The diesel Mondeo deserved all the praise that it got. It is no doubt an excellent car. But there is nothing better than the purr of a highly refined petrol engine; seeing the tacho needle glide past the 6000rpm mark with the right foot pressed firmly to metal, the carefully selected sporty exhaust notes filtering through into your ears and watching the road sweep to the right, up through chink in the mountain wall, and the right foot staying firmly pressed as you gently feed in… gradually increasing inputs to the steering wheel, and watching the road straighten out before you. Motoring bliss is what the Ford Mondeo is all about, discovers Yogendra Pratap during the road test of one of the very finest of the Blue Oval's cars.

Adil has extolled the virtues of the Mondeo in the November 2001 issue of OVERDRIVE, so I am going to skip a lot of repetitive details. Like, how good the car looks, and how even more striking it is in black. Or that the character is further enhanced in black and watching it move past at high speeds is a visual delight, or so I am told. Did you think I was going to let go of my place behind the steering wheel even if it was for looking at the Mondeo? No way! Pleasing looks of a car that exudes character is just the beginning of this fairy tale, that all of you will get a chance to live out, provided you have about Rs 15 lakh in your pocket. But let me get on with the road test and talk about the engine, performance and fuel efficiency, things that are different about this car than the diesel-engined Mondeo that Adil had tested last month, before moving back to the fairy tale.