Ford has put the Mondeo under the knife! With styling updates, a more luxurious interior, new engines and technology, the blue oval’s family saloon – set to debut at the Moscow motor show in August – has been completely overhauled.

On the outside, the Mondeo gets new front and rear bumpers, a gaping lower trapezoid grille with chrome highlights and LED daytime running lights.

Ford is aiming for a premium feel on the inside, with new trim materials across the range, a new centre console design and LED courtesy lights. The Mondeo gets a new sat-nav system and a new sound system option with a 265-watt, eight-channel amp and 17-litre subwoofer.

There are big changes under the bonnet too, with Ford introducing new petrol and diesel engines. A 237bhp version of its 2.0-litre EcoBoost petrol unit with CO2 emissions kept down to 179g/km and a tuned-up version of its 2.2-litre Duratorq TDCi – with power up 12 per cent to 197bhp.

On top of those, there is Ford’s 200bhp 2.0-litre EcoBoost petrol engine and a range of 2.0-litre TDCi diesels available with 112, 137 or 160bhp. The firm’s dual-clutch Powershift transmission will come as standard on EcoBoost models and as an option for the 137 and 160bhp oil burners.

Too boost efficiency Ford is offering Smart Regenerative Breaking, Ford Eco Mode and an Active Grille Shutter System – which regulates airflow through the radiator and the engine compartment to reduce drag and help warm the engine up quicker.
A range of new driver assistance features will also be available, including Lane Departure Warning, Driver Alert, Auto High Beam, Blind Sport Information System and Rear View Camera.

UK specs, trim levels and pricing have yet to be confirmed but the new Mondeo is due to go on sale here in October…

Motoring‘s ugly duckling has grown up. For the first time since they started to appear in significant numbers after the second world war, more diesel cars were sold in Britain last month than petrol-driven motors.

Once fit only for the slow lane, new turbo injection technology has helped diesel cars become faster while advances in design have consigned to history the trademark shudder that would grip early models whenever they were stuck in stationary traffic.

But it is Britain’s new age of austerity which seems to be the real driver behind the increase in diesel sales. With cash-strapped British consumers looking at all aspects of their household budgets, the fact that a diesel engine is 15% to 20% more fuel efficient than its petrol equivalent is a major selling point.

“It highlights the austere times that we are living in at the moment,” said a spokesman for the RAC. “People are clearly taking the overall cost of motoring into account when they buy a new car.”

“Diesel is more fuel efficient. If you just want a car to pop into town then it’s not going to be right for you, but if you use your car regularly and over relatively long distances you get a lot more mileage.”

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’ (SMMT) latest survey of new car registrations showed that in July diesel cars took an all-time high of 50.6% of the market, while alternative fuel vehicles had a record 1.4% share. The SMMT has been collecting its data since the mid-1930s and has included diesel engines since the post-war period when diesel cars started to make their presence felt in the UK. But it was not until the advent of turbo-charged direct injection (TDI) engines in the late 1980s that diesel cars were able to start shedding their “reliable but slow” reputation.

Petrol car registrations, which benefited from the government’s scrappage scheme which stopped accepting new orders in March, were down sharply. Over July as a whole, car registrations were down 13.2% – their first fall in a year – with consumers holding off buying new cars amid uncertainty about their job prospects as the coalition government’s austerity measures start to bite.

While green campaigners may bemoan the fact that diesel engines can be more polluting than their petrol counterparts, with the debate raging about the harmful effects of diesel particulates and higher levels of oxides of nitrogen, they should be cheered by the fact that drivers are willing to fork out about £1,000 more for a diesel version of a car because it will pay back over the longer term.

It shows consumers are willing to look past the sticker price and look at the overall cost of motoring. That should help the take-up of next generation of hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles – which are likely to start off being more expensive than petrol cars – if they prove to be more efficient over their lifetime.

It’s not just individual car buyers who are abandoning petrol. A diesel is also the engine of choice for company car fleet managers, even though they are more expensive.

“Some of the increase probably reflects a certain amount of restocking by companies that have seen their financial performance improve and they are now in a position to refresh their fleet,” said a spokesman for the AA.

But buyers of new diesel cars should beware, he added. There is no guarantee their car will pay back over the long term because of the dramatic fluctuations seen recently in diesel prices.

The last dash to diesel started in 2005 and was sparked by the fuel protests and Hurricane Katrina pushing petrol prices higher. At the time the price difference between diesel and petrol was negligible so diesel cars – with their higher fuel efficiency – were in demand.

From 2007 onwards, however, the economic boom in China and the rest of Asia created massive demand for diesel and sent prices soaring. The gap between petrol and diesel prices rose as high as 13p per litre.

