Most MPV’s bland boring, functional or un-exciting, these would be fair descriptions
It’s a fact that many hours, pounds and skinned knuckles must have been expended to design yet another flipping seating system but if you don’t have kids. Then an ice cream van, albeit a turbo charged van does not get the mouth watering..
But the boffins at Ford started making some big noises about their S-MAX MPV model.
Why because this is an MPV with a difference the sort of MPV I’d design if I had any design skills whatsoever. There’s room inside for seven people but its a radically sportier vehicle than the late galaxy model with which it shares the same underpinnings.
Ford point out that the S-MAX in fact shares just a handful of exterior parts with the more conventional galaxy the headlamps and bonnet having the same part numbers.
The comparative height of the vehicles (1676mm for the galaxy and 1607mm for the S-MAX) shows that the sleek hunkered down appearance of the sportier S-MAX is not merely down to clever penmanship, this truly is the sleekest people mover this side of a Mercedes R-class.
Include the latest batch of improvements Ford have made which include the addition of the 130 bhp 2.0 litre 2.0 litre TDCi 130 bhp model with Fords six speed Durashift automatic transmission, plus the fitment of the ESP stability control system as standard across the range.
Now is a crucial time for Fords big MPV portfolio. It has taken command of development and production of the galaxy previously a job shared with Volkswagen and SEAT – and hopes to eradicate once and for all the nagging quality problems that plagued this family of cars.
Then there is this S-MAX a model that takes the company into uncharted waters. Just when we thought there were precious few niches left to plunder. Ford have come up with another.
Think of it as a full-sized sporty MPV that’s at the affordable end of the market and you’ll see why, at this level of specialisation, the market has so far gone untapped.
What’s at the heart of this MPV style vehicle the seats Fords designers appear to have become fed up with Vauxhall taking all the plaudits for clever seating solutions and have come up with a system of their own. FFS (For Fold Flat System) allow 32 different seating permutations. The second and third rows of seats and all fold flat to form a genuinely huge load floor that measures 2.0 by 1.15 metres which is about as big as a double bed.
Most MPVs are enough to put you to sleep, but in the S-MAX Ford have developed one with a bit of charisma.