Ford and Citroen, the two car brands that have been making waves in the European market, have now become brothers and sisters in the Chinese market, and they have been reduced from the previous first-line brands to the current second-line brands. In 2021, Changan Ford's annual sales will be 305,000 units, which is only one-third of its peak, while Dongfeng Citroen's DPCA will sell only 100,000 vehicles a year. In the case of sluggish sales, the two joint venture brands have launched their own "turnarounds", namely versailles C5X (hereinafter referred to as Versailles) and the new generation of Mondeo (hereinafter referred to as Mondeo).
Both Versailles and Mondeo are positioned as mid-size cars, and their price ranges are relatively close, with Versailles starting at 143,700 yuan and Mondeo starting at 159,800 yuan. If you look at the price alone, Citroën's Versailles seems to be more sincere, but as a medium-sized B-class sedan, Versailles has no advantage in size, the length and wheelbase are lagging behind other mainstream B-class cars, and the space is only equivalent to the level of compact cars, more like an A+ class sedan. For a mid-size car, losing the space advantage is very fatal.
Regardless of size and space, Versailles' performance in other aspects can only be said to be decent, it is equipped with an ancestral 1.6T engine, zero hundred acceleration of 8.9 seconds, power is enough but not how strong, and Versailles's comprehensive fuel consumption is about 8L, fuel consumption is indeed not high, but compared to the same level of German cars and Japanese cars also have no advantage. In addition, the handling brought by the torsion beam suspension is really not much better in the current automotive market. All in all, there are too many strong players in the mid-size car market, and Versailles does not have a strong product competitiveness.
As a medium-sized B-class sedan, the price of Mondeo is actually similar to competitors such as Accord and Magotan, but Mondeo has given enough sincerity in size, it has a 4935mm length and a wheelbase of 2945mm, the size is far beyond the same level, and the interior space is also quite spacious. Mondeo also has a major strength, is its power performance, it is equipped with a 2.0T high-power engine, zero hundred acceleration to achieve 6.5 seconds, and 2.0T Nissan Tianlai is almost the same, coupled with both comfortable and control chassis tuning, can indeed bring a very good driving experience.
Compared with Versailles, Mondeo is obviously more sincere, although its starting price is slightly higher than Versailles, but its strong performance in body size and power performance will inevitably make consumers feel more value for money. Versailles has been on the market for half a year now, during which sales once exceeded 5,000 units, which created a sales miracle for Citroën, even so, such sales are still not prominent in the entire mid-size car market, and it is not enough to make Citroën turn over. so. Can the newly listed Mondeo stand out?
Mondeo's 2.0T engine is indeed very strong, but at the moment when oil prices remain high, the 2.0T engine with poor fuel economy will also bring trouble to consumers. In terms of fuel consumption, we can refer to EVOS equipped with the same powertrain, the comprehensive fuel consumption of EVOS is about 10L, Mondeo is slightly lighter than it, and the comprehensive fuel consumption should not be lower than 9L. On the one hand, the fuel consumption is high, on the other hand, the brand power is not as good as that of German cars and Japanese cars, and it is not realistic for Mondeo to subvert the market pattern dominated by German cars and Japanese cars.
Personally, I think it is difficult for Mondeo to subvert the B-class sedan market, after all, the current B-class sedan market is too inward-rolling, like Chevrolet Mai Ruibao XL, Buick Regal, Hyundai Sonata, etc., are all excellent product power and cost-effective models, Mondeo pressure is not small. Of course, the strength and sincerity of Mondeo are there, the sales will not be too bad, surpassing Versailles should be no problem, if you can give a certain terminal discount in the later stage, or increase the 1.5T version, then Mondeo is still very dramatic.