What’s not?

• This Mondeo feels very slow off the mark, especially around town, where you’ll spend a lot of time working up and down the thankfully slick six-speed manual gearbox to make decent progress.
• It might have only been on sale for a short time, but there are already so many new Mondeos on UK roads, it’s hard to get excited about the sleek hatch, especially in its plainest Zetec trim. In particular, the 16-inch alloys look lost in the large arches.
• There’s no doubting the quality of the new Mondeo’s interior, but we’d question the execution when compared to the classy feel of the all-new Volkswagen Passat. Some of the interior plastics and switchgear feel too cheap for a £19,995 car.
• The centre console is dominated by the Sync 2 touchscreen multimedia system, which controls most of the important functions on the car. The way it’s fitted looks a bit aftermarket and the touchscreen is slow to respond too.
• The three-spoke leather-trimmed steering wheel is nice to hold; shame its buttons are small and poorly marked.

Verdict on the Ford Mondeo 1.0 Ecoboost Zetec

Yes, it might be the cheapest Mondeo and it’s still fun to drive, but when fitted with the 1.0-litre Ecoboost engine, we think the savings just aren’t quite enough to choose it above the bigger 1.5-litre TDCi Econetic diesel.

So why would we go for the diesel?

There’s not much between them performance-wise, in fact the 1.0-litre Ecoboost is more powerful with 123bhp versus 118bhp. However the diesel has the cleaner engine with 94g/km CO2 figures (119g/km Ecoboost) equalling a slightly lower 16% Company Car Tax band (19% Ecoboost).

The diesel is also the easier drive, whereas we feel you’d have to learn a different driving style to get the best out of the 1.0-litre Ecoboost Mondeo.

Yet it’s still fascinating that engine technology had advanced so much, that it’s possible to fit such a small engine in such a big car.