Titanium 2.0 5dr People Carrier

Comfortable and well-laid out but unreliable and expensive to own - make sure you have breakdown cover!

The S-Max is a good looking and well-laid out car. Its comfortable and can get a shuffle on when needed, and unlike many people carriers it doesn't feel like you're driving a van with seats in the back. There's plenty of space in the boot when the third-row seats are down, and you can still get a couple of bags and pushchair in when they're in use. Talking of rear seats , they're comfortable, 'proper' seats unlike those in the C-Crosser we considered as an alternative. Now the downsides! This car rips through front tyres at a rate of knots, and at nearly £200 each that's a lot of money. We've had a number of electrical problems in the year we've had it - and judging by the Ford Owners Forum, we're not the only ones. The boot lock is very temperamental. Sometimes it will not open at all, and everything has to be taken through the rear passenger doors - I've resorted to cutting an access hole through the rear trim so that it can be released from within as a last resort. The wipers come on by themselves occasionally - and this is linked to water ingress into the alarm sounder unit - after a bout of rain, the information light on the dash will flash - the radio light won't turn off and I have to resort to leaving the car unlocked at night to prevent waking up to a drained battery.
A plastic bracket inside one of the rear seat belt clips came away (badly pinned/rivetted) inside the mechanism which meant it couldn't be used - fortunately I was able to fit a replacement myself.
Finally, the absence of a spare wheel is a complete an utter pain - I dread to think what would happen if we get a flat out in the sticks - luckily the only flat we had (the shaving foam can that is provided didn't work) was close to home so I drove out to my wife and children, took off the wheel with the trolley jack I brought with me (obviously one is not provided as there is no spare wheel) drove to the tyre centre and refitted it myself. Dread to think what it would have cost if I had not been able to sort it and had needed to be 'recovered'. In short, it's nice to drive but it's too temperamental and could drain money out our account faster than paying University fees for triplets. I wouldn't buy another.

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