Road Test: Ford Mondeo TDCi versus Saab Aero TTiD

Sometimes you have to be sensible. You have to do stuff that pleases your accountant more than it pleases you. You even have to think like an "accountant". (This is an interesting exercise in itself, if you find seeing things only in black and white interesting.)

Should you decide to start thinking like an accountant, and not like the complete rabbit you’ve made a practice of until now—your next car won’t be a V8. It might not even be a ‘six’. Because with fuel pegging along at a million or so ducats a litre, it’s not sensible, fiscally speaking, to pour great wads of the hard-earned into the fuel tank each week.

It’s more sensible to buy a four cylinder, or even a hybrid. But, of course, for some of you, this creates a problem. I know, because I know quite a bit about rabbits (having been acquainted with one for quite some time now). I know that there are some of you who would rather kill yourselves slowly with a fork than drive a ‘family four’ or, worse, much worse, a hybrid.

So what do you do if you’re not quite up to death by fork, but you feel compelled to ‘be sensible’?

You buy an ‘oiler’, friends—a modern turbo diesel.

Something like the new Mondeo TDCi. It’s a very sensible car: you can snag one for just $37,990 plus on-roads, and it runs on the smell of an oily rag. Under the bonnet, in case your accountant asks (and you won't even have to lie), is an advanced 2.0 litre Duratorq four-cylinder common-rail turbo diesel engine. It’s a very well-proven unit and produces 96kW and peak torque of 320Nm from an un-fussed 1750rpm.

It’s the torque figure that is important here: 320Nm. That’s the kind of figure you might once have expected from your average V8. Ok, it doesn’t bellow like a V8, or shred rubber from the line like a ‘bent vee’ on the nail; but once moving, the twisting force of all that torque pushes things along nicely.

Very nicely indeed. There’s something about forced induction and a modern diesel that becomes a bit intoxicating. What’s more, you can wring its neck and the effect on the fuel consumption is… nothing... nil. No effect, well, almost none. Diesels are good like that, they just love hard graft.

Here at TMR, we were mightily impressed with the Mondeo TDCi; so impressed that we thought we’d better find something to compare it with: a benchmark, a standard against which we could make a meaningful comparison.

That means it was time for a ‘COMPARO’. (Wooo, now TMR is really cooking.)

So we got the new SAAB TTiD. Now this is not to be confused with its lesser sibling, the TiD. No, the TTiD is a much more serious set of wheels. It is the first diesel Saab to carry the coveted Aero badge and comes with not one turbo, but two – a little one to get things going, and a big one to chip in when things are really happening.

And that’s why the badge gets an extra ‘T’ – TTiD.

Mated to either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission, the 1.9-litre, 16-valve two-stage turbo engine produces a grunt-filled 132 kW and 400 Nm of torque (in manual trim, 370Nm for the auto) while returning combined consumption of an extremely sensible 5.7 l/100km for the manual Sport Sedan, and 6.8 l/100km for the auto.

On the face of it then, the Saab holds a considerable power advantage over the Ford. The second point of departure from the Mondeo is in the price; the Saab Aero TTiD retails at $65,100 for the auto, and $62,600 for the manual. That’s around $25,000 more than the Mondeo TDCi (and you can do a lot with $25,000).

So, your accountant will be asking, is the Saab $25,000-better than the Ford and which car would be the ‘more sensible’ purchase?