It’s time to bid a fond farewell to our Mondeo, after 12 months. Over 13,000 trouble-free miles, the only attention the car has needed has been a new set of tyres, having covered just over 12,000 miles at the time.

The build quality and levels of comfort are exceptional, further brought home for me after stepping out of the Mondeo into the Kadjar (see opposite). It’s not that the Renault build quality is poor – in fact far from it – it’s just that the Mondeo is better. The fully electric adjustable and heated seats have been super comfortable and supportive and the heated screen and steering wheel were an absolute pleasure on cold frosty mornings.

The inflatable rear seat belts can be a pain though. Some passengers found them uncomfortable. Children find them difficult to fasten, as the buckle is so big, and they are particularly problematic when trying to fasten a conventional child seat, as both ends of the belt have inertia reels so you can’t pull the belt tight around the seat.

As a parting shot, the parcel shelf, which I complained about in my review in July last year, finally gave up, taking the plastic trim around the rear screen with it (see pic).  The parcel shelf is flimsy and inadequately secured, which means it dislocates from its mounting points and gets shut in the tailgate.

Unfortunately, the Mondeo failed to deliver when it came to the all-important fuel economy figures. With a real-world performance of 45mpg, fleets may think twice before considering a car whose efficiency is 30% below the official test results.