Ford C-MAX, Grand C-MAX and Focus extended test drives review thread

[AnnMumsnet]

This thread is for the 15 Mumsnetters who are reviewing over the next couple of months the all new C-MAX, Grand C-Max and Focus cars from Ford. Each tester and their family will have the car for three weeks and will also be making a video review - look out for these on site soon. All the cars being reviewed feature "Active Park Assist" and Ford recently asked former MP Ann Widdecombe to put this feature to the test - .

Here are the review questions - don't feel you have to answer them straight away - some of them will make more sense once you've had the car for a week or so. We'd like you to give us your initial thoughts, first impressions - both from you and the rest of the family - and then add feedback at least twice a week for the next three weeks until the car is collected - though please feel free to give more regular updates if you'd like to, and don't feel you have to stick to the questions too rigidly - they are just a guide.

Thanks for volunteering. Safe driving.

Here are the questions - please do state the model of car you're testing (first up was the C-MAX tests)

What were you/your partner's first impressions of the car?
What do the children think of it?
Do the children fit comfortably in it?
How easy is it to fit car seats/ adjust seats etc
What's it like to drive?
Is it a comfortable ride?
What's the boot space like?
Does it have any useful extras - cup holders etc?

There are various features of the 3 cars - let us know what you think of these ones in particular:

C-MAX
~ Five flexible seats
~ Power operated tailgate
~ Active Park Assist
Grand C-MAX
~ Seven flexible seats
~ Power operated tailgate
~ Sliding doors
~ Active Park Assist
Focus
~ Active City Stop
~ Active Park Assist
~ Lane Keeping Aid
~ Traffic Sign Recognition

So far is it economical to run?
How does it cope with different road conditions eg town, country, motorway
What do your friends/ family think of it?
Has testing this car made you more or less likely to buy a Ford?
Has testing this car changed your perception of Ford cars at all?
What one thing do you like best about it?
What one thing would you change about it ?
Please add any other comments and don't forget your video diaries!

Any queries please email [email protected]

Thanks again,

MNHQ

toomuchmonthatendofthemoney - they should be sending one
Ford are very keen you try the park assist functions on the cars...don't worry if they don't have the lane assist or sign recognition but try the parking one (and film it!) (see Ann Widdecombe link in OP) thanks!

Hi again,

thought i would add a few more thoughts. Had Phoebe for 2 weeks now and can i say she really feels like "my" car now, and our old Skoda feels very heavy, slow and outdated!!

Ok found the manual in its clever little hidey hole and we definitely do NOT have the Lane Keeping Aid on our Focus as there is no doo-da on the end of the stalk and no picture for it as shown. So sorry can't report on that!!

Good points: am LOVING the city stop. its such a brilliant idea to save on fuel, emissions and also resting my legs!! what i am most impressed about is how quickly it restarts when you just touch the clutch, - especially cos its a diesel for me (still remember old diesels that you could start up, go and make a cup of tea, walk the dog, hang out the washing, come back and it would be nearly ready to go ).

speaking of the clutch, when i first sat in the car, i thought the clutch was set very "deep" and that i would get tired of pressing the pedal down to the floor to change gear, but actually it engages at only about halfway down so it doesn't take much pressure at all.

am much more used to all the buttons now and love the cruise control. Just being able to flick the back paddle to get it to go back up to the pre-set speed is ace!! (pretend racing driver emoticon).

I also really like the fact that the sat nav also appears on the screen in front of the driver, (where the trip computer screen is, directly behind the steering wheel) so you don't have to look over at the central console screen to do a quick check while driving. Nice touch.

The only hassle we had was when dh went to fill up, he thought it was very difficult to insert the pump fully (not an euphemism) - and yes, i checked he was using the diesel one not the petrol. i will try it later this week and give my verdict.

so, one week to go and so far very positive from us, am really loving the experience of driving this car.

More comments from me after nearly two weeks driving.

Things I am loving:
The speed limiter! Fab! on the school run when I am late again stressed and rushing I find it quite easy to go too fast. The speed limiter means that even if I am a bit distracted (kids fighting, ooh look digger etc) I can't go more than 30. Super! The fuel efficiency is better too as I am not constantly accelerating and decelerating to keep to the limit.

