Ford Mondeo voted best fleet car in UK poll

By Matt Brogan | January 22nd, 2010

Another day and another poll out of the UK, and while it seems these guys spend more time voting than driving, there are at least enough people left out on the roads to see Ford’s Mondeo become their most popular fleet car.

According to industry publication FleetDirectory, the Mondeo topped a shortlist of twenty popular models taking an impressive 20 per cent of the vote in a recent online poll.

Mondeo, perhaps a surprise winner, beat well known German rivals BMW and Audi with the 3 Series and A6 models ranking second (14 per cent) and third (13 per cent) respectively. German cars are very popular within the UK’s fleet and contract hire market, and are traditionally dominant within the sector.

One variant proving increasingly popular in the UK is the recently introduced Mondeo Titanium as recently tested by CarAdvice. The entry-level Mondeo Edge 1.6 (not sold in Australia) also registered a high number of votes with fleet buyers.

“The Mondeo is a very popular, long-established model, fleets and fleet managers trust in its solid manufacture,” said FleetDirectory spokesman, Mr Richard Lawton.

“Add this to its smart innovations over the year, including the recent addition of the ECOnetic technology and the Mondeo is understandably very popular as a fleet car.

“Its lead in our poll speaks volumes of Ford’s overall popularity among UK fleets and comes someway to explaining why Ford was the UK’s most popular carmaker last year.”

Popular models from the poll include:

Ford Mondeo: 20%
BMW 3-Series: 14%
Audi A6: 13%
Volkswagen Passat: 12%
Jaguar XF: 10%
Skoda Octavia: 9%
Vauxhall Insignia: 8%
Mercedes C-Class: 7%
Citroen C5: 7%

Andrew

So the Falcon is winner with Fleets here and the Mondeo with Fleets in the UK ?

Callous Aussie

If that’s the case they can’t sell many falcons privately.
David T1

Actually it’s Commodore, Corolla and Hilux that are the fleet queens in Australia.
Falcon is a distant 4th in fleet sales, with a higher percentage of private sales than ever in it’s history.

adam (aka mada)

DavidT1,

Thank you for stating some truth, makes a change in here.

FG falcon sales maybe down overall however Ford is selling higher trim levels and more sports models than ever before, hence profit remains rather stable.

Take a look at the trim levels you se when theres an FG out and about, the XT sedan is certainly not as prevelant as the XR models or the G6 models.
Andrew

Yes but Ford also recorded it’s second lowest Falcon sales ever. So the percentage of privite sales is still likely to be lower then what the previous model sold to fleets.

The only commodores i see in fleets are SS in the highway patrol fleet, and Sportwagons in CSU cars.

Where as for Falcons i see XT’s XR6T’s as Police cars and just about every XR6 with out tinted windows i see on the highway has a hire car sticker on it.

I very very rarely (and alot of poeple would agree i believe) see a Holden as a hire car.

TheNameless

So you haven’t seen the AVIS rental car fleet, the Europecar fleet no?
Many Commodores as well as Cruze amongst the Aurion/Camry, Corolla, Lancer etc.

Callous Aussie

…and our Europecar which was supposed to be an Avalon was a Falcon. We took it back as it had several faults including a major wobble in the rear, a broken passenger handle and the remote release for the boot was broken. There wasn’t a commodore to be seen in the Eurpoecar carpark at Adelaide airport or the city office in Melbourne. Coincidence? Or are you just full of it “thenameless”? They were all Corollas ,VW and Lancers.

I suspect you pulled your data out of your “ventilation ducting”.
Callous Aussie

http://www.europcar.com.au/fleet-guide/default.aspx

Looky there.. large car list is a Falcon (or the equivalent Aurion we were originally promised). Now go to the utes. Oh looky there, again a falcon. You fanboys are a joke. How about some data now to back up your BS claim that the Commodore is Australia’s number one fleet car? I bet you can’t find anything. You are talking out of your “ventilation duct”.
Callous Aussie

I had to laugh hard at this one. Note the ex-fleet car shown for sale.

http://www.australianfleetsales.com.au/
Andrew

TheNameless:

Just had a look at the AVIS fleet website, appears that the basic cars are Falcons, not a cruze in site.

The prestige are Calais and Statesmens. What does that say ? oh the volume models are fords, very apparent at when i went to collect my hire car from avis two weeks ago after i got rear-ended.

I unfotunately had to drive a camry.

thenameless

Jeez wow you got me… not. So Europcar has Falcon Wagon and ute. While Toyota has numerous passenger and commercial vehicles. Yep pie in my face.
So because Aust Fleet Sales has a Falcon on their website it means they mostly have them right?
Go to Sydney Airport and check out the fleets. https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/byr/index.jsp?targetPage=vehicleGuideTypeView.jsp&vSipp=MCMR&leftNavUserSelection=globNav_5_1
While Falcon is available through most rental companies, no one does it better than Toyota and Holden. Hence Corolla sales.
Rather than being keyboard warriors, physically have a look at a Thrifty car rental location to see that there are in fact Holden Cruze’s in the fleet.
Hertz is full of Toyotas.

adam (aka mada)

so…no, incorrect.

