It seems most car buyers today have decided that the aesthetic advantages of the two-door coupe body style are not worth the ergonomic hassles of getting in and out of the back seat. To remedy that issue, most every automaker has or very soon will introduce a car with a coupe-like profile and extra doors to ease ingress/egress. This design trend runs the gamut from mainstream models like the VW Passat CC to near exotics like the Aston Martin Rapide and Porsche Panamera. Ford apparently doesn't want to miss out on this potentially profitable trend and may create a four-door coupe based on the best selling Mondeo. If this rendering from CAR is anything by which to judge, the Mondeo coupe will take Kinetic design to a new extreme with a low profile greenhouse, frameless windows, and rear-door openings that are almost certain to induce some concussions. As the premium Mondeo (if indeed it wears that badge), it will get all the techno goodness one would expect of such a car in the 21st century. It may also carry a variant of the 2.7L diesel V6 that Ford has previously installed in Jaguars. Interestingly, the article also mentions AdBlue, which is the urea injection system used to reduce NOx emissions of diesel engines. If Ford adds urea injection, this engine could likely pass U.S. Tier 2 Bin 5 emissions and could even come to the States someday.
[Source: CAR]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rene Curry @ Jun 9th 2008 8:43AM
The present Mondeo that I see in China is a very beautiful car. I give Ford designers a lot of credit on this model. Too bad the design didn't carry over into the states.
ML @ Jun 9th 2008 8:45AM
So, is it the latest trend in auto manufacturing to call four-door sedans "coupes"? What next, call two-door coupes "convertibles"? And then what, call station wagons "roadsters" and pick-up trucks "sedans"? Who came up with this silliness anyway?
Kumail @ Jun 9th 2008 12:38PM
probobly mazda with their RX-8, which is still the only true 4-door coupe'. oh, and then there is the clubman, i guess
Jim Pease @ Jun 9th 2008 8:49AM
I still want the Mondeo station wagon. I'm all about convenience and utility!
DJ @ Jun 9th 2008 8:51AM
OMG, I think I'm in LOVE! It's a poor man's Aston, designed by the same guy no less.
Who gives a damn if they call it a coupe, just bring it to the US.
Sean Flanagan @ Jun 9th 2008 9:06AM
Henrik Fisker designed the current batch of Aston Martins, and he doesn't work for Ford anymore. This will have been designed by the Modeo team.
DJ @ Jun 9th 2008 10:16AM
I thought that Ian Callum designed the current DB series and Rapide.
Torrent @ Jun 9th 2008 1:38PM
Agreed. Make it.
DJ @ Jun 9th 2008 8:53AM
BTW, speaking of what to call it,..... Didn't we used to call 4-door cars with frameless windows a hardtop?
ML @ Jun 9th 2008 9:02AM
Yeah, we called them FOUR DOOR hardtops. And we called pillarless coupes TWO DOOR hardtops. But now marketing idiots are calling four door sedans 'coupes'.
Kimura @ Jun 9th 2008 9:59AM
Frameless windows and no B-Pillar. If it has either one of those it isn't a true hardtop.
hashiryu @ Jun 9th 2008 1:02PM
The manufacturers are to blame, as well as the idiot auto-jounalists propagating the BS.
4 door coupe = oxymoron
Alex @ Jun 9th 2008 9:07AM
i don't care if they call it an SUV, that car needs to come stateside.
ML @ Jun 9th 2008 9:07AM
Actually, I guess it's all about freedom of expression. Call them anything you want. In fact, I'm going to call my Prelude's 4-cylinder engine a "V8" because it's my right. Besides, it's my word against everyone elses if I choose to call my car's engine a V8(!).
Avinash machado @ Jun 9th 2008 9:44AM
Should be sold as a Mercury. Might help give the Mercury brand some street cred.
MemphisNET @ Jun 9th 2008 10:03AM
I find it funny that the only thing anyone is disliking, is the fact they're using the term coupe
adrian @ Jun 9th 2008 11:15AM
That's because car magazines are promoting the coupe name too much, and in a form that does not apply to the type of car that manufacturers like Ford are proposing, like this Mondeo. Looks nice, But it's not a coupe.
mk @ Jun 9th 2008 10:53AM
Nice to see that not everyone is up for the complete destruction of vocabulary.
I thought I was the only one for a while, when the CLS first came out, and said it was going to set a precedent for the definition of the word 'coupe' to be degraded.
That being said, the car looks nice enough. Probably still a FWD chassis, though. Let me know when Ford builds something with a manual transmission, and RWD or rear-biased AWD that might actually be compelling...
why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 9th 2008 11:33AM
Why so indignant? Are you personally injured when the English language changes?
If so, you'd probably like to know that in the early half of the 20th Century, coupé was a body style, not a number of doors.
So what you're fighting is a return to how the English language was used, not a new thing.
mk @ Jun 9th 2008 12:27PM
I don't like it when Madison Avenue, car companies, or other folks start advertising something that it is not.
BTW, since the 1800s, and horse drawn carriages, "coupé" has always meant a carriage or later automobile with a cut-down size, a hard roof, and two doors. It is a french-sourced word, actually, held over into English.
It is a trend that people think that language and definitions are malleable because someone decides to use it in a contrary way to it's definition.
The whole idea of language is that a word means something when it is used. The speaker or writer can rely that the listener or reader will understand the meaning. If definitions wantonly change, and if words don't always mean what they are supposed to mean, then communication suffers.
English is one of the most mangled languages in that sense, it has more grammar rules, and exceptions to those rules, and multiple definitions of words than any other language. That makes communication of meaning harder. That doesn't mean that it is a good thing to mangle the meaning of even more words.
Heaven forbid someone want to actually maintain consistency, and not re-define words whenever the whim occurs.
"Sabel autorit boatinable, asgorian ligaten."
I've made up definitions for all of those words. You figure them out. :D Communication doesn't work that way, does it?