20 November 2002: Ford of Ireland has no plans to introduce the 2.5-litre V6 engine to its Mondeo range. An earlier version of the engine was the top-level power unit in the previous generation Mondeo, and the latest version is available in the UK and other European markets.

But the 3-litre ST220 is to remain the only large engined version of the car here, as anything over 2 litres in this class is niche market because of our punitive VRT regulations.

Meanwhile, the company had dropped the higher-output versions of its TDDi turbodiesel engine in favour of a reduced-power version of the more efficient TDCi diesels, outputting 113bhp.

The 89bhp TDDi remains in the lists at a price some E3,000 below the TDCi.