FORD S-MAX 2.0 TDCi Titanium 5dr (2006)

Small outside, huge inside. Very efficient. Some mechanical problems.

Got the S-Max when our third arrived. Haven't been that disappointed. The main plus is the sheer size inside. Having three full sized seats in the back was a big plus as our elder two are quite big now, getting bigger every day I can hardly keep up, so having space between them and the baby is handy.

The boot is really big, loving that about it. Or you can have the two seats open out into the boot space. That more or less does away with the boot (although you can still get a couple of smallish suitcases back there). We had a wedding about 100 miles away and had my parents and the baby in the back and the two elder kids behind them, and it seemed fine. No complaints at least. My dad even dropped off for most of the trip. I reckon those seats are probably only useful for kids mind. The legroom and head room seem pretty restrictive. But the middle row of seats can all be slid backwards and forwards individually, so that can help a bit with leg room at least for those on the third row.

The heated seats are a big bonus, really feels fancy. Parking sensors also make it feel just a generation ahead of my previous car. I mean it is really just point and click parking, too easy almost, feels like cheating. These things are probably pretty standard nowadays but it impressed me. We had the option of a fridge in ours too! Or a coolbox or something. We didn't go for it but it sounded cool (geddit??) There's loads and loads of storage space inside as well, little spaces to store things. Even underneath the seats there are spaces for things. That's no good for thing you might need whilst driving, but for stuff like tools it's a handy space. The real party trick though is when you make all the seats just...... completely disappear! They fold away completely so it becomes a small van. That is awesome, really makes light work of moving big things around. I've had a sofa in there before, a double bed ones (in bits), and took a load of old junk from a shed clearout all in one go. That's a great feature.

There's aeroplane style flip down tables in the back, the kids love those. We almost got the little TVs that fit in the back of the headrests for the kids to watch as we drive, but decided against it in the end.

Some things let it down a bit. The paintwork is a bit shoddy in places, but that might just be my one, you never know. It's had a few faults which seem pretty daft. The alarm failed apparently because the alarm computer or whatever it is sits just by the wheel arch, so it's obviously going to get water in it - duh!

To drive it's ok. It's a bit dead sometimes, but always feels like it's in control. To be honest these days I'm just more interested in it keeping my kids safe than tearing the road up, but if I did want that then I'd probably be looking elsewhere. On the plus side the petrol use is amazingly low. The servicing is also a lot cheaper than more expensive makes.