The Mondeo hatchback is no poor relation to the estate, our favourite car in this class. If you don’t need extra luggage room, there are advantages to choosing the hatch.
Price is one. With haggling, the list price should fall to well below £20,000. The hatch is also fractionally quieter at speed.
The drive is every bit as good. The 2.0-litre diesel is punchy and refined, taking the Mondeo and caravan from 30-60mph in 19.4 seconds. Through the lane-change test, the Ford was superb, one of a handful of vehicles to pick up a perfect score. The strong handbrake and good traction for a front-wheel-drive car made short work of the hill-start test.
The practicality score would have been better if Ford had put more towing info in its manuals.