Ford S Max 2.3 Review

Although the front end of this car is relatively boring, you can't help but feel this is one of Ford's better designs, crammed with upbeat details like a heavily raked windscreen that lets in way too much sunlight, wide fenders with impressions of gills behind the front wheels, skewed windows and much more.

Despite all that, our younger, "gen-Xers" didn't seem too violently opposed towards this vehicle, and our materialistic, Ferrari worshipping girlfriends didn't wretch in its presence either, so we take that to be a good thing.

Inside

Ford's marketing division forces the term "5+2" on us, something that isn't entirely unjustifiable. The fact that these cars are made like station wagons on stilts mean plenty of room for five adults and two kids, and the S-Max does the "two kids" bit pretty darn well.

In addition to the fact that a short, full grown adult could probably sleep comfortably at the back, the front and middle bench head/leg space are as big as all indoors, if you could call it that. Particular attention has been paid to making the life of the "middle one" easy. Of course, deploying those rear seats would mean that cargo capacity will be reduced to Suzuki Swift-like levels of storage.

Many journalists who have reviewed the S-Max claim to have the insides of this car match up to that of an Audi, which plainly put, is a little like pairing Moses Lim and Heidi Klum together in holy matrimony.

Not that the interior is terrible. In fact, the S-Max's soft, supple dashboard plastics are really quite good, which is a letdown because Ford failed to maintain that same consistency when it came to the cheap looking, plasticky, shiny bits such as the steering wheel buttons and centre console finish.

Perhaps then, they gambled on the fact that prospective buyers of the S-Max would be drawn directly to the "bling-ish" looking handbrake, which sadly, also happens to be a huge ergonomic downfall. The jet throttle look-alike is a pain to operate. Try bending your wrists in an unnatural way just to make sure the lever is up in a proper fashion.

However, the above is nearly, entirely forgivable when you factor in the electrically operated seats and the lovely, well thought out LCD screen housed in between the tachometer and speed dials. This multi-function do-it-all tells you everything from the preset radio station, vehicle warning messages and the trip meter so you don't train your eyes elsewhere for too long.

Mechanics

In some parts of the world, customers get to pick between a myriad of economical diesels for their choice of power-plant, and naturally this isn't the case in tax-riddled Singapore.

Also, with the exclusion of that 2.5-litre, turbocharged five cylinder variant found in the Focus ST, all we're left with, really, is a 2.3-litre four pot capable of mustering a peaky 161bhp at 6500rpm and a torquey 208nm at 4000rpm.

The Duratec HE finds itself mated to a six-speed automatic transmission that shares the majority of it's parts with that of a Volvo, and that really isn't a bad thing if you think about it.

The suspension, which is perhaps the highlight of this enthusiastic-driving MPV, comprises MacPherson struts, angled coil/spring damper units and lower A-arms and an anti-roll bar up front, and an independent "Control Blade," multi-link system with another anti-roll bar at the back.
Driving Impressions

If you're used to the "cocooned" driving position of a sedan, then you won't like this Ford's rather high commanding lifeguard post. It takes a little getting used to, and on the most part, had us slouching in our chairs in an effort to "sink lower," like in a sports car.

By the way, before any of you readers start on that complaint email telling us not to compare S-Maxes to sports cars, we'll have you know that we have our reasons.

If you can even call this an MPV, it totally belies it's height, size and weight when driven on the road. Driving off for the can be quite the experience. The tightness of the electro-hydraulic steering, the amount of feedback and the directness of the rack; we could hardly believe we were getting this from something higher than your average Honda Accord, which by the way, isn't even half as responsive in the same areas as the S-Max.

Round the bends, the S-max never showed any sign of understeer, not even at the limits of grip, where pushing the car further into the red yielded some fun. Our guess is, that if you see an S-max bearing down on you through corners, give way. It'll put any mid-fielder Japanese (we dare say, even European) sedan to shame at any given day.

This MPV's downfall then, would be the horrid (sounding) engine. 0-100km/h takes a little over 11 seconds with half a tank of petrol, the air-conditioning off and a cabin devoid of passengers, but with the terrible engine note, it felt much, much longer than our stopwatches suggested.

Aural displeasure can be deceiving though, because in reality both the engine and transmission work very well, creating seamless, smooth shifts throughout the rev-range. There is an adequate amount of push all the way past highly illegal speeds, and there wasn't a single instant where we felt that the S-Max lacked the beans, especially in traffic.

Why the S-Max?

The Ford S-Max 2.3 automatic retails for $118,000, and that alone means it faces a considerable task and challenge. Consider that not everyone, especially the mainstream, everyday dweller, cares about a car's handling or sharp turn in ability.

That effectively puts it in the same price range as bigger, slower, mushier but cheaper and considerably larger SUVs like the Chevrolet Captiva 2.4 and the Honda Odyssey MPV, of which the latter is by no means lacking in terms of space.

What the S-Max must do then, is appeal to a special market of buyers - a niche filled with people who stuff wakeboards in their back seats; a group who agree that that the national anthem should be sung in a minor key, and of course a group who take their kids skydiving during the weekend, because Ford's message is clear - the S-Max ain't for sloppy Joes.