Business Car Manager road test verdict

Time was when the realisation that a car had been built in Romania would send discriminating West European buyers running for cover. There are no such fears for the B-Max , due to emerge from Ford’s now state-of-the-art Craiova factory at a full production rate of 100,000 a year.

Ford’s claims to a ‘premium’ feel  for the innovative little people-carrier stand fairly close scrutiny, despite the occasional hint of B-sector cost-saving in the feel of some of the interior trim.

There are a few other minor niggles – rearward vision is pretty terrible and the optional rear-view camera almost a ‘must’, for example. And the front seat squabs s are on the small side, giving a slight feeling of being perched on the B-Max’s high driving position rather than securely held. But the B-Max’s inspired multi-functionality, its capacious, high-roofed interior, unrivalled access and lusty EcoBoost engines – subjectively, far more impressive even than the ultra-frugal 1.6 TDCi diesel – stand to win it a wide circle of friends.

As will its unexpectedly supple ride, which is much more pliant than the Fiesta on which it is based, to crack on with your business mleage. Combine these attributes with precise steering and sporting cornering capability and the B-Max should appeal to business and private user alike.

Ford may well be under-estimating, or simply being excessively modest about, the size of the B-Max’s potential UK market. Had it also found a way of engineering in the Meriva’s principal party trick, that sliding row of rear seats, the B-Max would sweep all before it. It has probably done enough to do so, anyway.

Ford B-Max – the low down