David,
Get a late as one as possible to the end of production. We did a lot of work on the cals and driveability and some guys were reporting 34mpg av... and that's managers driving them... I miss mine
Though I am loving my current 2.2 diesel Mondeo as well.
Another ecommendation is to get the Mountune kit on them, which also doesn't invalidate our warranty as long as an approved dealer does it....
There is another option, but that's a beer chat some time if we ever meet
Brett