The anti-stall device - magic! Slow traffic - crawling behind the car in front, take your foot off and it just crawls along. How good is that?!!

Cruise - like TooMuch said above - racing-driver-esque as the car whizzes up to the set limit like a rocket.

Lights on when doors open - good for dusky nights.

Wing mirrors in - can see at a glance that I DID lock the car!

Parking magic thingie - I did a test in anger on the school run on a tight road with no passing places and a mad queue behind me. Now, I can reverse park with NO trouble, I lived on a terraced street for years. But you know how it is in stress and a small space and you're not sure of the car ... recipe for a 1000 point reversing Fiasco... well this just zipped into the space, a quick forward and back and WAPP it was in!!! No stress, no queue of impatient 4x4s behind me and kids astounded at the magic car (yes still!).

Things I don't like:

The bloody radio!!! Can't really get any station I want on the DAB without plodding through an intemindable list of every sodding thing it can find. Bloody impossible to tune to a particular station. Grrrr - I was looking forwards to 6Music in the car and have just ended up frustrated!!

The voice activated controls - which look and sound fabulously space age .... Don't sodding work unless the radio console is on. So what's the point??? If I have to reach across to turn the radio on and then battle with a stupid computer who doesn't understand my mildly regional accent - I might as well just reach across and press the aircon button or the CD button. It is Sooooo much quicker to do it myself.

And again ... the bloody f-ing stupid radio. It skips back - about 1-2 seconds worth every 5 minutes or so. Not so noticable listening to music but if you are listening to speech radio and you are listening to speech radio and you notice that the presenter keeps repeating themselves. First time makes you a bit but the second time is irritating and the second time is irritating and the third time you get a bit time you get a bit and then when, right at the end of the program, it catches up all these skips in one go and completely misses off the concluding sentences in a discussion or play you have been following ... then
.
.
.
.
[see what I did there?]
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... it makes me fuming!

But overall I am really enjoying driving the Focus and will be sad to give it back.

Oh and I have found the biting point now (after it has moved off) and we can ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Up to the pre-set speed limit of course

By the way - do we have to give it back full of diesel or just as it is on the day?

Did you know that while the Ford C-Max is a lovely car. Likely dealing with any kind of Ford dealership will bring you to tears of frustration and several hundred if not thousands of pounds poorer by not honouring their warranties/selling you a faulty car dishonestly/lying to you. Oh, and they are sexist.

but, i guess the reverse parking sensor helps alleviate all that. As long as it works properly!

OMG ..... have you all seen the clips ...... on competitions

Waves at famed aristo

well, i waved goodbye to Phoebe the Freebie this afternoon after 3 weeks and i was very sad to see her go!!

Final thoughts? mostly very positive, we have had lots of fun, done over 1200 miles in the 3 weeks at an average of around 50mpg across all conditions so i think thats pretty good for a 1.6 diesel.

Things i love:
Very comfortable, smooth, quiet ride with light steering and great handling esp on country road corners and great gearbox with chunky changes (hate squidgy gears when you are not sure if you are in gear or not).
Good visibility, love the large wing mirrors and the feeling of being "higher" with a great view out the front.
City Stop - brilliant idea which works really well in practice
Active Park Assist - once you get over the wierdness, it becomes addictive and i kept trying to find smaller and smaller spaces to test it obv if you are great at parallel parking anyway it won't matter much, but it takes the strain out of trying to park on a busy road with White Van Man twitching behind you.
Keyless entry and ignition - brilliant. Love being able to walk up to the car with bags and its ready to open. Like the pushstart button too, all adds to the modern feel that is complimented by the look of the console and handbrake - very modern and funky.
All the little touches that are cool: cupholders in the pull down central armrest in the back, the glasses holder in the roof, the nice chunky indicators with a pleasant ticktock sound, nice chunky handles to pull the boot back down, being able to choose different "climate control" temps for the driver and passenger - that made me and DH laugh as i always want the car hotter and he wants it cooler!

me again, posted in case i lost internet connection.

