Ok i am busted. The truth is i have never seen the inside of a Mondeo. For which i feely truly thankful. Neither presuma bly had the interior design team in Stuttgart. It it is tad similar! The badge on the steering wheel thankfully gives the game away and there may be a bit more plastic in the Dagenham version.
Trying to be objective in a 996/997 comparison, i loved my 996 and the older fashioned analogue feel of it made for a more classic driving experience. I thought it sounded ok with the standatd exhaust, but i fitted a Top Gear setup to improve it. My 997.2 is a very more modern experience. I really like the Sports and Sports plus modes that fiddle with engine management, gear change speed (mine is a pdk), i can adjust suspension settings from the cockpit and select the sports exhaust or not. In practice i seem to always drive it in sport mode, exhaust noisy, and since buying it i have only driven it in manual. 385bhp makes it feel like a really fast machine compared to my c4s, and being a c2s it feels very different on the road. Much twitchier than my c4s, less stable and sure footed. But because of that a bit more of a challenge. And i enjoy not having to worry too much about the DFI lump blowing up! On balance the 997.2 S is a fab car, but it will cost about ten grand more than a good 996 c4s.
Cheers Rick