in terms of quality and premium barring one thing..... The center console!

The silverish/aluminium trim although looks good, the HU was a big let down for the price. Its not the most luxury design (remember Mondeo MK4 is about 3-4yrs old now), but the accord and Camry is no better either and worst the overplasticky of the Sonata. Only the Accord come close in terms of premium feel among the 3 asian. Current Camry is bored as hell.

However, the alcantara leather combo mix in black color with tubing/stitching adds lots of sportiness to the interior. The rear leg room is very good. All the parts give a feel of very well put together as a package. The NVH is way ahead and this give it even more upper class moments. The asian car you mentioned seems good at first but as you caress the parts and fitting, and you will see so much low end plastic and tackiness that you wonder why would anyone pay RM160+ onward for them. Mazda6 was nice until Bermaz messed it up with the low rent seeking DVD/GPS console...

So its not the boring luxury but rather premium sportiness that the Mondeo bring to the table that the other brand you mentioned, does not have....

I went for test drive today, performance is as good as the spec sheet has shown. And you are right, the center console is a big let down. Other than that, I don't really like the material of centre portion of every seats, the tackiness just put me off even SA claims they are allergy tested leather.

Now I'm in dilemma, I don't like interior but love the engine performance to the max. At this price range, I'm considering Mazda 6 2.5 because of its overall design. But it can't match the feeling of driving the Mondeo with turbocharger! Not to mention higher road tax and FC.

This post has been edited by mas_chan: Sep 27 2011, 05:39 PM

o.O Mas_chan.. are you by chance known as Sam?