Future Classic Friday: Ford Mondeo Mk1

Ford's original Mondeo was the Blue Oval's first real 'world car' - a precursor, if you like, to the 'One Ford' image it tries to puvey today, where the same range of cars are sold in almost every global market.

The Mondeo was revealed to the world in November 1992, and went on sale shortly afterwards, replacing the mechanically conventional Sierra in European markets, the Ford Tempo in the USA and the Mazda 626-based Telstar in Australasian markets.

Available as a five-door hatchback, four-door saloon or impressively spacious estate, the Mondeo was clearly a well thought out addition to the large famiy car market, and an unsurprising hit with fleet managers. But to Ford, it was much, much more than that.

Thanks to a $6 billion new car development programme - one of the most expensive ever - almost every component of the Mondeo was new. It came with a fresh range of 'Zeta' four-cylinder engines, for example, along with a direct injection turbo diesel and a 24v V6.

The styling was clean and modern, if a little bland, while the cabin was very much aligned with tastes of the 1990s, with lots of swooping curves and a steeply raked windscreen resulting in a vast dashboard. It also came with a number of convenience features for the aspiring sales manager, including a shaped pen holder alongside the handbrake - a neat touch.

But by far the Mondeo's biggest trump card was the way it drove. Even in lower-mid-level rep's spec 1.8LX format, the Mondeo had a truly terrific chassis - something that, up to this point, Ford didn't really have in its armoury.  

Evidently, a large chunk of the development money had been spent on making the Mondeo a terrific car to drive, with excellent handling, grip and ride comfort. In the UK, it instantly knocked the Vauxhall Cavalier off its perch as the benchmark driver's car in the class - and by quite some margin. 

The new engines were decent, too, with lively performance and much greater high-speed refinement than those found in the Sierra. Ford, then, had finally listened to its customers. And the result was worth waiting for - the Mondeo was an instant success.

That didn't stop the Blue Oval developing it further, though. Less than four years after its debut, the Mondeo Mk1 facelift appeared (often referred to as the Mk2, or by crueller types as the 'Dame Edna', thanks to the design of its headlamps).

The idea here was to answer criticisms from some quarters of the original Mondeo, as well as to prepare the world for Ford's 'New Edge' styling, which would soon be previewed with the Ka. There were trim improvements, too, with a less shiny dashboard and new seat fabrics.

A quarter of a century on, it's easy to forget the impact that the Mondeo made when it first hit the road. Yet it was, and still is, a highly competent car. It's also a car that completely transformed Ford's reputation from being a manufacturer of dull-but-dutiful, functional transport, to a company that - to this day - is renowned for building some of the best handling chassis in the world.

The Mondeo may have never quite reached the global aspirations that FoMoCo had for it, but the car was a genuine game-changer.

• Read our Ford Mondeo review and buyer's guide
• How many Mk1 Ford Mondeos survived? Find out
• Find a Mk1 Ford Mondeo for sale