What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
Ford c-Max - C-Max Automatic – Worth Buying - RaineMan

A friend who has never owned an automatic asked me to look at a ‘56’ 2-litre C-Max for sale at a small local dealer last week. As he has never even driven an auto I took it on the test drive. It felt capable but nothing special and my friend said he would think about it. It has done about 59k but has rather a limited service history – allegedly done privately because of cost. I thought he had forgotten about it but he has just rung me as he wants another look and to drive it himself tomorrow. Are they a good buy and is this one worth consideringat £2,999? And is there anything in particular to check?

Ford c-Max - C-Max Automatic – Worth Buying - Chris M

We have had our 2004 1.8 manual CMax for nearly 8 years and it has proved reliable and inexpensive (repair wise) to run. Around 35 mpg. Agree with you that it's nothing special to drive, but if you need, as we did, space for growing children, there is plenty of rear legroom/headroom in not a particularly large car.

I think the unreliable CVT was only fitted to the smaller engines, so this is probably a conventional auto. I can't comment on reliablity, but I'm guessing there will be Backroomers along soon who will recommend Japanese or Korean at that age/price.

Ford c-Max - C-Max Automatic – Worth Buying - Avant

I would walk away from it, not because it isn't Japanese but because it hasn't got a full service history. One advantage of buying a Ford is that there are lots of them around.

If he doesn't really want an automatic, there are probably more manuals around than automatics to choose from if he looks on a site like Autotrader.