The Ford Mondeo is a triumph of niche marketing despite itself - a car so embedded in the culture that it ended up, through no apparent plan of its own, with a social subgroup named after it. You will recall Mondeo Man, who played such a crucial role in Tony Blair's rise to power. Mondeo Man was the disenchanted, lower middle class professional, targeted by vote-chasers before the last general election, who could be nudged to set aside the habit of a lifetime and vote Labour.
These days, for better or worse, the Mondeo's reputation inevitably precedes it. It is the only vehicle - apart from a tank - that has overturned a government.
You don't, however, tend to hear much about Mondeo Man these days. He appears to have withdrawn quietly into his house, appearing only briefly on his drive to wax his car. For all we know, he may be having fond thoughts about William Hague by now. It's even possible that he's driving a Vauxhall Vectra.
You hear a little less about the Mondeo, too, and, unless the newly released models go well, historians may eventually conclude that the car enjoyed its golden age in the mid-90s. In 1994 and 1995, the second and third years of the Mondeo's life, during which it reigned as Europe's Car of the Year, it accounted impressively for almost a quarter of British sales in its very crowded sector.
Since then there has been, inevitably, a fall-off: last year the Mondeo had a 15.3% share of the market. Nevertheless, there are more than 750,000 Mondeos on British roads. It remains a hit, even as a sleeper. And now here comes a remix, looking to stoke up the interest levels and get the punters dancing the way they did in the glory days.
Here are some of the key features of the new Mondeo: more airbags; stronger, safer brakes; snazzier headlamps; and increased legroom for passengers in the back. I'm not sure how much there is on that list to set one's heart fluttering, but the Mondeo is equipped with a new family of Ford engines that might work a little harder to entertain you.
On the other hand, being Fords, they might not. I can only report that the Duratec HE 1.8 in the car I drove rendered it quick enough to get your jacket flapping on the hanger in the back.
But whatever the tempting extras, for the unconverted there will be the usual prejudices to overcome, not just about the Mondeo label but about the whole Ford brand.
Say "Ford" and a whole crop of unfortunate associations comes wriggling to the surface, including: the firm's association with cut-price fleet cars (and, by extension, its association with chippy, middle-ranking sales executives with their jackets flapping on hangers in the back); the fact that it once produced the Capri and still produces the Fiesta; the erosion, in Britain, of the company's lustrous historical connection with the pioneering Henry and, in place of that, its somehow significant association with Dagenham (which houses its plant) and Brentwood (which houses its offices).
Before Mondeo Man there was Essex Man, and his spirit appears to breathe deeply wherever Ford cars are owned and driven.
But over and above these general, abstract and, in some cases, plainly ungenerous feelings, there is also the fact that Ford has produced some of the most sleep-inducing cars ever to leave a factory, and has placed within them some of the most taste-challenging plastic interiors since the launch of Barbie's first house.
The Mondeo does not deserve to be gathered in with this history. This is a new-era Ford - a Ford from the age of the Focus and the Ka, stylised vehicles from somewhere way out to the left of Ford's traditionally bland remit. That said, the Mondeo has a less colourful market in mind, and car designers understand that you can reinvent neither the wheel nor the sales executive. Accordingly, the new Mondeo seems carefully conceived not to startle its constituency.
It appears to have turned for inspiration and succour to the VW Passat. The Passat may not be the most sense-awakening car in the world but, being built by VW, its furniture tends at least to feel reassuringly weighty and firm. The Mondeo follows its cue. The indicator and windscreen-wiper stalks, for instance, don't - as they do in older Fords - feel like the boom on a balsawood model of a yacht.
Even the plastic fascia on the dashboard doesn't seem quite so overwhelmingly plasticky as one expects from Ford. Interestingly, the plastic on the driver's side is differently stippled from the plastic on the passenger's side. Two different kinds of fascia grain! Now there's a unique selling point, and one strangely underplayed in the car's advertising.
Overall, the interior is modestly stylish - a quiet advance on its predecessor. Only two things leap out: the oval clock makes the whole central panel look like an in-car Teasmade; and does that irritating "boing" noise have to accompany the winking of the indicators? In the torture chambers of the future, you may well be offered the choice between having water dripped on you and listening to the sound of a Mondeo waiting to turn right. My advice would be: go with the water. Still, it's the only thing about the car that is painful. The price certainly isn't.
The lowdown
Ford Mondeo LX 1.8
Price: £14,595
Top speed: 127 mph
Acceleration: 0-62 in 10.2 seconds
Consumption: 36.6mpg (combined)
At the wheel: Dave Bassett
On the stereo: Whitney Houston
En route for: Southend
