Ford Mondeo hatchback - Reliability & safety
This Ford Mondeo needs to improve on old model's customer satisfaction – but safety is better than ever
Although Fords are usually thought to be durable, they don't have the same rock-solid image as cars made by some competitors. Ford has thrown everything it has at making the new Mondeo safe, as demonstrated by its five-star rating from Euro NCAP.
Ford Mondeo reliability
The Ford Mondeo didn’t feature in our 2019 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey of cars currently on sale in the UK. However in previous years, the Mondeo returned poor results - hopefully Ford have remedied the issues in the meantime.
Ford finished 23rd out of 30 manufacturers in the 2019 survey, which isn’t a great result. Of the Ford owners who responded, 14.8% reported experiencing a problem with their car at least once in the first year, and low rankings for exterior styling, build quality, practicality, space and interior comfort didn’t help the overall score. The SYNC 3 infotainment system, however, was something owners were very happy about.
Safety
The Mondeo can be fitted with a huge range of features, including Active City Stop autonomous emergency braking (that should prevent low-speed collisions) and adaptive cruise control with collision mitigation, which can prevent (or reduce the force of) high-speed collisions. From Autumn 2017, Active City Stop is fitted as standard to every model.
The top-of-the-range models also come with Ford’s lane-keeping assistance and traffic-sign recognition, which can display roadside information on the dashboard. We found the lane-keeping assistance to be disappointing, however, as it barely reacts to drifting over white lines.
A feature that none of the Mondeo’s rivals offer is inflatable rear seatbelts, which hold the wearer in place more effectively during a collision. The only trouble, though, is that they’re not compatible with all child seats – so be sure to check this before you buy.
