Ford S-Max Review

The S-Max has seven individual seats arranged in three rows. The middle row can independently slide back and forth and recline at the pull of a lever. There’s enough space back there for two adults, but try to carry three and you’ll find there isn’t a great deal of elbow room.

The third row is best kept for kids because an adult will find their knees pressed to their chest – the Ford Galaxy is a better bet if you need more space.

If you regularly carry very young passengers, you’ll find it’s a doddle to lift in and secure a baby seat using any of the Isofix anchor points on the middle-row.

The Ford S-Max’s front seats are comfortable and supportive in all the right areas. There’s plenty of adjustment to help you get comfortable and the steering wheel can be repositioned for height and reach to give you an unobstructed view of the instruments. 

If you do lots of long journeys, you’ll want to pay extra for the 18-way electrically adjustable seats with four-way lumbar support. Not only will this help prevent lower back pain during lengthy stints behind the wheel, but the seats themselves have been approved by the appropriately named German Campaign for Healthy Backs.

This being a family car, there are lots of small cubbies and storage areas dotted all around the cabin. There’s space for a 1.5-litre bottle in each of the front door bins and the glovebox is relatively roomy, too. There’s a pair of cupholders in the centre console and space beneath the front armrest and in a hidden cubby on top of the dashboard to tuck a few smaller items safely out of sight.

The Ford S-Max’s rear door bins aren’t quite as roomy as those in the front and the separate centre seat means you don’t get a folding armrest with any cupholders. You can, however, get some flip-up picnic trays attached to the back of the front seats, instead.

With all seven seats in place, the Ford S-Max has 285 litres of bootspace so you’ll have no trouble packing in a few suitcases or a fair-sized weekly shop. You can flip the rearmost seats down to carry longer items and fold all but the front seats away to safely store a few bikes or some giant-sized flat-pack furniture.

To help make this whole process as easy as possible, you can get the Ford S-Max with electrically folding rear seats that you operate using handy buttons by the boot opening. You can fold the S-Max’s seats down in as many as 32 different combinations, so loading some oddly shaped luggage and carrying a couple of passengers shouldn’t present any problems.

The Ford S-Max’s boot opening is wide, square and low, so it’s dead easy to slide in heavy boxes and the flat load bay means you can easily push them all the way up behind the front seats.

Presently, you can get the Ford S-Max with just two diesel engines. Both are 2.0-litre units and can be had with either a six-speed manual or an eight-speed automatic gearbox.

The entry-level 150hp 2.0-litre diesel engine is your best bet if you do a mix of town and motorway driving. It’s pretty smooth for a diesel engine, perky enough to pull you and six passengers along and returns reasonably good fuel economy, too.

If you’re planning to carry heavier loads or tow a large trailer, the more powerful 190hp 2.0-litre diesel engine is worth checking out. It’s a little thirstier than the 150hp model but requires less effort to power past slow-moving lorries when fully loaded.

Both engines can be had with either a six-speed manual gearbox or an eight-speed automatic. The standard manual is smooth and precise, so you won’t have anything to worry about in heavy traffic.

If you spend lots of time behind the wheel, however, you’ll want to try the eight-speed automatic instead. It changes gear smoothly and doesn’t jerk forward or lurch at slow speeds.

You get a good view out of the Ford S-Max thanks to its large windows and raised driving position, so it’s really easy to drive in town.

The controls are nice and light too, so your arms won’t start to tire after a particularly tricky bit of parallel parking and the Ford S-Max manages to iron out most smaller bumps reasonably well. That said, the VW Sharan is more comfortable to drive over rough road surfaces.

Head out of town, and you’ll find the Ford S-Max’s stiffer suspension helps it cope with tight corners with less body lean than you get in many MPVs – handy if your passengers are prone to feeling a little car sick.

The Ford S-Max is also reasonably quiet at motorway speeds and you can get models with an automatic gearbox fitted with adaptive cruise control to help take the sting out of very long drives.

Automatic emergency braking is also standard, which applies the brakes automatically if the car senses an obstacle in the road ahead.