Titanium X 1.6T EcoBoost 182

A good car overall but, for us, offered too little practical advantage over a normal "Focus-type" hatchback to which we have reverted.

This was a Ford Direct vehicle with 4k miles purchased from our local (and very good) independent Ford dealer. As we thought the current Focus boot on the small side, we decided to give the C-Max a try and as our annual mileage is now fairly low, went for petrol.

Equipment levels are good but I find it annoying that you have to go for a high spec car to get the more powerful engines and climate control (this gripe applies to most manufacturers of course). I was very disappointed to find powerfold mirrors were not standard on the C-Max, only the Grand. This car did have the factory fitted rear parking aid including a visual display, which is very good and I am surprised this is not a standard fitment. The DAB radio was next to useless in our area, but the USB port is a handy feature.

The engine was quiet, smooth and flexible in normal driving but seemed lacking higher up the rev range particularly for back road overtaking situations and I suspect that for most people it has little real advantage over the 150ps version. Average economy is in the high 30s which I felt was reasonable (I had the full complement of green petals showing in the economy display). It is not much behind what my friend achieves in his 1.0T EcoBoost Focus but a long way off the 55mpg I averaged in a Focus 2.0 diesel and I feel the economy case for "downsized petrols" is still to be proven.

Handling was good for a tall-ish vehicle with roll quite well controlled but there was too much pitch/dive on firm acceleration and braking. Ride was generally quite good but occasionally fell down on broken roads (unfortunately we have rather a lot of those in our area). Braking was effective but (and again like many modern cars) lacked progression.

On collection the car was prepared to a very high standard and we had no faults or unexpected expenses and found insurance very reasonable.

Although the boot does offer more capacity than a Focus, we found the practicality aspect a little disappointing in that the folding arrangements for the rear seats are very clumsy (in particular I found it laughable that to fold the seats fully forward involves securing them to the front head restraints with a rubber strap/hook).

My wife who is only an occasional driver reports that the car "felt big" notwithstanding that the length/width are within millimetres of a Focus. She did however appreciate the higher seating position.

I found the seating position reasonably comfortable but, despite the wide range of adjustment, was unable to find a satisfactory seat/pedal relationship when operating the clutch. This caused discomfort/pain in my left knee, ankle and foot and was a major factor in our decision to change the car prematurely.

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