The S-Max reigns, but for how long?

Ford’s new version of the S-Max is still the top-performing people carrier, but a lack of inventiveness means its rivals are catching up

FORD DOES family pretty well. For all its pretentions towards executive motoring and even sports car excess, at its core this is a blue collar, meat-and-two-veg brand for the masses. It’s a role it plays well and there’s an honesty about the brand that can claim motoring icons like “Mondeo man” and “white van man” as their own.

All that experience pays off in the cars it offers. They are relatively sturdy, smartly dressed and fun to drive. There have been a few lemons in the mix over the years (Scorpio anyone?) but in general they’ve produced some entertaining cars for the average family. The S-Max epitomises this success.

When parents started to realise that stacking children two-up on the back seats was probably not the safest way to haul the family around the nation’s roads, the people carrier was born. It was either that or the minibus.

During the initial phase someone like Ford should have stormed into this market, but somehow it lost out to the French. Our continental cousins stole the show with models like the Scenic, while the Japanese joined in with several versions that sold well in Asia. Thankfully, someone at Ford realised they could bring the brand’s talent for putting the fun into functional into this market.

With one of the strongest suspension and handling departments in the business, they have produced cars capable of gripping the outer edge of a corner and running on through as if on rails. It’s the sort of handling you don’t expect from a family marque, never mind in a boxy people carrier. That’s why we liked the S-Max so much when it first arrived. It wasn’t all about flip-flop seating and ways to police disruptive passengers. For once someone seemed concerned with the poor parent behind the wheel and the S-Max proved that the desire that such a car could be fun to drive wasn’t pure fantasy.

So what of this new iteration? Well the good news is that it boasts just as much talent in terms of handling prowess. It might be a long, tall metal box, but it somehow seems to tuck itself neatly into a tidy package when you throw it about a bit.

The 2-litre diesel engine is a pure workhorse, peppy enough to keep you on the move. The test car came with Ford’s powershift six-speed automatic double-clutch transmission. It moves the car into the next tax bracket and adds about €4,050 to the asking price but it’s really down to personal preference on this one.

It’s a very smooth and intuitive auto-gearbox that sacrifices little in terms of performance, but to justify the added cost you need to be tackling heavy traffic and town crawls on a regular basis, where automatics come into their own.

Of the downsides there are a few. For a start, there is the styling, which doesn’t disguise the fact that this is a variant of the minibus like all its rivals, even with the side fins on the wings. It’s a fair attempt at dressing it up, but there’s no escaping reality – this is a box.

For all the flexibility, you still need a little practice to know exactly which lever to push, tug or flip in order to adjust the seats to the required format. Given that they all act independently – which is a boon in most cases – there is no single lever that either pops up the third row of seats or flattens them all to the floor.

We know it might require some extra effort to do this, but if they can get cars to automatically brake before an impact and play DVDs on the same screen that others can see the Sat-Nav, surely they can throw in a control lever for the rear seats.

One tip for anyone considering one of these cars: never rely solely on the dealer demonstration.

If the sales staff are any good, they’ll have practised with the seats 1,000 times and have the cuts and broken nails to prove it.

It’s important to try it yourself, preferably with an armful of offspring. Ask the sales staff to jump up and down screaming while ramming you with a shopping trolley under a sprinkler for good measure. If you can keep your cool and fold up and down the seats, then this is the car for you.

While we avoided the salesman’s tantrum, our own experiment in a city centre car park did show the S-Max in a decent light. The rear seats flip down easily, the only problem is that while the two rows fold flat, the footwells aren’t covered up so loose or smaller items tend to disappear into the crevasses.

This makes you wonder why they don’t offer a rollout sheet that would cover the seatbacks and provide a single unit boot floor for such cars.

WHEN IT WAS launched early in the last decade, the S-Max won us over for a couple of reasons.

The first was its handling and enthusiasm. It was far more fun to drive than the rest of the small family minibuses. While the styling wasn’t revolutionary, they did throw in a few touches that made the boxy looks more bearable.

The S-Max was our firm favourite, toppling our long-term preference for the Opel Zafira and the Toyota Corolla Verso, as it was at the time.

While this new version has lost none of these traits, we can’t help wondering why they couldn’t have moved the market on a little. In the age of smart economy and innovation taskforces, where’s the great leap forward with this?

The S-Max stays as our top performer but the competition is really catching up on it these days. Ford may be the unpretentious fun choice in the mainstream mix but if it wishes to stay on top in years to come, it needs to start looking at something a little more inventive.

Factfile:

FORD S-MAX ZETEC

2.0 TDCI POWERSHIFT

ENGINE:1997cc common-rail diesel putting out 138bhp @ 3,750rpm and 360Nm of torque

0-100km/h:10.5 secs

L/100km (mpg):urban - 7.4 (38.2); extra-urban - 5.2 (54.3); combined - 6.0 (47.1)

CO2 emissions:159 g/km (Band D) for auto; 152 g/km (Band C) for manual

Tax:Band C and Band D

The specification details for each trim level are as follows:

Zetec:16 alloy wheels; Dual zone air-con; Sports-style front seats; electronically operated front and rear windows; cruise control; Ford Easy Fuel capless refuelling system.

Titanium adds:17 alloys; chrome finish on window surround; automatic headlights and autowipers with rain sensor; Convers+ instrument cluster; enhanced interior lighting solar reflective windscreen and Sony stereo system

Titanium S adds:18 alloys; rear privacy glass; exterior styling kit; Halogen adaptive front-lighting system (AFS); partial leather seats with red stitching; sports suspension

In addition to these Ford has introduced a special entry model from €29,995 with steel wheels, front electric windows, manual air conditioning, cruise control and ESP

Bootspace:286 - 2,000 litres

Price:€36,545 (starts at €29,995 for limited edition model)

THE RIVALS

RENAULT GRAND SCENIC

1.5dCi Dynamique

Power:106

0-100km:13.4 secs

L/100km (mpg):5.1 (55.4)

CO2:135 g/km

Tax:€156 (Band B)

Bootspace:208-2063 litres

Price:€28,490

OPEL ZAFIRA

1.9 CDTi Design auto

Power:106

0-100km:13.4 secs

L/100km (mpg):7.0 (40.4)

CO2:189 g/km

Tax:€630 (Band E)

Bootspace:140-1820 litres

Price:€36,810

TOYOTA VERSO

D-4D Sol

Power:126

0-100km:11.3 secs

L/100km (mpg):5.5 (51.2)

CO2:143 g/km

Tax:€302 (Band C)

Bootspace:178-1,696 litres

Price:€33,300

PEUGEOT 5008

1.6 HDi SV

Power:106

0-100km:12.9 secs

L/100km (mpg):5.5 (51.4)

CO2:145 g/km

Tax:€302 (Band C)

Bootspace:n/a-2,506 litres

Price:€21,395