The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Ford’s C-Max now even better
Our Compact Five Seater MPV award is taken home by the Ford C-Max.
Here’s a car that needs to be big enough to fit family and luggage but not so big that it’s too hard to pilot around town or park.
It requires an engine with the torque to move a fully-loaded car but not one that’s so thirsty that the family purse strings are going to be stretched to breaking point. It would need all the modern safety and convenience features that buyers demand but pricing that isn’t out of reach of wage packets that already have school uniforms to buy and hungry mouths to feed.
Hitting the sweet spot in all of those areas and many others beside is where the expertise lies and is the reason why the C-Max is one of the biggest-selling cars in its class. Ford first introduced this compact MPV model in 2003 and since then has sold more than 1.2 million in Europe and currently holds a 12% market share.
This heavily revised second-generation model looks to make further inroads into the shares of rivals like the Citroen C4 Picasso, the Volkswagen Golf SV, the Renault Scenic and the Peugeot 3008.
Particular attention this time round has been paid to improving refinement. Noise, vibration and harshness have been improved through the use of thicker side glass and more absorbent seals around the tailgate and rear-view mirror. The engine bay heat shield has been filled with acoustic damping material to reduce powertrain noise and diesel variants are equipped with extra acoustic seals to further reduce noise intrusion.
In truth, Ford didn’t need to do a whole lot to the C-Max to keep it right at the head of the pack. The improvements to the interior and the big efficiency gains leveraged by an updated 2.0-litre diesel, as well as the introduction of the 1.5-litre diesel, are all worthy updates but the overall look, feel and appeal of the C-Max hasn’t been markedly altered – and that’s no bad thing.
The more some things change, the more they stay the same.