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Quality, refinement and chassis dynamics are key attributes of Ford's latest Mondeo. More virtual testing and sharing of technology made it possible.

Simon Bickerstaffe reports

Who supplies the new Mondeo? Click here...

The third generation Mondeo won't have an easy life. Europe's appetite for large cars is diminishing – volumes are tumbling and premium brands are taking a greater share. To survive in such a market carmakers have to add luxury, increase safety and boost space. Meeting these targets and achieving a premium feel of your own means cutting development costs.

Ford's response with the Mondeo programme was more virtual design and testing at an earlier stage than before, plus sharing technology and architectures with the Galaxy and S-Max.

The new Mondeo

"We've used full digital mock-ups before but the tools have become much more refined," says Steve Adams, Ford's vehicle line director, large & luxury cars. "This time we went not just for virtual design but also manufacturing – we were assembling the car virtually a lot earlier. Some of this is because we have a family of cars; we needed to develop them in parallel."

"This enabled us to be efficient in tooling and engineering costs,"” says Dr Jens Ludmann, Mondeo chief programme engineer. “"These two key elements were significantly improved with shared technologies, enabling us to offer this variety of body styles but also have new features."

Many appear in the Mondeo for the first time, including the human machine interface (HMI), adaptive cruise control and interactive vehicle dynamics control (IVDC). IVDC includes electronic damping control and hill launch assist and is networked to the ESC system.

Suppliers played a major role in the success of the programme, in terms of testing and providing models for analyses. "The suppliers that we work with are fully integrated members of the team,"” says Adams. "You couldn't deliver a programme without them being your partners in development."”

The HMI is an enhancement of the system in the Galaxy/S-Max and was developed with Visteon, Blaupunkt and Takata. Steering wheel mounted controls configure information on an LCD screen in the fascia. Available in varying levels of functionality, including voice actuation, it was designed for intuitive operation.

"I'm especially proud of the HMI," says Ludmann. "There were some people asking a lot of questions at Geneva. With the level of detail they went to it became clear they were engineers, from Audi – I take that as a compliment."

Almost four million Mondeos have been sold since the 1993 debut but Europe's upper medium segment is now a harder place to do business. When Ford's C/D contender first appeared, the segment accounted for nearly one third of the market. By the end of 2006 that had dropped to just 12.4 per cent.

The new model competes with rivals such as the VW Passat – one of the benchmarks – but also premium brands. Ford is confident that it has the quality to tempt buyers away from the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4.

Quality begins with design: much of the layout work was done digitally. “"We used virtual reality to develop visibility and interior packaging of the early cars instead of waiting until the physicals came together," says Adams.

This saved time at the start, allowing more time later for refinements. The programme lasted four years, but that includes developing the Galaxy and S-Max and restructuring Genk.

Ludmann says: "Faster CAE processes were the key enabler to really work on quality at the end – refining the tooling and achieving good production consistency."”

Digital prototypes were more detailed than before.

"Mesh size has significantly increased, and with greater computing power, the accuracy of the simulations was better," says Ludmann. “"And for the first time we had a model that could go through a durability test virtually."”

CAE reduces dependency on physical prototypes but Ford still sees a place for them. Adams says that they are always under pressure to cut numbers, but that there is a balance between reliance on CAE and having enough hardware to verify correct function; quality depends on it.

"“In our case, running a full programme, we needed confirmation prototypes so there was no chance to get to zero," adds Ludmann.

Driving dynamics were a strength of the outgoing model. Ford built on this by refining the suspension and steering. The redesigned multi-link rear suspension is mounted on a fully isolated subframe, reducing NVH.

The front suspension, also subframe mounted, still uses MacPherson struts but with an emphasis on reduced friction for smoother operation. Attention to detail and fine tuning of components is, says Ludmann, what sets the car apart: “We had an excessive phase for testing alternative set-ups.”

Combining all the possible characteristics of the key tuning elements – bushes, dampers and anti-roll bars – creates a huge matrix of combinations. Ludmann's driving team can configure and test three configurations a day: "Go through all the alternatives, then do refinement tuning and find the optimum balance: that's the secret of doing a good car."

The effort seems to have paid off. Driven at the launch on the snaking, often poorly surfaced mountain roads of Sardinia, the car displayed precise turn-in and excellent roadholding, regardless of standing water and torrential rain.

Developed with Monroe, the electronic damping system gave taut body control without harshness, even in the stiffest ‘sport’ setting on rough potholed tarmac.

Ford also wanted the Mondeo's refinement to excel. Thicker side glass and triple sealing of the doors reduces noise transmission into the cabin.

Manufacturing also contributes. Better process control means less variance. This has a significant effect on cabin noise levels. “

"Wind noise is often caused by error states rather than the overall wind noise generated by the form of the car," says Ludmann. “"With tighter tolerances we avoid these error states."

Torsional stiffness increases by up to 159 per cent, helped by extensive use of high strength steel in the front structure and ultra high strength boron steel in the A pillar frame and B pillar.

The Mondeo has grown: at 4778mm long, it's big. But stretching the wheelbase 96mm to 2850mm creates more rear legroom and contributes to the ride comfort.

In fact, the wheelbase and track are the same as the S-Max and Galaxy but Ford says this isn't platform engineering – each floorpan is different. However, the company says that commonising these dimensions has advantages in production because all three share the same line at Genk.

Ludmann dismisses suggestions that the Mondeo and the next Mazda 6 share a platform: "“Platform describes a common underbody, which we don't use. Our strategy is different: it is shared technologies and those we are not sharing with Mazda.” Models that do share are the Volvo V/XC70, S80 and the Freelander 2."

Ford says that things will change in the future. "We are working towards a single global set of shared technologies for our C/D products and for others as we merge our global development infrastructure, but this takes time."”

The car is heavier than its predecessor but, says Adams, is more weight efficient, especially considering the improvements in safety and features.

Increased computing power, together with a global product data management system, meant that weight could be optimised with parallel runs of crash, durability and vehicle dynamics simulations.

The Mondeo is among the first to benefit from this approach, and such analyses will become increasingly common.

"“A car is a combination of attributes that you have to optimise," says Adams. "It's how close you come to the customer's expectation with your balance that leads to customer satisfaction."

Mondeo production at Genk has almost hit the 860 per day maximum and will soon start in China at the Chongqing plant. Ford has made a convincing job of repositioning the Mondeo further upmarket but with some traditional segments declining in popularity the firm’s product development strategy needs to offer even more flexible programmes in the future.

Who supplies the Ford Mondeo?