Back in the previous generation Mondeo there was one honey-sweet version. The 2.5-litre V6, powered by a built-in-America engine that provided both a silky drive and a mildly invigorating performance when tried.

In the current model, albeit the characteristics of the 4-pot petrol and diesel engines are as good as any other contender, to get that smooth V6 feel you had to go for the ST220, and that is a thoroughbred race-style road car, a bit beyond the requirements and indeed the purses of the middle Mondeo man.

Now, we have the 2.5-litre back. Filling a gap that might well have pushed the occasional middle Mondeoer out of the brand. Or maybe not. Whatever, it is nice to see this option back on our road.

It comes also as part of the revivial of the Ghia specification in Mondeo, for which Ford has been content to use the 'Executive' terminology to denote the upper-class versions of its D-segment car in recent years.

And just to ice the cake, the Mondeo range now comes with a range of cosmetic improvements, mostly inside, to carry it through to the full model change which is likely in a couple of years' time.

Outside, that involves some extra chroming finishes, and detail changes to the lights. Inside there are better quality trim materials, some more metallising of details, and in the review car there was full leather seating of the voluptuous variety.

The radio was also an upgraded unit, with a nice large central knob for volume control that actually was nicer to use than the Ford-standard fingertip operated switches on a stalk behind the wheel.

Overall, there's no major difference in how one sees the Mondeo cockpit. There's the same kind of massivity about the dashboard area, which is comforting to many ... though there's a lot of black surface that gathers - and shows - dust and needs regular wiping.

The steering wheel is one of the good feels, and in the 2.5 Ghia also has the blue oval's own version of the 'paddle' gearshifting, in this case a matched pair of silvered rocker buttons on the spokes of the wheel, either of which can be used to shift the sequential coggery up or down.

Otherwise, the 5-speed autobox can be left to its own very excellent devices, or it can be stick-shifted through its own parallel +/- gate.

Regular readers will know that I prefer leaving an auto in auto. And, in fairness, while there are occasions for the manual shift, the lever in this application is a heavy enouigh push. Much better, though, than any form of those 'paddle' systems.

There are other goodies with the Ghia spec, including those quickly becoming essential parking aid 'beepers', which in this car were nicely subdued (in some cars, they became almost orchestral in their volume level and sounds variety).

That said, the Mondeo is for all its bulk quite an easy car to maneuver in the parking place. Decent visibility is one advantage of its unfussy styling.

The review car was the hatchback version, and lifting that same hatch - again a bit on the heavy side, that action - reveals a truly massive load-carrying volume.

The V6 does not make the car's take-off perfomance threaten low-flying aircraft, probably because the Mondeo is a lot of safe metal in the first instance. And in the second, because it is bred for good-mannered motoring. Nevertheless, on a clear road move-off, you can get a satisfying sense of 'whoosshhh' without disturbing the neighbouring constabulary.

The 5-speed autobox I have written about before, last time in its application to a TDCi if I remember correctly. And it is as smooth an operator as it really needs to be when matched with a smooth engine like the 2.5. It has clever stuff about it too, with the abiliity to sense what the car should be doing going downhill and doing its own downshifting to provide engine braking if this is the consensus of the input from a number of sensors keeping an eye on the car's attitude and your own driving patterns.

For all its size, there's a dynamic joy possible in driving the Mondeo on challenging routes, and the extended power bands available from the V6 add to this in a measurable improvement over the 4-pot petrols.

Mondeo is moving on in the years now, but for the fans of large family cars, it remains rewarding to own and drive.