Another New Ford To Look Forward To.
Announcements from Ford in respect of new technology, new developments and upgraded product have become common place as the car maker continues to improve its range of vehicles.
New models, many of them industry leading have been launched and have quickly become familiar household names. S-Max and C-Max have been around a while now and we’ve all got used to them, but this time the “All-New” car sits in the category below the C-Max and inspirationally it’s called the B-Max.
Well, the B-Max isn’t just a new name, it’s a whole new approach by Ford and to do it justice, we really should be showing you a picture, but in short, its based upon the Fiesta platform but has a strange but amazing door configuration, where the front doors are hinged in the conventional way, but the two rear doors are sliding doors, “but without the need for any central pillar structure”, which effectively gives an unobstructed opening of over 1.5m wide and its called the “Easy Access Door System”
All of the doors open independently, and it works because the traditional centre pillar is integrated into the front and rear doors as opposed to forming part of the body-shell itself “trick eh?”
There are other door opening systems around, but this has been the easiest we’ve tried and for the size of the car, offers the biggest aperture making getting kids, or perhaps shopping, in and out of the car is just a breeze. For a long time, people have called for this type of system on small MPV’s and whilst Vauxhall had a go with the new Meriva, the backward opening suicide door just didn’t cut it for us and even in a straw poll of people we asked to tell us what they thought, they failed to see the benefits and frankly, simply didn’t like using it.
The B-MAX features a range of technologies which reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. These include Auto-Start-Stop, which automatically shuts down the engine when the vehicle is at idle; the Ford Eco Mode driver information system, which helps drivers adopt a more economical driving style; Gear Shift Indicator, to highlight the most efficient gear changing points; and Smart Regenerative Charging, which charges the battery at the most economical points in a journey.
A good engine line up assures that there will be a B-Max to fit the bill for most of us and petrol engines range from the three-cylinder Ford EcoBoost in both 100ps & 120ps versions, the 1.4-litre Duratec producing 90ps and a 1.6 105ps Duratec, which is mated with a PowerShift six speed transmission with dual clutch technology.
Diesel hasn’t been forgotten either as there is a choice of two diesel motors, both of which are called “Duratorq” and offer 75ps from the new 1.5-litre diesel or 95ps from the 1.6-litre and to highlight what a good thing this is, the Co2 on the 1.6 is just 104g/km whilst fuel consumption is given at 70.6mpg.
We are told that the B-Max will start in around £12,995 for a petrol engined Studio model, going up to £17,595 for the top of the range Titanium, with the top diesel versions hitting around £18,895.
So, there you have it, and whilst the B-Max is a new product in the Ford range, it kind of feels as if it were always necessary and always on the cards to arrive. The car isn’t a Fiesta on steroids, and its going to appeal to those who want a mega-practical car, but prefer a smaller car than the other “Max” offerings from Ford and I tell you what, I reckon Ford have got this one cracked and the September launch date is going to see many drivers re-think just what they need and want from a car and these pretty little cars are going to be everywhere.
One of the places the new Ford B-Max will be is with us here at BVL and as soon as we get our hands on one, we will report back letting you know just what we think of it..
