FORD’S new Mondeo range will cost around £300 less model-for-model than its predecessor when it goes on sale in June. The all-new car, revealed in Fleet News three weeks ago and available to order now, will cost between £14,995 and £24,195.

The pricing strategy echoes that of the Galaxy and S-MAX MPVs, with the discount level built into the front-end price rather than being higher initially to allow for reductions. As well as being a more transparent structure, it will mean benefit-in-kind tax savings for company car drivers.

Ford has identified the Volkswagen Passat as its key rival and has priced the Mondeo to undercut it. The entry-level Mondeo 1.6 Edge saloon costs £14,995 compared with £15,495 for the Passat 1.6 FSI S. The likely biggest seller in the Mondeo range, according to Ford’s director of fleet operations Kevin Griffin, will be the 2.0 TDCi 140 Zetec which will cost £18,395 – £555 less than the equivalent Passat 2.0 TDI 140 SE saloon.

Mr Griffin said: ‘Volkswagen has done a good job with the Passat in terms of attracting user-choosers and meeting their needs. With the Mondeo, we will offer a car which is more desirable and exciting, as well as offering better quality.’

However, Mondeo appears to have a fight on its hands if it wants to match the wholelife costs performance of the Passat. Residual value forecasts just released from CAP put the Mondeo at retaining between 28 and 33% of its cost new after three years/60,000 miles, compared with 34 to 39% for the Volkswagen.

All Mondeo models, available in saloon, hatchback and estate bodystyles, come with £700 of added equipment across the range including ESP stability control, ISOFIX child seat fixing points, steering wheel controls for the vehicle technologies, a driver’s knee airbag, follow-me-home lights and the Easyfuel system which prevents misfuelling.