Category: Large MPV 
Price Range: £20,495 to £28,750
Good fun to drive, excellent 2.5 turbo engine, sporty yet practical, cheap to buy and run.
Not quite so much fun for passengers with the hard-riding, stiff suspension. Not that much rear headroom or luggage space.
Drop the kids off at school and then have a blast on the way back. But if it's sheer practicality, space and comfort you're after, you'd be better off with the Galaxy
As with the Galaxy, the S-MAX acheived the full five star rating in the EuroNCAP crash tests, with four stars for child protection and two stars for pedestrian protection.
Standard equipment includes front and side airbags, middle-row window airbags and a new driver's knee airbag, though not the third-row window airbags offered in the Galaxy, plus three-point seatbelts for all seats, front seatbelts with pre-tensioners and load limiters, and whiplash-protecting 'active' head restraints.
The airbags for the front passenger seat can be deactivated if you want to fit a child seat there (though research suggests that children of all ages are safer in the back) and Isofix child seat mounting points are optional along with a range of Isofix-compatible seats.
Options include tyre pressure monitoring, bi-xenon lights, adaptive cornering lights, adaptive cruise control (which automatically maintains a safe distance from the car in front) and Hill Launch Assist to guard against rolling backwards when hill-starting.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Ford S-MAX
wrote on 01 05 2007
wrote on 21 09 2006