right, those above were the things i love about the Focus. in general, my feelings about the car have been very positive but there are a few, minor, quibbles to report:

my main quibble would be that it is a little slow to take off in 1 or 2nd gear, takes a bit more foot to the floor than i would have thought and i have stalled it twice. However, in 3/4 gears it positively zooms so is great for overtaking at those speeds and the 5/6 gears give a really comfortable ride for longer distances.

it has a surprisingly large turning circle for a car of this size, it hasn't made it round in some spaces that i know our Skoda can do.

the satnav controls are not the simplest in the world, sometimes it seems counter-intuitive to what i would expect from a user interface, i'm sure this could be simplified.

i'm still ambivalent about the "privacy glass" (window tint). in one way, its nice that people can't stare in at my child in the back, but i found a few times, esp driving at dusk/night, that i felt my rear view wasn't as sharp and defined as i would like for safety.

finally, the boot size was fine for us, we have one 5 year old child, so no buggy/pram etc, but if you had younger + children, i would def recommend a model with a bigger boot!

SO! would i buy it??? well, the Ford site seems to show the brand new Focus Titanium starting price is £18,750. However, some of the "best bits" have to be paid for ON TOP of this:
the city pack (the "parking pilot" rear sensors and the foldy mirrors) is another £ 275.
the appearance pack (the privacy glass and the keyless entry) is £ 525!!
which to me is a real shame if i was already spending 18k+ !!

so, if i won £20k in the lottery this weekend, oh yes, i have loved driving this car and had lots of fun with it, much more than i thought i would have in a Ford (my image was of rather bland, dull, functional cars) but if i was spending my own hard-earned? well it would be in the top 3!!

overall, its been great fun, a wonderful experience and i would like to thank Ford and Mumsnet for that!

So my lovely car goes back tomorrow (sob sob) and I think I am glad I won't be here to say goodbye. Please can I do, let's say a 6 month extended test drive just to really check it's ok?!!

Econimical - def more than our 2 at the mo, we are averaging about 33 mpg, so think that is ok.

Road conditions - all fine, been up and down the motorway a lot last week and it was fine, cruised along quite happily at 80 70mph! Good acceleration all through the gears and as said before, zippy for a 1.6

Buy a Ford? - think dh has been quite impressed with it, so if we were buyin we would def consider one. I love the Kuga, so would very happily have one of those. However we put the price of the one we drove at around 18k and apparantly we can't pay in buttons, so not this year.

Best - overall the styling, like the aggressive look and I liked the non people carrier styling of the focus

Friends and family - all suitably impressed with it

Change? - a few quibbles, boot very heavy, rear washer not easy to use and dh thinks the window controls on the driver door aren't positioned well for him.

Overall - love it. Would but if had the money

car gone now:(

took my old car out today and really noticed how uncomfortable it was compared to the focus! and i kept reaching for gadgets that weren't there

really liked the six gears, seems weird to go back to 5, i would also definitely buy one of these for the following:

comfort/parking pilot/auto park/auto stop/the hill start assist/tinited windows and mirrors.

dp loved the boot as it was high up but i thought it was a little heavy, also the struts went on my old ford and i know how heavy that was! though i guess people would fix it before i got a chance.

really liked the speed limiter, useful in average speed check areas

i would have liked it for another week as i have some time off and could take it further afield than i had a chance to, so would say summer would probably be a better time to test as more people are off! was on my own alot as kids were at school, though my friend helped me out with one of two video sequences.

thanks for the fun anyhow, i would buy one if it were a little cheaper maybe!

Ooh just seen the video in Competitions! I'm definitely the most common sounding of all of us! am I the only one trying to work out who everyone is?

Oh, MNHQ, when do we get our JL vouchers for doing the video? DH has been going on at me to ask for weeks!

