ford s-max Road Test Reports and Car Reviews

Ford S-MAX Titanium 2006

Now at the end of the lease, 45K on the clock and time to keep or get rid... and the verdict is... get rid. I read somewhere that this has been one of Britain’s most unreliable cars, and I must say I share this experience. Blew a fuse with a cheap mobile phone charger, went to replace them... and none were fitted as spares where they should be. A handle came off a seat tilt lever, the air con defrosted into the footwell so I was paddling whilst driving, 1/3 of the quick clear elements in the window fail to work on a frosty day, but the worse of all was when I had to call out the AA when the clutch failed. Evidently the dual mass flywheel fell apart, with 40K miles on the clock. And I AM the guy who spends all his time on motorways. Cost me over £200 in clutch parts (you see clutch parts are not covered under the warranty) and yes, before you ask it was serviced religiously. So in summary, the concept of the S-MAX is great, but yet again it has been let down by poor build quality. This is my second Ford from new, the last, a Mondeo was a crock of you know what as well, with a hydraulic valve failing on the power steering and an engine core plug dropping out ! It’s about time Ford employed some Japanese expertise on reliability... and then it would be a 6 star car.