Facelifted C-Max: the lowdown
It’s facelift time for Ford’s C-Max, three years after it was launched. And the look is in keeping with the newly anointed European Car of the Year, the S-Max. So there’s a new bonnet with more sculpture, funkier headlamps and a new grille with lashings of chrome. The new lower bumper adds extra muscle, with a pronounced chin, hexagonal radiator grille and new vertical driving lamps. The message is new Fords with flair, as the company’s new kinetic design language is rolled out across the range, and sober designs such as the Fiesta, Fusion and current Focus replaced.
Other tweaks
There’s similar cosmetic surgery at the rear, with revised lamp graphics and a bumper sporting a sports car-style diffuser. Talking of sporty, the new alloy design is inspired by the Focus ST. Blue glass also makes an appearance. The revisions are purely cosmetic. Today’s engine line-up – 1.6, 1.8 and 2.0 petrols and diesels – will be carried over, when sales begin in summer 2007.
The inside story
The revamp continues inside. There’s a new instrument panel backlit in red, and a revised centre console with extra stowage and an MP3 socket. Other tweaks include new boomerang shaped door handles, a Z-shaped handbrake lever to make it more compact, better quality materials and an optional glass roof panel.