Having driven one in an extended test lasting three weeks, covering quite a lot of the UK in the process, I'm happy to say that the Mondeo diesel automatic estate is a very appealing car - as long as you don't mind paying quite a lot to own it.The bald figures demonstrate that choosing this model over its manual-transmission equivalent makes very little financial sense, and is worth considering only if you really want an automatic. To start with, there's a price premium of £1100. Straightline performance suffers, partly because that's what happens with conventional automatics and partly because Ford detunes the two-litre turbo diesel engine by about 10bhp before mating it to the automatic gearbox.Fuel economy suffers too. The official combined figure is 39.8mpg (which happens to be exactly what I managed during this test, according to the trip computer), and that's about 9mpg worse than the manual. So you'll pay more for fuel, and you'll also have to cough up more money in tax; the automatic produces 189g/km of CO2 emissions, which puts it two VED bands - equivalent to £65 per year - above the manual.That pretty much wraps things up, then. Or at least it would if the diesel automatic didn't have enough charms of its own. The current Mondeo is very much larger than any other car to bear the name, and whereas an early 1990s model (developed, as Ford lost no opportunity to point out at the time, with the assistance of triple F1 World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart) was surprisingly nimble for a mid-sized repmobile, today's version is much happier on straight and well-surfaced roads.The extra driving precision you can achieve with the manual therefore doesn't amount to much, whereas the reduced activity of your left arm and leg is a far greater aid to relaxation than it was the past. I've driven several of the new Mondeos, all so far with manual transmission, and frankly the act of changing gear in them can be a bit laborious. Leaving the box to its own devices was something I was quite happy to do.You can, of course, exert your will over the process of choosing gears by using the manual over-ride. I did this every time I drove the Mondeo over a familiar and wonderful piece of twisting, turning A-road, full of steep climbs and drops. The automatic knows how to deal with gradients and will hold on to a lower gear if you're plunging downhill, but I still liked to make the decisions myself; so I can report that changing gear involves a satisfying movement of a well-placed gearlever, and that the changes are splendidly smooth.But this isn't really the Mondeo's favourite territory these days. The car has grown too big for that. It was when I covered many miles on motorways and main roads to, around and from Yorkshire shortly after Christmas that the Mondeo made the most sense. The opportunity of slipping the gear selector into Drive and leave it there for hours at a time fitted very well with the car's other abilities.And those other abilities would be ... ? Well, it's very comfortable, it has lots and lots of space for passengers, and it's decently quiet once the engine has warmed up and the early-morning rattling has subsided.I've come a long way with only the briefest reference to the fact that the test car was an estate, but that's not an issue to be ignored. Like many other cars, the Mondeo looks better as an estate than it does in any other form. It certainly attracted admiring comments from friends and neighbours, though there was some confusion as to what exactly it was: one acquaintance at first thought he was looking at an Audi; another asked what that Subaru was like. (Okay, they both saw the car for the first time under partial lighting at night, but still.)Anyway, it looks good, though the elegant window line means there's less rear three-quarter visibility than there should be, and the privacy glass available on this particular model didn't help either. Reversing in confined spaces in the dark was not an experience I enjoyed - you would have to have a lot of faith in parking sensors before being confident in the process.The obvious benefit of the estate is that you can get more stuff into it, though the five-door hatch runs it quite close. The estate has between 542 and 1733 litres available, depending on what you do with the rear seat; the maximum for the hatch is 1448 litres, and in Titanium diesel form it's £1250 cheaper, which might be significant. Engine 1390 cc, 4 cylinders Power 180 bhp @6200 rpm Torque 184 ib/ft @2000 rpm Transmission 7 speed semi-auto Fuel/CO2 47.9 mpg / 139 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 6.9sec Top speed 142 mph Price From £18714.00 approx Release date 15/05/2010
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