2015 Ford B-Max 1.6 Zetec Auto (GB)

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Once the car manufacturers find a new body style or genre of car that takes off in the market, they tend to take the concept and scale it up and down to fill out their range with cars of differing sizes and price tags. That is certainly what happened with what the Europeans call the MPV and the Americans, the MiniVan. Starting with the Renault Espace and Plymouth Voyager of 1983/84, which arguably invented the genre, it was not long before not just rival products appeared but then also smaller versions of the same thing with the Renault Scenic of 1996. Suddenly the sector exploded with almost every manufacturer rushing to get MPV products to market. Whilst the C-Segment sized cars were where the real sales volume would lie, it was clear that there would also be a market for smaller B-Segment versions of the same thing, as Renault once again proved to us with their Modus. Ford was relatively late to the MPV sector, with the C-Max arriving just a few months before the second generation Focus on which it was based, in 2004. Their next move was to go larger with the S-Max and Galaxy, but eventually, they decided to go smaller as well presenting the B-Max in early 2012. This was based on the same platform as the Fiesta and at just over 4 metres in length, was only 11cm longer than that car, but a full 32 cm shorter than a C-Max. The car received very positive review at launch, even allowing for the fact that apart from the entry level model, it was quite costly. But the market was turning more and more to the crossover, so sales of the B-Max were disappointing and Ford withdrew it in 2017 with no direct successor. I failed to drive a B-Max when the car was new, but my mother bought one a few years ago to replace a Focus Estate, and I got the opportunity to drive it when she asked me to take it out, just to check all was OK and to help charge the battery after it has been sat in her garage not moving further than trips of the shops and back  for months in that post-Covid period when people were still nervous about going out. It was a glorious spring day when I did drive it, so I took advantage of the blue skies to grab some photos and stayed out for a little longer than just a “quick run up the road and back” so can present some findings.

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Ford offered the B-Max with a wide range of petrol and diesel engines. Entry point was a 90 bhp 1.4 litre petrol, though the 100 and 125 bhp 1.0 Ecoboost engines were rather more popular, not surprisingly and there was also a choice of a couple of 1.5 litre TDCi diesels. My mother needs an automatic, so had to search for a while to find this car when she was looking to replace her Focus Estate. The automatic transmission was not that popular an option on the B-Max. It was only available with the tried and tested 1.6 litre petrol engine, which was not offered with the manual box as Ford used some of their newer engines for these cars instead. In the B-Max, the 1.6 litre Duratec engine generates 105 bhp. Coupled to the Powershift 6 speed gearbox, this version of the B-Max is best described as brisk rather than rapid, but then fast is not really what the target market for this car would have been after. The transmission is generally smooth, though I found that there were times when, at or around some of the prevailing speed limits, it would change down and then almost immediately change back up again. My mother had indeed mentioned this and wondered if there was something wrong with the car, but I was able to assure her that whilst perhaps a little irritating, this was how it was intended to be. Once underway the B-Max is generally quiet and pleasingly refined. If you want to get the best out of it, you can get the car to hold onto the gears at which point it does become quite a bit noisier. Although not high on my mother’s list of priorities, the B Max does display most of the other driving characteristics that make any recent Ford one of the best cars in their class to drive. The steering is particularly good, with lots of feel and just the right amount of weighting, so you really do know what the front wheels are doing. Handling is also pretty good, and there is little in the way of body roll, though of course the taller body and higher centre of gravity means that this is not quite as enjoyable a car as the Fiesta from behind the wheel, but it is still a lot better than say the equivalent Vauxhall. Ford consistently manage this without making you pay the price of an uncomfortable ride and that is the case here, too. The car came on relatively high profile 195/60 R15 wheels and it seemed to cope well with the variable road surfaces of the North Gloucestershire roads where I drove this Ford. There were no concerns with the brakes, not that I had to give them the ultimate test. There is a conventional pull-up handbrake between the seats. The combination of relatively boxy styling and a decent glass area plus some generously sized mirrors means that visibility is pretty good, even without any of the modern aids you tend to need on more recent cars. Mother’s car has rear parking sensors which came as part of the optional City Pack. A rear-view camera was also an available option, though not specified here. One quite useful child-friendly feature is an extra mirror designed so you can get a good view of what the rear seat passengers might be doing.

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The interior of the B-Max is very like that of the previous generation Fiesta. That is not necessarily a particularly good thing, as interior quality was one of the weaker attributes of that car, though what you get is perfectly acceptable and it all appears to be put together quite well. The design looks a bit old-fashioned now, with an old style radio and no sign of a touch screen. There are lot of hard plastics. There is a leather-wrapped steering wheel but it does feel rather cheap. The instrument cluster contains two large traditional dials for the speedometer and rev counter, as well as a smaller one for fuel level. They feature turquoise pointers which I rather like, and they are easy to read. There is a trip computer, and you can cycle through the data points using buttons on the steering wheel spokes. Twin column stalks operate the indicators and wipers whilst the lights function from a rotary dial on the dash. There are audio repeaters on the steering wheel spokes. The centre of the dash contains the radio unit which was designed to look like a mobile phone. That may have been vaguely trendy in 2008 when the Fiesta first arrived so endowed, but it now looks decidedly outdated, and the profusion of small buttons means it is not that easy to use. Obviously you only get a very small display screen, as this was the norm a few years ago, but it does at least have DAB radio included and you also get a CD slot, an AUX port and Bluetooth as well as six speakers for the sound itself. Below this unit are the controls for the manual air conditioning, a mixture of two large knobs and an array of rather small buttons.

