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Hi Jack,
Thanks for your help with our last car purchase two years ago. We are looking to upgrade the second car.

This one is for my husband. He has a Honda Civic and is looking at a Honda Accord Euro versus the new Ford Mondeo Titanium. Not sure whether to go diesel or petrol with the Mondeo. The latest AA review is good.
Although Honda Accords are safe albeit due for a face lift.

Once again your feedback appreciated.

Thanks,
C.

These are both very good cars, but are both getting old now and our guess is that they will both be due for replacement in 2013. Having said that, the Mondeo perhaps feels the more modern of the two.
From a purely financial perspective, whether to go petrol or diesel will largely depend on the mileage your husband travels. As a generalisation, the cost benefit of diesel starts to kick in if you are travelling over 20,000km per year. However, from a driving perspective, the 340Nm diesel and the six speed PowerShift transmission make the Mondeo Titanium (arguably) the best driver's car in its class by some margin.
The Mondeo Titanium offers higher equipment levels and better fuel consumption, plus there are also some great active safety features such as lane departure warning and blind spot warning, and features such as adaptive cruise control.
From a safety perspective, both are 5 star, with the Mondeo scoring slightly higher than the Accord at 35.13, compared with the Accord's 34.89, so they are both good, safe cars.
Both tend to hold their value fairly well and are popular on the used car market when it comes time to sell.
In reality, you can't go far wrong with either of these cars and it comes down to personal preference.

Hi ABayliss,

I'm in a similar predicament- thinking about buying a 2010 Mondeo. We had a 2003 Mondeo a few years back and in that time the head gasket blew (after 95kms). The mechanic at KAAR said it was a common issue with European built Fords-i.e faulty cooling system and plastic radiator tops. At work our sales guys have the new shape Mondeos but they seem to have a fair amount of electrical issues and transmission faults according to our fleet manager. Has Ford fixed these issues in the latest cars? The Mondeos seem to be cheaper priced on the second hand market than similar Japanese cars so wondering if this is why?

Thanks

The experience of the AA Roadservice team is that the main electrical problems with the Mondeo have been addressed with the current model, and generally, from 2006/7 on, the Mondeo has been quite reliable. Earlier cars also suffered fuel pump problems, but later cars don't seem to suffer this either.
Having said that, in New Zealand, Japanese cars are considered more mainstream, so may be the prefered option from a service and maintenance perspective.