Ford Mondeo Vs Mazda 6

Firstly, you'd be thinking what on earth happened here. Well, the executives at MS-CG decided that we reviewers are having too much fun testing expensive, exotic sports cars and that it was our responsibility to review cars the average, everyday John Smith would drive. What a kick in the nuts!

The positive though is that I was sent up to New Zealand to carry out my findings with two of the most common everyday cars you would encounter. I was to thoroughly test these two cars through the lands of Middle Earth over thousands of kilometres, analysing every detail, every kudos and every flaw of the cars and decide which one should be handed the olive reef of victory. So lets start with the Mondeo.

The Mondeo's exterior styling is nothing that would make you look twice. Actually, it wouldn't even make you look once. Despite the obvious European styling efforts, the Mondeo still isn't a car you would use as your 'Draw 4' card to impress the girl on your first date. Actually, to be honest, this whole ‘European styling’ is sorta like this new fashion trend where you see someone’s ass crack when ever you walk in a populated, metropolitan area. You see a lot of it and most of the time, you’d wish you didn’t see it at all because some fat, wobbly pork chop thinks she looks sexy if she has half her larded ass hanging out of her pants. I think non-European brands should just stick with their own styling. Anyway, back to the car, the Mondeo looks exactly like the car you used to draw when you were in Grade 1, just a podium shaped box with wheels. Ummmm….that's all I have to say about the appearance of the car because there's just nothing else to say. It just looks like...a car.

So not so flash on the outside, but maybe the Ford can redeem itself on the interior. Well, not exactly. The Ford is equipped with modern interior designing with big fat buttons everywhere replacing traditional knobs for climate control, fancy hidden cup holders, and a digital display that tells you the temperature outside. Yee Hee! What's disturbing however is how much black Ford have used in the interior. Everything is black. The dash is black, the controls a black, the radio is black, the steering wheel is black, the gear knob is black, the seats are black, the seat belts are black, the door handles are black. It is so black inside, it makes Darth Vader look like one of Donald Trump’s ties. And then comes the quality of the interior fittings and oh dear! It's just not impressive at all. Everything inside is made out of cheap plastics and vinyl, it just makes you regret you didn't catch the bus. The last time I saw plastics like this I shoved it in an ATM.

Finally, it's the pure stupidity that makes you wonder what the hell Ford were thinking. For example, the positioning of the brake pedal is placed about three inches higher than the accelerator. So rather than just pivoting your right foot from the accelerator to the brake on your heel, you have to lift your entire foot away from the accelerator, bring it back towards you and then press the brake. So what? You might say, but I can assure you that this design is seriously flawed in the need of sudden braking.

Not looking so good for the Ford then. So far not exactly the car for the individual that's concerned about styling and quality. Well that's ok because remember that this review is targeted at average Joe that just wants a car that gets them from A to B, so he won’t care about the flimsily interior and the dreary styling. So this leads on to the final criteria. How it drives. In contrast to the Porsche 911 we tested earlier, starting up the Ford Mondeo makes you want to go straight back to bed. To give you an almost accurate illustration of the acoustics of starting the Mondeo 1.8, simply recall what it sounds like to start up your family lawn mower and you've just about heard a Ford Mondeo start. And you'd be correct on concluding that an engine that sounds like a John Deere mower will be as weak as it sounds. The version we tested was the base 1.8 litre LX, with 92 KW and 170 Nm of torque, which is quite adequate for town driving, however on the sort of driving I was performing in NZ with overtaking and very long straights, I found that the Mondeo lacked the grunt needed to comfortably overtake dawdling hippies in their graffiti camper vans and big, alcoholic truckies in their huge semi trailers. The only positive element of the Mondeo I can mention is the handling, which is quite good. The Mondeo was grippy and gave me confidence during the windy coastal drives.

The Mazda 6 on the other hand was fantastic in nearly every part. It just looks so much better than the Mondeo with its silky lines and sporty features. It’s a car you’d be proud to drive around, show it to your friends and kindly offer them a lift so you can show off the stunning interior design and quality and then bathe in the abundance of jealousy that will pour out of them. Unlike the Mondeo, the Mazda 6 use different shades to colour the interior. It’s a much more comfortable place to be in compared to the Ford. This is also aided by the contemporary silver decked out dash and control unit, which, although was confusing to use, was much better to look at.

Driving the Mazda 6 is very pleasurable, an all round achievement. The 2.3 litre sounds great with such a meaty, quarter pounder, double whopper engine note. To complement this fabulous engine, the Mazda 6 comes standard with a tiptronic gearbox which actually works. The box changes cogs when you decide and doesn’t resist anything that may strain the engine. This was very handy dandy when overtaking along long New Zealand straights.

I’m not going to bore you explaining how good the Mazda 6 drives because quite frankly it’s just that good. The only downside to the Mazda is the 2.3 litre engine gets a little thirsty but then I’d be happy to concede there because the engine performance makes up for it

Well, you can probably already predict my verdict at this point. Buy the Mazda.

Ford Mondeo

Styling: *
Interior: *
Engine: *
Handling: ***
Overall: **

Mazda 6

Styling: ****
Interior: *****
Engine: ****
Handling:****
Overall: ****