Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £15,995 to £27,345
Fine handling, spacious, good quality cabin.
Longer gearing stunts performance, poor throttle response and inflexible noisy engine frustrates.
Econetic is the weakest link in the excellent Mondeo range.
Following on from our Focus Econetic road test is its bigger brother, the Mondeo, and on paper it's even more impressive than its smaller sibling. Here is a spacious, well-equipped hatch, saloon or estate that can average 53mpg and hit 60mph in just over 10 seconds and only costs £250 more than the regular Zetec trim model on which it's based.
Like the fuel-saving Focus, Ford has once again resisted the urge to engineer expensive and complex hybrid technology. Instead, the bog-standard Mondeo was sent back to the wind tunnel and after a series of tests a boot spoiler was added and the ride height lowered.
Under the bonnet the ECU was tweaked to make the 123bhp 1.8-litre engine more fuel efficient and gearbox ratios were lengthened for more low-rev cruising. Even the gearbox oil was specially developed to reduce friction. Finally, a set of energy saving tyres was slapped on for good measure.
All sensible, straightforward modifications and because of that you might wonder why all Mondeos in the line-up haven't been given the 'Econetic' treatment?
So what's the best option: the 'standard' Mondeo Zetec or the Econetic? Read on to find out.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Ford Mondeo Estate
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