It has since shrunk as the global economy has cooled, and diesel now costs only about 1.5p more than petrol. But there are wide differences between forecourts because garages often hike up the cost of diesel in order to support their petrol prices – price competition tends to be focused on petrol as the big brands fight for market share. Across a local area, however, at least one garage will cater mainly to diesel users and have markedly lower prices; in London these can be found by following cab drivers.

“We should sound a note of caution here,” the AA spokesman said. “Once the global economy picks up again and the wheels of industry start to turn then diesel prices will go back up, maybe not as sharply as a few years ago.”

He reckons drivers have about two years’ grace before diesel prices start to climb again.

Mazda UK is asking owners of some Mazda3 cars from October onwards to visit their local dealer for a free precautionary technical check of the power steering system. In the absence of power assistance the vehicles remain safe to drive. This is part of a Special Service Programme to check for possible residual particles in the power steering pipes which could cause the hydraulic power assistance system and its electric pump to overheat and shutdown.

If the electric pump were to shut down, all the mechanical components of the steering system remain fully functioning, allowing the vehicle to be driven safely in the absence of power assistance. Parking and manoeuvring in small spaces will require more steering effort, but driving on the open road will not be affected. If the vehicle suffers a problem with the power assistance for the steering a malfunction warning lamp will be illuminated, alerting the driver.

In the UK there have been no reports of a power steering problem on the Mazda3 – therefore the Special Service Programme for both cars is a precautionary measure. Mazda has not received any reports of an accident or injury associated with this issue. In the UK, Mazda is contacting the owners of 10,268 vehicles who may be affected. Only a few specific models, manufactured between April 2007 and November 2008, could be affected.  These models are Mazda3 (1.6 diesel) models. Fixing the electric oil pump and the associated power steering parts will take between 90 and 110 minutes, depending on model, and will be free of charge to the customer.

Czech firm Skoda has announced eco-friendly GreenLine versions of its recently updated Fabia Estate and Roomster.

New diesel engine for 83mpg Fabia Estate and 67mpg Roomster.

Powering the latest models is a new, 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbodiesel engine. It develops 75bhp. Other features include stop-start technology, energy recuperation and gear recommendation.

Skoda

Further economy benefits come from improved aerodynamics and low rolling resistance tyres. The result is 83.1mpg and 89g/km for the Fabia Estate, while the Roomster manages 67.3mpg and 109g/km. Those economy figures are obtained without resorting to ultra-high gearing, so there should be no loss of performance compared with similar, non-GreenLine models.

Prices and UK l

aunch dates for the Fabia Estate GreenLine II and Roomster GreenLine II will be announced later.

Delphi Automotive announced a new selective catalytic reduction (SCR) urea dosing system for light-duty vehicles. The system injects urea solution into the SCR system at 2 MPa—up to four times the pressure in previous systems—which provides better mixing with exhaust gas and allows the catalyst to be close-coupled to the engine. Since the need for active catalyst warm-up strategies (such as through rapid engine warm up) is reduced, the system brings an added benefit of CO₂ emission reduction of up to 1 g/km, according to Delphi.

The system consists of three basic modules:

• The SCR doser—an injector with integrated high pressure pump—is mounted in the exhaust line just ahead of the SCR catalyst and injects the urea solution at 2 MPa directly into the exhaust stream.
• The urea delivery module (UDM) in the remote urea tank includes a low pressure pump that supplies the solution to the injector.
• The electronics and software module is used to control the dosing subsystem.

Delphi emphasized a number of advantages of their new system:

The high pressure of the dosing injector, combined with an innovative insulation arrangement, prevents the urea solution from boiling within the doser, allowing its tip to be directly exposed to the hot exhaust. This architecture puts more energy into the urea spray which requires less mixing energy from the exhaust and eliminates deposit formation at the nozzle tip. It also ensures consistent spray performance over the life of the system. The superior performance of the doser allows exhaust designers to move the SCR catalyst closer to the engine, which in turn saves on CO₂—compared to engines with alternative SCR dosing systems—as catalyst heating and light-off strategies can be reduced.

Unlike alternative systems that use timed injector opening, the Delphi system uses a positive displacement solenoid pump that delivers an accurate, metered quantity of urea through the injector, regardless of supply pressure, throughout the lifetime of the system.

The urea delivery module (UDM) can be customized to integrate the functions of urea level sensing, lifetime filtration, heating for defrosting in winter and a delivery pump, packaging conveniently into the base of the tank. The delivery pump is only required to pressurise the urea solution to prevent boiling in the feed lines.

Currently applicable to passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, the technology is also being developed with higher flows to suit medium- and heavy-duty diesels. The system is intended for Euro 6, Tier 2 Bin 5 and corresponding Japanese regulations. The first production application of the Delphi SCR system is scheduled for 2012.