Picture this, if you can. You’re driving along a quiet coastal road peacefully, when suddenly your rear view mirror fills up with the image of a car that definitely looks piscine and slightly ferocious at that too. Is it a barracuda or a piranha, you wonder? Then just as you begin to have a Jaws moment, you remember with relief that you’re on dry land and the image is not of a bloodthirsty fish but that of a car. Farfetched? Not really, as that was just my reaction when I first saw an image of the 2007 Ford Mondeo staring at me balefully from my computer screen.

The new Mondeo was displayed for the first time at the Paris Motor Show. It made its debut in wagon/estate form because a huge part of Europe still prefers estates. Slated for 2007, the car in the show featured a lot of ‘concept car’ elements like LED lights and more. Hopefully, the same look will be given to the saloon, which is what the Indian buyer is more interested in.

Going India-specific, the current Mondeo hasn’t really been pulling customers into Ford showrooms, which is unfortunate because it’s known to be a very decent driver’s car. Initially priced at around Rs 17 lakh, Ford India now lists the car on its website at a corrected price of Rs 14.27 lakh.

Anyway, the fact is that the new Mondeo will take some time to hit the Indian market. However it should be in India by mid-December and in other parts of the world by mid-November — even if most people will see it in celluloid first. The new James Bond film, Casino Royale will feature the car — a blue one with a Bahamas registration — as Bond’s latest mean machine. Well, not his regular transport — he has his usual Aston Martin and what would Bond be without that. But the Mondeo will be seen when Bond uses it to drive to a hotel after arriving in the Bahamas on the trail of a terrorist cell.

In fact, the new Mondeo was still on the drawing board when a car was needed for filming in February earlier this year. A team of builders worked long hours to get a one-off ready in time and to make it driveable. On completion, the Mondeo was shipped in secrecy to the Casino Royale set in the Bahamas, hidden in a purpose-built crate.

Ford has been through this exercise before. In 1976, when Ford was about to launch its Taunus-Cortina model, a pre-production vehicle was provided for a brief appearance in The Spy Who Loved Me. Filmed in Sardinia on the Costa Smeralda, the movie showed Bond being chased by the Taunus-Cortina, which eventually goes off the mountain road and through the roof of a cottage.

Getting back to the new Mondeo however, the styling of the 2007 version harks back to the ‘iosis’ concept car displayed at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2005. The dramatic styling incorporates what Ford calls ‘kinetic design form’, which includes dynamic lines coupled with strong muscular shoulders to create drama.

The Mondeo features a new face. Ford calls it the new family face with its large upper grille opening, and an inverted trapezoidal grille below the license plate. I call it the predatory fish-coming-at-you look. Pedestrian protection is a feature of the new Mondeo’s front-end but using large headlamps and distinctive fog lamps together with chamfered corners has got around the heaviness that accompanies a design catering for that.

‘Kinetic design’ is evident in the interiors too and the slim instrument panel is a mix of retro-type dials and futuristic panel display. The slim instrument panel also means that front seat occupants get more cabin space to themselves, and also allows the gear shifter to be laced in a more ergonomic position. Rear seat occupants have not been forgotten either and Ford claims the new car will have improved levels of comfort.

The 2007 Mondeo is a very dynamic looking car and one hopes it comes to India and does well. But is India ready to take to the wild looks of the car? Honda played safe and brought in a very passive looking Civic. Some years ago, the Qualis got a facelift, which was mostly chrome, and uglier than hell — Toyota said they’d gone according to the results of a survey in India. So are we ready for dramatic design, if and when it comes? Casino Royale is expected to release in India on December 15. Daniel Craig may not be a patch on Connery or Brosnan, but go and see it, even if it’s just to catch a glimpse of the Mondeo.