Mondeo delayed again
Ford Australia's next-generation Mondeo still another year awayWhen Ford Australia announced just before Christmas that it will release five new or upgraded models this year, the new Mondeo was conspicuous by its absence.
Now it has confirmed the latest Mondeo, which has been on sale as the Fusion in the US since 2012, has been delayed again and now won’t reach Australian showrooms until early 2015.
North America’s current Fusion was unveiled at the Detroit motor show in January 2012 before going on sale in the US later that year, while Europe’s near-identical Mondeo debuted in Amsterdam in September 2012 -- a month before its Australian debut at Sydney motor show.
At the time, Ford Australia said the new Mondeo would go on sale here in 2013, but another month later when the closure of the Belgian plant that was to have produced it was announced, it said it would be delayed until early 2014.
Then when it announced a slew of new models in Sydney last August, Ford confirmed the new Mondeo will be available here in hatch and wagon body styles with 1.5-litre turbo-petrol and 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engines, but not for another year in the second half of 2014.
At the same event, where it confirmed the new Mustang coupe and Everest SUV for Australia in 2015, Ford confirmed the four-cylinder front-wheel drive Mondeo will become its flagship sedan here following the Falcon’s axing by 2016.
Ford has since announced the next Mondeo will hit European showrooms in the second quarter of this year, after switching production to Spain, followed by new premium versions previewed by the Mondeo Vignale Concept revealed in September (pictured).
However, confirmation of its Australian release in 2015 now means the ‘new’ Mondeo will be more than two years old by the time it arrives, while the existing MC Mondeo – which dates back to the MA series launched here in October 2007 – will be more than seven years old.
In the meantime, Ford will this month release an all-new Transit compact van, followed by a long-wheelbase version and a redesigned large Transit van in the second quarter, plus additions to the Ranger ute and Kuga SUV ranges and, in the final quarter, upgraded Territory and Falcon models, including the born-again XR8 sedan.
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