Titanium 1.8

Great ride and handling - shoddy build quality

We purchased our C-Max as a larger car for my wife as our third child arrived, to run alongside my S-Max. We bought it from a Ford main dealer, with 16,000 miles on the clock in very good condition.

Positives:

Great handling for a people carrier, and not at the expense of the ride quality which was comfortable at all times. The steering is sharp and the gear change slick, it is far more enjoyable to drive than a people carrier should be.
Titanium trim brings some useful specification, including automatic wipers and lights, upgraded audio and some trim improvements inside and out - quite a smart looking car overall.
The boot is reasonably practical, and there is enough space in the rear for 3 kids, although it's a bit tight.
Mechanically the car has been 100% reliable.

Negatives:

The interior build quality is so poor, I would actually describe it as a shambles. Squeaks, rattles and shakes from every direction, trim coming off in your hands, cheap plastics and creaky trim panels. It really is a total disaster and not befitting of a car which cost the best part of 20k new. The parcel shelf is a limp, useless effort, the boot struts are barely strong enough to hold the boot lid up, and after 26,000 miles the rear wheel arches have started to bubble.
The 1.8 petrol is slow, taking lots of revving. It misses a 6th gear ratio on the motorway and drones badly - something we did not pick up on the rather short test drive. Economy is a disaster - 28mpg.

The C-Max and S-Max have both suffered from poor build quality (and unreliability in the case of the S-Max) - so much so that we have just changed them both for a BMW 1 series and Volvo V70 (neither of which we hear so much as a squeak out of). Reading the reviews, it appears we are not alone in suffering from poor Ford products - we'll not be buying one again.

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