WITH facelift models of the Ford C-Max MPV on sale soon, Ford is claiming the new car is more of a corporate proposition. But how are they going about getting that across to buyers? We asked Paul Baines, C-Max Product Manager for his thoughts.

“You’ve seen the product revisions; the C-MAX looks the part and has more appeal than the outgoing car. Then there’s new technology, including touchscreen navigation and a hands-free tailgate – some of those features will attract customers anyway.”

“The other good new story for C-Max is for the powertrains, with lower CO2 for the Benefit in Kind (BIK). The price increase has been deliberately modest to keep the BIK sensible; it starts from around £62 per month. The 1.5 TDCi diesel with 120PS, plus CO2 figures of 105g/km will look good on any company car list.

“We’re also offering this engine with Powershift auto, which we didn’t have before. On the old car, you had to step up to the top-of-the-range diesel to get Powershift transmission. So drivers that need automatic transmission will find the C-MAX more accessible than before.

“For some people, the traditional C-Car, like the Focus for example, doesn’t quite offer the amount of interior space – the C-Max fills that proposition nicely, without stepping into SUV territory.”

“We’ve also got a 99g/km version coming later in the year, so this version will be specifically for fleets that have a policy of sub 100g/km and the benefits that this model will bring for BIK and VED.

“We used to do Business and Navigation Editions, but if you look across the trims we’ve got for both models, the standard equipment is geared to work for fleet customers

“Fleet customers aren’t that much different to retail customers and they have general expectations of what standard kit they want with a car. So we spec our core offering to suit these buyers.

“On a C-MAX with sat-nav, we’ve worked out that it’s worth £250 more over three-years in terms of residuals, so where it’s not standard, it’s a £250 option.”