Re: Ford S-Max - any comments?
I have an S-MAX LX 1.8 TDCi and am very pleased with it so far. I guess if you were to take one stand-out feature of the car versus its competitors it would be its drivability. It's a blast to drive and that is not what you would ever expect from a pretty large MPV. My prevous two cars were a Mondeo and a Focus and I would say the S-max is not far off either of these for road holding and comfort. The 1.8 TDCi engine is a far better engine than the equivalent 1.8 petrol that is the base engine on the Mondeo - quite surprising, I had initially expected the diesel to be more sluggish. The fuel economy is very impressive for the size of the thing - on an urban cycle we are getting about 45-50mpg. On longer trips I think it comes in around 55 mpg.
As for the seating the 3rd row fold fullys into the floor giving you an 800 litre boot - if you fold the 2nd row you get an absolutely enormous load space. I recently fitted a wardrobe in the back with no bother. With all the rows up I think the bootspace is about 250L which is comparable to a Focus or an Astra. The extra cost for the 3rd row is a bit cheeky of Ford if you ask me - I can't imagine there is a single S-MAX in this country that does not have them fitted. It's the whole point of an MPV after all.
As RS2K mentioned it is a big car - the difference between it and the new Galaxy is only 10cm in length and a higher roofline for the back seats. I thnk it might actually be bigger that the outgoing Galaxy. If you were to line it up side by side with a Zafira the size difference is quite noticable. The design of the car plays a bit of an optical illusion when you look at it head on - it seems smaller than it really is. Despite the size I have not found it particularly difficult to park - there are two huge wing mirrors that help a lot here.
Finally the snags - if you check out the various user reviews online you will see that there are a number of teething problems with this model - it's only in production since June. The one we bought was a used rental car (5000km) and it had a problem with the heater. It was covered by warranty and was fixed within a week. I'd imagine that these gremlins are now out of the system as production has ramped.
I have an S-MAX LX 1.8 TDCi and am very pleased with it so far. I guess if you were to take one stand-out feature of the car versus its competitors it would be its drivability. It's a blast to drive and that is not what you would ever expect from a pretty large MPV. My prevous two cars were a Mondeo and a Focus and I would say the S-max is not far off either of these for road holding and comfort. The 1.8 TDCi engine is a far better engine than the equivalent 1.8 petrol that is the base engine on the Mondeo - quite surprising, I had initially expected the diesel to be more sluggish. The fuel economy is very impressive for the size of the thing - on an urban cycle we are getting about 45-50mpg. On longer trips I think it comes in around 55 mpg.
As for the seating the 3rd row fold fullys into the floor giving you an 800 litre boot - if you fold the 2nd row you get an absolutely enormous load space. I recently fitted a wardrobe in the back with no bother. With all the rows up I think the bootspace is about 250L which is comparable to a Focus or an Astra. The extra cost for the 3rd row is a bit cheeky of Ford if you ask me - I can't imagine there is a single S-MAX in this country that does not have them fitted. It's the whole point of an MPV after all.
As RS2K mentioned it is a big car - the difference between it and the new Galaxy is only 10cm in length and a higher roofline for the back seats. I thnk it might actually be bigger that the outgoing Galaxy. If you were to line it up side by side with a Zafira the size difference is quite noticable. The design of the car plays a bit of an optical illusion when you look at it head on - it seems smaller than it really is. Despite the size I have not found it particularly difficult to park - there are two huge wing mirrors that help a lot here.
Finally the snags - if you check out the various user reviews online you will see that there are a number of teething problems with this model - it's only in production since June. The one we bought was a used rental car (5000km) and it had a problem with the heater. It was covered by warranty and was fixed within a week. I'd imagine that these gremlins are now out of the system as production has ramped.