2006 Ford S-MAX reviews

Ford S-MAX Titanium 2006

They say you should never be the first to get a new model car..........they use the first year to sort out all the problems. I wish I had listened, sometimes, but overall this has been a great experience for me. The marketing was aimed square at me, 42 and 3 young kids starting world war three across the back seats of my older model Honda Accord. Time for more than 5 seats, so I could put one seat between them. Ford wanted to build a MPV that appeals to a driver, and in this respect it should have 6 stars. I tested the Toyota Avensis verso, 7 seats , 2 small ones and a CRACKING new diesel Engine, but the road noise from the tyres was horrendous. The Mazda 7 was too small and under powered. Second choice for me would have been the Honda FRV with its funky 3 across in the front, but tiny rear boot. I test drove the 1.8TDci (thought this was great ! and bought the 2.0 Tdci titanium. This car drives REALLY well for a 7 seater. The torque available is huge, a rolling start coming up to traffic lights and it will equal a 2.0 Petrol no problem. The suspension is great, you can throw it around a roundabout and have some real fun. OK, it is not a sports car, but it is good for a 7 seater. My kids LOVE the back seats, they are full sized and the car has good all round visability. THe Titanium spec has cruise, an in dash 6 CD player, front and back park sensors, auto wipers, twin climate control. I added the panoramic glass sunroof as MPVs can be very dark places. It is actually two large glass roofs, each with a blind, and they make an enormous difference on a lovely sunny day. Well worth it. 90% of the time I use this to motorway burn solo and get 40 mpg at 70 to a bit more than 70.;-) Why not 5 stars ? Well the build quality let it down initailly. One seat handle came off in my 6 year olds hand, it leaked water into the footwell when the A/c defrosted, there were no spare fuses where there should be some after I blew the cigarette lighter. It has all been fixed now and it hasbeen fault free 9 months. So Good things.....the drive, style, equipment, cost of ownership, size ( it is a BIG car),seat flexability, sunroofs Bad things.....teething problems in the beginning, you have to unload the boot to lower the back two seats, wife says passenger seat is hard. Get one.