The Ford CDW27 platform was Ford

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

's midsize car

Mid-size car

A mid-size car is the North American/Australian standard for an automobile with a size equal to or greater than that of a compact...

 automobile platform

Automobile platform

An automobile platform is a shared set of common design, engineering, and production efforts, as well as major components over a number of outwardly distinct models and even types of automobiles, often from different, but related marques...

 from the early 1990s and was designed to be used as its 'World Car' platform. The platform was developed over six years and at a huge expense totalling $6 billion, but was expected to save 25% compared to developing separate models for Europe and North America.

The CDW27 platform was used in the 1993 Ford Mondeo

Ford Mondeo

The Mondeo was launched on 8 January 1993, and sales began on 22 March 1993. Available as a four-door saloon, a five-door hatchback, and a five-door estate, all models for the European market were produced at Ford's plant in the Belgian city of Genk...

, Ford Contour

Ford Contour

The Ford Contour, and its rebadged variant, the Mercury Mystique, were compact 4-door sedans marketed from model years 1995-2000 by Ford Motor Company in North America...

, Mercury Mystique

Ford Contour

The Ford Contour, and its rebadged variant, the Mercury Mystique, were compact 4-door sedans marketed from model years 1995-2000 by Ford Motor Company in North America...

, and Mercury Cougar

Mercury Cougar

The Mercury Cougar is an automobile which was sold under the Mercury brand of the Ford Motor Company's Lincoln-Mercury Division from 1967 to 2002. The name was first used in 1967 and was carried by a diverse series of cars over the next three decades. As is common with Mercury vehicles, the Cougar...

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Descendants of this platform were used in the second generation European Mondeo CD162, the third generation European Mondeo CD132 and Jaguar X-Type

Jaguar X-Type

The X-Type is a compact executive car manufactured and marketed for model years 2001-2009 by Jaguar Cars. The smallest of the Jaguar model range, the X-type was marketed in saloon and wagon variants and was the only estate ever manufactured in series production by the company...

. The successors to many of these cars use the new Ford CD3 platform

Ford CD3 platform

The Ford CD3 platform is a Ford global midsize car automobile platform. It was designed by Mazda. The original Mazda chassis code for the CD3 platform is Mazda G platform, which Ford Motor Company has used every evolution of since 1983...

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