• Loads of space for five adults in the cabin
• Boot is smaller than some rivals – particularly Hybrid
• Easy to park, with assistance on hand if required

There’s loads of room in the Estate for five adults, with ample width for upper bodies too and generous legroom even behind a taller driver.

Up front the seats are supportive, especially so in Titanium variants with the sports seats, meaning you’re likely to arrive without suffering typical niggling aches after a long drive.

Like the hatchback there are various storage bins and cubbies dotted around the interior, with a usefully large glovebox that’s big enough to have a shelf inside it. At the base of the centre console is an open storage area with a 12-volt socket close by.

The Mondeo Estate is a large car with a big footprint, but it’s no more difficult to park than any other car of similar dimensions. Ford was relatively early to market with systems such as automatic bay and parallel parking, while depending on trim, a rear-view camera and acoustic sensors are also available.

With a wide tailgate aperture and a cavernous load space within, it’s a given that the Ford Mondeo Estate’s practicality is a strong point – but only if you don’t choose the Hybrid, which went on sale in 2019, because this has a smaller boot to accommodate its extra batteries.

With the space saver spare tyre that’s fitted as standard, the regular Mondeo musters 500 litres of volume up to the luggage area cover and in five-seater mode. With a full-sized spare that drops slightly to 488 litres, but that’s still huge. The Hybrid system cuts this capacity to 403 litres.

Thing is its rivals do better. Vauxhall’s Insignia Sports Tourer has a 540-litre capacity and Volkswagen’s new Passat estate swallows 650 litres.

Fold the 60:40 split rear seats flat for even more space – 1,605 litres in fact (or 1,585 litres if you’ve got that full-sized spare, or 1,508 for the 2019 Hybrid). Conversely that’s more than the Insignia’s 1,530-litre capacity but significantly short of the Passat’s 1,780-litre volume.

Safety

The Ford Mondeo scored a maximum five stars at its Euro NCAP crash test in 2014.

Fundamentally it is a stronger, safer yet lighter car than before, offering its occupants a significant degree of protect in the unfortunate event of an accident. Airbags all-round work in conjunction with the car’s crumple zones to minimise impact forces while pedestrian detection system reduces the risk of injuring individuals who step out in front of it. LED tail lights also ensure you’re seen clearly from behind.

What prevents us from giving the Mondeo estate a higher rating is that much of the safety technology is optional, when other cars have such features as standard.

Adaptive cruise control, blindspot warning and emergency city braking are all optional extras, as are the headline grabbing inflatable rear airbags, a first on a European market Ford.

Lane-departure warning is standard on Titanium versions upwards but only with the X Pack do you get LED headlights with automatic main beam and a cornering function to angle the beam towards the direction of travel.

More safety kit is available on facelifted Mondeos, which are set to become available during 2019. The most interesting of these is an intelligent speed limiter, which reads traffic signs and changes your maximum allowed speed accordingly – ideal for preventing unwanted points on your licence as well as the obvious safety benefits.

Watch: Ford Mondeo Estate Euro NCAP crash test