Andrew

Why does eurocar have hyundais?

Callous Aussie

Probably for the same reason they have Falcons? Because they can.

thenameless

Jeez wow you got me… not. So Europcar has Falcon Wagon and ute. While Toyota has numerous passenger and commercial vehicles. Yep pie in my face.
So because Aust Fleet Sales has a Falcon on their website it means they mostly have them right?
Go to Sydney Airport and check out the fleets. https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/byr/index.jsp?targetPage=vehicleGuideTypeView.jsp&vSipp=MCMR&leftNavUserSelection=globNav_5_1
While Falcon is available through most rental companies, no one does it better than Toyota and Holden. Hence Corolla sales.
Rather than being keyboard warriors, physically have a look at a Thrifty car rental location to see that there are in fact Holden Cruze’s in the fleet.
Hertz is full of Toyotas.

Cupid Stunt

not surpised really. The A6 is substantially more money and pitched at executives whereas the mondy is the reps car. I’d go for the C5 personally at it’s quieter than the mondy and cheaper again.

Safety First

Actually A6 and Mondeo Zetec and Titanium are pitched at exact same “Sub executive” market…
The difference (apparently) is that the Audi and the Beemer are seen a the car of choice by (what used to be Yuppie now known as) Metrosexuals….
adam (aka mada)

The mondeo out handles both the Audi and C5, Audi’s have great build quality, but simply stink at getting ride and handling to match most other mainstream makes and models…
Andrew M

The impression I got is that money wasnt a factor.
I didnt read this as a volume winning survey, but rather asking the people what they thought……
Perhaps I read it wrong??

Aleks

Yet I don’t remember the last time I saw a mondeo on the road. Funny how the world works.

adam (aka mada)

In the UK not here in Oz…

When i was visiting the UK in late 08, the shear number of mondeos on the raod was impressive, many focus and fiesta models also
Callous Aussie

I haven’t seen a single one of the new shape here in Cairns and it’s been on sale for a while.

Safety First

Yeah but in Carins you haven’t seen a Cruze rental or as above you don’t see many rental Commodores or that…… Howver with the amount of posts you do on this site it comes as no surprise to me that you don’t see them cause you never go outside…

t

well im in townsville and they are everywhere!

Solly

If you have ever driven a Mondeo, you will know why they are so popular in the UK. Good build quality, excellent handeling and plenty of gadgets and gizmos.
If you had told me 2 years ago I would be driving a Mondeo, I would have laughed… I’m now about to buy my second. It has to be one of the most under rated cars in OZ. When Ford finally bring out the Diesel Wagon in Titanium spec (or even an XR5 wagon), you will see sales throught the roof..

Andrew M

Perhaps they better market it first.

Mondeo actually gets the least coverage here, getting better though.
Safety First

At risk of being beheaded, wait till April / May and might just get your wish

adam (aka mada)

The one area mondeo does need improving upon is the base 2.3 4cyl engine, it needs the 2.5 updated drivetrain, DSG transmissions would be great too!

Anyone know if that new diesel is coming to Oz spec mondeos anytime soon? i think it’s the 2.2TD.
Joe

The Mondeo with 2.2 lt T/Diesel is due to arrive in Australia in may-june 2010 complete with a T/Diesel wagon but no Titanium Wagon yet.

Safety First

2.2 NOT confirmed…. upgraded diesel… TDCi Wagons and titanium all due
adam (aka mada)

Thank you

Robj

Yawn….where is the A4??

birdie

go and look for one iam sure you might find one hiding some where !

Jon

Will they sell diesel Manual Mondeo in Australia? UK sells most Manual Mondeo, so why not in Australia?
t

Every car rental place ive seen with falcons have XR6s NOT base models.

must bring better returns at resale time?
Save it for the track

Ford don’t market the Mondeo as hard as they might if Falcon didn’t exist. Very close in terms of dimensions, just one is rear drive and six cylinder or more, and the other is front drive and 4 cylinder petrol (&5 cyl turbo) and diesel. Mondeo pricing can be very close to Falcon. Falcon deserves to have more sales than Commodore as far as I’m concerned. When VE came out it barely came up to BF II Falcon standard, then FG came and further put C’dore back. In terms of interior plastics, air conditioning and handling the Falcon’s have it all over the ‘Dores. Then there’s vision, the massive A-pillars in the VE are a joke, cheap design or what?? Holden & HSV have simply done a better job at marketing.
Brian

If Ford bring out the 2.2 TDCI in wagon by mid year then I will buy my first Ford so long as I can get it in auto (stupid Mazda 6) and without lowered suspension. Need decent clearance on Oz roads and would never go for a bum-scraper again; I’m tired of scraping car around town and on tracks, the handling tradeoff is just not worth it at normal speeds.