Final thoughts on the Focus Experience.
Things we loved : Active city stop ? should be in every car on the planet! I miss it in own car now and am trying to remember to turn the car off at long wait traffic lights.
The anti-stall/hill-start was super! Loved that when manoeuvring round a tricky car park on a really steep hill.
Auto Parking thingie ? great ? very easy to use. I can parallel park no problem but this took the stress out on the busy school with tiny spaces and impatient drivers.
Speed limiter ? especially when I was in a rush. Meant I couldn?t accidentally be speeding and the fuel consumption was much better using it.
Didn?t understand the 6th gear but apparently that?s a diesel thing with changing up gears quicker than petrol cars. Was super on the motorway ? and a very smooth drive.
Space inside ? there was loads of space! It seemed very spacious inside considering it didn?t look that big on the outside. Boot space was average ? not quite enough for a family holiday but okay for family day trips and big shops etc.
Climate controls ? I worked them out and they were actually easy to use once I was used to them (initially I found them tricky ? see above) but at the end thought they were great. Especially the super demist/defrost button ? and the heated windscreen. I neeeeeeeed these controls!
Tucked away windscreen wipers ? couldn?t see them except when they were on and loved their ?hurrah? arms in the air action. (no problem with our back wiper).
The driving position was very comfortable and it was only on getting back in my car that I realised how high I had been sitting ? with really good visibility.
Steering was comfortable and the all-round visibility was excellent ? no real blindspots.
I liked the mirrors turning in when it was locked. Meant at a glance you can see if you locked the car!
I didn?t notice the darkened glass very much. I quite liked the dimmed rear view at night though as it cut down on glare ? especially on the motorway.
Loved the keyless start ? it?s SUCH a drag having to put the keys in the ignition (back in the real world). But I do think having no key hole in the car is asking for trouble as the car gets older or if the battery runs out in the middle of nowhere!

Downsides:
Seatbelt for carseat ? DD is in a highback booster using an ordinary booster. It was quite tricky to find the seatbelt attachment for her seat and I was constantly pulling her seat towards the door to find the clip and to manage to do it up.
Doors ? really heavy. Too heavy to open one handed in a parking space. I needed to yank the door open and then stop it hitting anything around it (like other car doors). Quite tricky whilst holding a wriggling child in the other hand!
Vroom ? it just didn?t have the oomph when pulling off. Once it was going it zoomed but the initial take-off was slow and I was constantly surprised at how sluggish it was then.
Radio ? grrrrr ? couldn?t tune the DAB even after a week. Either low signal or a plodding non-user friendly tuning method meant I didn?t get to listen to 6music in the car
I mentioned above the skipping in the radio driving u me insane.
Voice activated anything ? complete waste of time. It didn?t work with the radio off anyway. Then didn?t recognise my voice (except when filming to demonstrate this ? grrrr). So using voice activation took about a minute instead of a reach and press.
Huge wheels ? looked a bit naff and the tyres cost a fortune. Turning circle (because of these?) really large.

Overall - we really enjoyed driving the Focus and loved most of the gadgets.
Would we buy one? Well, if we were in the market for a new car (probably never) we would consider one. Would definitely consider a second hand one.

Thank you for the experience!

One big gripe about the test drive experience - Ford didn't contact me to say when they were collecting the car until 4pm the day before. And that was only an email - saying it had to be collected between 10am- noon the next morning!

I was out that night and probably wouldn't have checked my email until the next morning - so it was a complete fluke that I saw the message in time.

As a working mum I then had to arrange how to do a school run, nursery drop AND get to work and hand over a car (without the car seats in it) the next morning. Not impressed at their communication really. It was almost as though their attitude was you've had your time hand it over NOW!

Ah ... my concern over entirely keyless cars is justified in the news

MNHQ is there an estimated date when the Focus video diary will be ready to see?

i've been looking out for the Focus diary too!! (very nosey, also hoping i backed up 3 weeks of filming ok!)

Hi - we are still editing it - should be maybe next week - I'll pop a link on here when it's up! And the vouchers had gone out I think - I will chase yours.

what are they like ann?

can you chase my vouchers too?

Thanks MNHQ. I've not had any vouchers either. Though not sure if I should (is this for doing the vid?).

Missing the parking sensors and cruise control and speed limitere on the FF now

Hi - just to let you know the Focus vouchers are going out today (sorry I thought they'd already gone out). Best, Ann

thanks Ann !

Wow that was quick! Vouchers arrived today. Many thanks Ford and MN - that was unexpected.

I just came home to discover JL vouchers courtesy of Ford - that has completely made my week! Thank you so, so much! (I had no idea at all that I was getting any)