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The B-Max is tall. I can vouch for that as when I tried to wash it, I could not reach much of the roof without resorting to steps, or the easier option of getting my brother (who is just over 6 foot is a few inches taller than me) to reach. That translates into a real feeling of space inside. There is a lot of headroom and the car feels roomy even though the seats are actually very similar to those you will find in a Fiesta. They are cloth upholstered and have all manual adjustment including for height. The steering column telescopes in/out as well as up/down, and so it was easy to get the driving position I wanted. Unlike a crossover, you did not sit any higher than regular car, like a Fiesta. As there are no B pillars, the seat belts are mounted on the side of the seats.

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The B-Max’s party trick is what is called the Ford Easy Access Door System which is intended to deliver what Ford claim are new levels of convenience, access and flexibility. It features conventional, hinged front doors and rear sliding doors, combined with a new body design. This integrates the traditional central pillar structure into the front and rear doors, rather than forming part of the bodyshell itself. When both front and rear doors are open there is outstanding access to the interior, with a huge, clear aperture more than 1.5m wide. This is around twice the width offered by competitors with alternative door concepts and makes it significantly easier to enter or exit the rear seats, attend to children in child seats, or load and unload shopping. There is a lot of space here for a small car, with plenty of leg room, and thanks to the tall styling, more headroom than anyone could probably need. The middle seat is slightly narrower than the other ones but will prove fine for children or those of slim build. Practicality was clearly a high priority here, as there are stowage nets on the back of the front seats and there are bottle-shaped recesses moulded into the trim alongside the seats. There is a large tailgate which opens well out of the way, and which is flush with the boot floor, making loading up an easy task. The boot itself is relatively modest, far smaller than that of the Kia Venga and Hyundai ix20, but it is a nice regular shape and there is a sizeable underfloor stowage area. The rear seats are asymmetrically split and simply drop down to create a flat load platform. The front passenger seat will fold flat as well, meaning that you can get loads as long as 2.35 metres into the car. Inside the passenger compartment there is a modestly sized glovebox, door bins and a variety of central trays in the console. There is no central armrest.

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The B-Max was initially available in three different trim levels. The Studio came with a manual five-speed transmission and the 1.4-litre 90PS Duratec engine. Standard features include: body colour bumpers, adjustable load floor in luggage compartment, adjustable driver’s seat, rake- and reach-adjustable steering wheel, fold flat front passenger seat, one hand one motion fold flat rear seats, electrically-operated door mirrors and one-touch windows, centre rear seat head restraint, remote central locking, Ford Easy Fuel capless refuelling system, low tyre pressure Deflation Detection System, Electronic Stability Programme (ESP), Emergency Brake Assist (EBA) and Intelligent protection System with front, side, knee and curtain airbags. The Zetec has a choice of three petrol and one diesel engine including the then new 1.5-litre TDCi and 1.0-litre 100 bhp EcoBoost. There is a choice of manual and automatic transmissions. All Zetec launch models included Ford SYNC at no extra cost (usually £250). The standard features on Zetec, additional to the Studio, include: 15-inch five-spoke alloy wheels, halogen headlights with LED day running lights, front fog lights, leather trimmed steering wheel and gearshift knob, interior ambient lighting, sunglasses holder, manual air conditioning, child observation mirror, heated windscreen, DAB digital radio/CD with AUX, USB connection and Bluetooth, fuel computer and Thatcham alarm. Top of the range is the Titanium which comes with a choice of three petrol engines including the 1.0-litre 125 bhp EcoBoost with stop/start and the 1.6-litre 95 bhp TDCi engine. Ford SYNC is standard. Features additional to Zetec include: driver’s and centre rear seat armrests, driver’s seat adjustable lumbar support, cruise control, electronic automatic temperature control, automatic headlights and rain-sensing wipers, heated front seats, Ford Power Start Button, front and rear carpet floor mats, Sony DAB digital radio/CD with 8 speakers as opposed to 6, 16-inch 15-spoke alloy wheels and high gloss upper and lower grille surrounds. A posher Titanium X joined in the range which had additional trim including an expansive glass sun-roof, tinted rear privacy glass and special door kick plates. Later in the model’s life, Ford added Navigator versions of some of the trim variants which, as the name suggests, added a navigation system to the car, though by all accounts it was really rather clunky to operate, using the central scroll control wheel or the steering wheel boss buttons.

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This was only a short drive, and I was not able to take the B-Max on the motorway, so my conclusions have to be seen in that light. There’s no doubting the practicality of the car, with easy access, and lots of space for people in a car with a relatively small footprint and that remains easy to place on the road and to park. The car is nicely finished, though, like all Ford products, won’t any prizes for making you feel like you have a premium product. Compared to its rivals, it drives well, though, were it me making the choice, I would not want the automatic gearbox. Not only does it rob the car of some of the sparkle, the reliability record of this gearbox is not good. My mother only does a tiny mileage, with this now 6.5 year old car only showing just over 8,000 miles, so hopefully she will not find this out the hard and costly way. Fitted with this gearbox, though, it does make the B-Max especially easy to drive, which is what she wants. Sadly, the market as a whole started to shift from cars like this to the crossover genre and Ford responded by killing off the B-Max and giving us the EcoSport instead. Of the pair, I know which I would rather have.

 

 

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