USED Ford S-Max MPV (06 - )

My car

A growing family, and we needed a MPV. This car certainly fitted the bill, but have had mixed experiences. Positives are - drives great, comfortable, good driving position, fun (as MPVs go) and has a solid feel and build quality. Negatives, needed a new battery (not sure what happened but there was a power drain according to the AA), new stearing column, new front windscreen and a lubed up gearbox. This was all fixed by the dealer at no cost to me which was great so I can't moan. We previously owned VWs and had no issues with any of them.

My car

I took delivery of this car a couple of weeks ago as a replacement for a 2004 Volvo XC90, which was a great car but increasing fuel cost and road tax bands meant it was time to change!! However, with an active family of six, as well as wanting style and luxury feel and driving entertainment (the one short fall of the Volvo) it was a tall order!!

So having seen a few of these on the road I decided to give it a try so having gone to our local dealer, Inchcape ford in Guildford and found them rude and unhelpful we went further a-field to Dagenham motors in Thames-Ditton, where service was much improved, even getting the exact model to test drive!! Then it came to the spec....we went mad, DVD system in the back, glass roof, sat nav, elec seats, 18" alloys, alcantara seats, electronic parking brake...the list goes on and......£33,000!!!!! It was nearly the end of me, i thought we were saving money by moving from the Volvo....so home again, down trodden that we can't get the spec i want, but after some browsing on the internet i found i could get the spec we wanted for just over £25,000 from "drive the deal" that’s over £7,000 saving!!!!

So....the car, well it's superb...drives and handles fantastically, sporty yet smooth ride, great looks, great practicality and much easier to manoeuvre than our old Volvo!!!

My only concern is the quality of some plastics around the interior, not sure if they'll hold out al well as those in the Volvo did, but time will tell!!

My car

Only borrowed but on the shopping list. Superb ergonics and space, nice light materials a world away from the 'black hole' experience of some smaller saloons

My car

I have had mixed experiences with this car. For a kiddy bus it's nice to drive and looks good, the engine is reasonably refined, frugal and yet powerful enough to easily haul a full passenger load and their baggage across France. The layout is flexible and comfortable. On the downside, unlike other Fords I've owned (MkII Mondeo, MkI Focus) it does seem to suffer from build quality problems - though I do have an early 2006 model so things may have improved. My local dealer is Marshall's of Cambridge and on the whole they have been excellent. They are not the cheapest in town, but they do seem to care about the customer. In response to Anthony Rees's comments, I too had start and stalling problems. Marshall's replaced the throttle body and everything since has been fine.