Can the new Ford Mondeo Vignale hit the premium spot?

The problem here is Alan Partridge. I can still remember an interview Steve Coogan gave at least 20 years ago, describing precisely the character of his odiously loveable, chat show-hosting comic creation.

"He's the type of guy who would buy a top-end Ford Granada, absolutely stuffed with equipment, rather than getting a lower-end BMW, " Coogan averred. Car nut that he was and is, Coogan clearly felt that this represented a serious mental deficiency on Partridge's part.

Which brings us to the Ford Mondeo Vignale, a Mondeo stuffed to the its chrome gills with extra equipment, plush leather and the promise of a premium buying experience, and one that brushes the hem of a BMW 5 Series with its price tag – €43,900 for a Mondeo is a lot of money for, supposedly, not a lot of car, and it's going on sale in Ireland this week.

This is an Ireland that, should you need reminding, is only now clawing and scraping its way out of recession, which rather does beg the question: why would you spend significantly more money than the cost of an already well-specced Mondeo Titanium to get the Vignale? The answer is, it’s all about the buying experience.

"It's all about the customer experience. Research has shown us that customers want something extra, that they want something premium. So we've set out to enhance that, the customer experience, and not just what's in the vehicle," Ciaran McMahon, Ford Ireland's chairman and managing director, told The Irish Times.

“It’s not just about the specification in the car, it’s about the buying and owning experience, and a big part of that is the Ford Store setup. So Vignale buyers get an enhanced, premium experience when they go into a Ford store, and there’ll only be three or four of them across the country.

Relationship manager

“They get an individual relationship manager, who they can deal with on a one-to-one basis. They get a collect and delivery service for servicing, maintenance, anything to do with the car, and it’s all about building the brand, giving the customers the experience they’re looking for.”

Named after the once-famous Vignale design studio which Ford bought out some years ago, and which was once more famous for turning out gorgeously bodied Ferraris and Alfa Romeos (shades of another old Ford posh trim level, Ghia . . .) these Mondeos (and, from next year, S-Maxes) are built on the same production line in Valencia, but tended to by a team of “master craftsmen” who ensure that panel fit is even tighter, soundproofing even more exclusionary (and fit an active noise cancelling system) and that the leather is of a finer grain, and hand stitched.

The result is . . . a Mondeo. With more chrome. And nicer leather. And only available with a top-spec 180hp diesel (well, there is a 210hp petrol as well, but who’s going to buy one of them?). Slip inside and it’s all utterly familiar. The surfaces and finishes are, in fairness, rather more lustrous and silky, but that does rather tend to highlight that the glovebox lid and the bottoms of the doors are still made of cheap plastic. And that the seat, swathed in that gorgeous hand-stitched leather, is rather tighter across the base of your back than you’d like. Same instruments to look at, same SYNC 2 touch-screen to fiddle with.

And it drives the same too. Which is to say, generally, very well indeed. It is a little more hushed than a standard Mondeo (and more so than a BMW 3 Series, it should be noted) and the same fluid, comfy chassis and lovely steering are present and correct. But there’s nothing more, nothing extra, nothing to get really excited about. Space is the same, the overall feel is the same and, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why they put that weird hexagonal pattern in the leather. Makes it look like bad after-market vinyl.

So is there a point to all this? Well, Ford certainly thinks so. It says that 10 per cent of its customers across Europe want something more ritzy than a regular Mondeo or S-Max Titanium, and the posher buying and owning experience certainly seems tempting – when, after all, was the last time an Audi dealer offered to pick up your car and bring it for a service? Ford of Ireland itself seems in a good position for this – it already has a higher percentage of high-spec Titanium model sales than most countries, so perhaps there is pent-up demand for something more. And part of me would love to see plain, mainstream old Ford taking sales away from the rampant Germans. After all, the original Mk1 Granada was compared favourably in its day to anything from Munich or Stuttgart, and rightly so.

Residual values

But it’s certainly not going to be easy. Part of the Germans’ success story is based on better residual values, which has allowed them to offer sharper, and more affordable, financial packages, and that is an area in which the Vignale is going to struggle. “We believe that with the right product, the right marketing and the right buying experience that the residuals will command a premium over a regular Mondeo” says McMahon, but equally he acknowledges that “residuals will probably be a small bit challenging”.

My personal problem here is that, without the full customer experience, it’s hard to judge the Vignale as being anything more than a Mondeo with some sparkly stick-ons. It’s fine, but no finer than a conventional version, so it’s really, really struggling to justify its extra expense.

Lowdown: Ford Mondeo Vignale 2.0 TDCI 6-speed manual
Price: €43,900 as tested
Power: 180hp
Torque: 400Nm
0-100km/h: 9.3sec
Top speed: 240km/h
Claimed economy: 5.3l/100km (53mpg)
CO2 emissions: 138g/km
Motor tax: €280