2005 Ford Mondeo ST220 from UK and Ireland - Comments

Re: my dad has an st 220.

St 220 has 0.155 hp/kg and the focus st 170 has 0.128 hp/kg.

The st 220 is definitly faster than the st 170 focus. Maybe your dad is being a gentleman and by letting your friend in the belief his focus is a bomb.

Happy motoring.

I own an st 220 mondeo machine silver 2004 and it drives like a dream, bought the new focus st for my wife today. Had a test-drive last week -very impressive. Far better brakes than the mondeo st, better in the low rev's, haven't tried full speed, but I think it will be faster than the mondeo in acceleration, but not at top speed... Handles like a cart and the trim is of a much higher quality in material use than the old focus, if Ford can keep up the same quality improvement with the new mondeo in 2007, it will be something to look forward to... The focus st will arrive at the dealer mid febr. 2006...keep you posted.

Happy holidays everyone, drive safely and stay sober behind the wheel.

The Mondeo ST220 was figured to 60 in a recent test (Autocar I think) at 6.7 seconds. On a par with a Clio 182 but it will sit at 90-100 mph on the motorway for hours with barely a whisper from under the bonnet, provides all the standard kit you could wish for and will seat five in utter comfort. I also know which I would rather crash in.

Odd that comparisons between an ST220 and ST170 are made. I've just bought a 220. Fantastic car. The ST170 may be a little quicker off the mark, but for a man with 3 kids would be a ridiculous purchase. An Ariel Atom wipes the floor with everything, but wouldn't be much good at Morrison's. Besides which, I love the subtlety of the Mondeo, whereas the Focus is an out and out Chavmobile. Not to mention the Barf-inducing orange paint option.

I have also purchased the Mondeo ST 220. I can't complain with anything on the car. The handling and the speed I can get out of it is unbelievable. I used to own an MR2 2.0 GT T bar, which was a laugh, but I feel the Mondeo is a better car by far.

I too love my ST220.

Positives: The handling, the build - just the all-round package. Things like the AUX jack in the glove box so you can connect your personal DAB/IPOD to the stereo are appreciated. The cruise control is also fab-o.

Negatives: Fuel consumption is not pretty. Ken Livingstone would hate us! Tyre noise can be intrusive, particularly if you have removed the back panel. The only major problem I have had is with the tracking. I have taken it to two different Ford dealers under Ford Direct and they have not helped. It still pulls to the left. Swapped the tyres over etc.

Hint: I installed the Miltek exhaust system (<£500) and it does add the estimated 5% extra power and it sounds "lurvley".

Hi, am amazed that you actually think Mondeos (even the ST220, good as it is) are fast. I can't imagine why people won't clamour for the bigger engines that are seen abroad. In Australia, we have a car based mostly on the chassis of the Mondeo, the Falcon. And boy, what a chassis! The falcon and Mondeo share the most amazing grip on any surface and, for family cars, give back a lot of driving pleasure. The big difference in Falcons is the engine sizes, 4.2 V6 is standard kit, and would sucker punch any Mondeo I've driven. The XR6 version adds a turbocharger, now that's power. When will the EU drop the cc tax nonsense and let people buy real cars? And don't give me any of that economy crap, my XR6 turbo still gives me 22 mpg. Happy hunting!

'I can't imagine why people won't clamour for the bigger engines that are seen abroad.'

The reason we don't go for bigger engines, is because we get similar BHP output from 2/3 litre engines as Americans/Australians do from 5/6 litre engines. We get great power from naturally aspirated engines, but add turbo's & superchargers to get that extra oomph. The advantages of this is that our cars are much lighter, and for cars that have the engine up front (as opposed to mid-engined) are not nose heavy, & so handle better.

Also, we get taxed a fortune on fuel (so can't be doing with V8 fuel guzzlers), insurance premiums are high on big capacity engines & so are company car taxes.

Sorry, but there just isn't a substitute for cubic inches. Turbo chargers put extra strain on engines and they don't last as long. Plus you just can't beat the sound of an American V8! But with the gas prices you guys in Europe have to pay, I can't blame you for trying to find alternatives.

5/6 litre engines are ridiculous. The 3 litre ST220 engine delivers 223 BHP. I bet the V8 gas guzzlers don't deliver a lot more considering the hike in CC's. The sound of the V8 is okay, but it doesn't give the same fantastic metallic rasp of the good ol duratec V6, which incidentally is derived from a V8 lump. Real racing sound when the rev!

Well I don't know about all V8's, but the 5.7 liter in my SUV makes 405 horsepower and it isn't modified to anywhere near it's full potential. And the V8's GM is putting in their new SUV's make almost that and get 20MPG on the highway. But like I said, that's in America where gas isn't $5+ a gallon. But I did see the Ford Mondeo ST220 on a BBC top gear clip today, and what a sharp car! It looks fantastic! It handles good too! They were comparing it to some car called a Vectra, which had a lot more power, but really bad understeer. I don't know why they don't sell the Mondeo here! We have the 221 hp Fusion which is a nice car, but I think they should sell the Mondeo as a high performance version of that! Won't happen tho'.

If I recall correctly, the Mondeo is FWD and smaller than the Falcon. The older Mondeos didn't fair well in Aus!

The Falcon is RWD with control-blade suspension and big engines.

The Mondeo is a smaller car and the 3 litre V6 is only normally aspirated yet still 220bhp. Compare that to the GT-P's 390bhp N/A out of a 5.4 V8.

We've all seen what the Mondeo engine can do when tuned... The Noble M15 has a turbo'd lump at 455bhp (455 ft-lbs torque also) and gets that light car to 60mph in 3.2 seconds and keeps it going to 185mph.

Yes Ford's 5.4 V8s can do well too - the 2000 Mustang Cobra R was supercharged I think and did 60mph in 4.4 - not bad for a big fat car (especially when compared to the noble) but do not rule out what the Brits can do with the engines they have.

And last, but not least don't forget the Ford RS200 Evo from 1983. Pat Doran had the 2.18 litre BDT engine pushing out 750bhp taking the car to 60mph in 1.8 seconds.

I think people are getting confused with the Focus ST 170;

The Focus ST170 is the old shaped 2.0ltr 170bhp focus, not the new 2.5ltr 'orange' ST one.

"You can't beat the Sound of an American V8."

Really? Well listening to an italian V8 scream; gives it some competition at least. V8 combined with race car sound, rather than american V8 sounding like its spinning at 800 rph (revs per hour)

And while we are on that, I don't reckon the Aston Vantage V8 sounds like a bag of nails either.

The Mondeo never really worked in the US, but it's a totally different market. It is engineered to European requirements, and at european costs. Never mind that it is about 200 times a better car than something like the Ford F150, it's also twice the price and half the size. For an american, that makes it an easy win for the F150.

We should be grateful for the European car market. Our cars are miles ahead of the american norm; they're answer for every question is to make it bigger.

Just bought second hand 2005 Mondeo ST220, Machine Silver with every extra including touch screen dvd/sat nav. Well pleased; an all round excellent car.

Performance is not rapid, but is fast enough. Traded in my BMW M3, which was like a rocket, but I like the 220 much better.