<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by UAPremExecflyer:
If you're not used to driving a manual (stick shift) I can imagine it might be somewhat disconcerting.</font>
I'm certainly used to driving manuals. I've never owned an automatic. I've driven manual cars for over 20 years.... But never one that requires 2000+ RPMs or it'll stall. FWIW, my own car will start (slowly) on a flat surface with no application of the accelerator at all.
I was over in Perth just recently and borrowed a friend's clapped out old Daewoo, and it was a much better car to drive than the Mondeo: It didn't stall easily and it had an interlock to prevent reverse being selected accidentally.
IMHO, the lack of distinction between reverse and 1st and the need for massive revs to avoid stalling make the diesel Mondeo downright dangerous as a rental car. (It could be that the petrol Mondeo would have the gear selection problem too, but I haven't driven one recently.)
No doubt those who've got used to its extremely poor design will be fine after a while. Every other manual car I've ever driven, you get first by pushing the stick to the far left, then up. With the Mondeo, that gets you reverse instead. Insane. I got used to finding 2nd when stationary and then pushing straight forwards to find first, but this sort of change of driving is completely unacceptable on a rental.