A FAMILY AFFAIR

These days, you’re considered old-fashioned if you favour a traditional family hatchback over a high-riding SUV. And if you fancy a big saloon, you’re positively antiquated. Thanks to an influx of crossovers, hybrids and plug-in electric machines, the cars that formed the cornerstone of British motoring are on their way out. And none is more conspicuous than Ford’s D-segment stalwart, the Mondeo, which was axed in Europe in April of this year when the final example rolled off the Valencia production line.

For almost three decades, Mondeo had been a byword for middle-England motoring; Labour leader Tony Blair popularised the phrase ‘Mondeo Man’ to refer to aspirational working class voters. Ford’s highly-successful saloon had become a synonym for a family car or a sales rep’s workhorse – just like its Cortina and Sierra predecessors. Yet at the end of the 1950s, Ford had little to offer British buyers of mid-sized machines. Its range of large saloons and sales-busting small cars were joined in 1961 by the Consul Classic 315, but it was over-styled and overpriced.

Meanwhile, Ford in Germany was developing a mid-sized Taunus, and BMC’s Mini was causing a sensation. Ford’s UK bosses opted to face both rivals with a Taunus-sized car for a Mini-baiting price.

But instead of choosing its competitors’ front-wheel drive layout, Ford’s new car – codenamed Archbishop – would use a conventional rear-wheel drive platform with MacPherson struts and a leaf-sprung solid back axle. The styling was intended to be simple, yet ended up as one of Ford’s most charismatic designs, with its circular rear lights – known for looking like inverted CND logos – immediately grabbing attention.