Just occasionally, it’s okay to get excited about doors. When Mercedes-Benz launched the world’s first supercar in 1954 its doors were so swooned over that the car became known not as the 300SL, but the Gullwing. And when the doors of the first Lamborghini Countach swung forward or those of the BMW Z1 sank into its sills, so too did we get excited about doors. But on an MPV? Not until now.
So it’s okay to get excited by the doors of the Fiesta-based Ford B-Max. We thought the rear-hinged back doors of the Vauxhall Meriva were quite clever, but these are in a different league. The fronts open conventionally, the rears slide like those of a van.
But between them? Only fresh air. Half of each B-pillar is incorporated into each door, providing an unprecedented 1.5-metre-wide aperture when the doors are open and all the requisite structural integrity and side impact protection when closed. They provide access to a spacious and smart cabin with a well designed and attractive driving environment.
And this is just where the good news starts. You can see for yourself good the B-Max looks, but you’ll need to go for a test drive to see how well it rides and handles. It’s a little softer than the Fiesta to reflect its more family-orientated role in life but it’s still a sharp-steering, accurate and enjoyable car to fire down the road and comes with a clearly superior ride to the Fiesta.
It has two great engines, too: Ford’s super-frugal 96bhp 1.6 TDCi diesel motor, which gives the B-Max 70mpg potential and emissions of just 104g/km, or its all-new 118bhp 1.0-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol engine, upon whose ultra-talented head awards continue to rain. How good is it? A 1.6 Citroën C3 Picasso has the same output and returns 40.9mpg. The B-Max claims 57.7mpg.
Now, though, for those who still remember turntables, there should be the sound of a stylus being dragged across the surface of the record, for here the hitherto sweet song of the B-Max abruptly ends.
Ford has done two things to the B-Max that seriously harm its case. First is to provide the car with a conventional rear seat. It folds of course, but unlike those of its rivals, it neither slides nor reclines so you cannot trade boot space for leg room or vice versa according to what you’re carrying. In a small MPV, that’s a proper limitation.
The second problem is easier to fix. While the high-output 1.0-litre petrol and 1.6-litre diesel engines are world class, Ford has cynically only made them available on the top grade Titanium specification. To add insult to injury both the lower spec 98bhp 1.0-litre and 74bhp 1.5-litre diesel actually use more fuel than their range-topping brethren while offering performance that’s poor for the petrol model and pitiful to the tune of a 16.5sec 0-62mph time for the diesel.
If Ford made its best engines available in the Zetec spec that most customers will choose, that would leave the fixed rear seat as its only serious failing. Left as it stands most customers will quickly realise how good their B-Max is without ever realising just how outstandingly great it could have been with a little more understanding from Ford.
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