My ’05 mk1 c-max is showing its age. Mechanically its fine but all the little bits are wearing out and breaking. Just had to replace rear brake discs and pads and the electric boot handle. Air-con needs fixing, as does folding arm-rest on the driver’s seat. Its costing a few hundred quid every time. So, wondering about replacing it.

For the most part, its used for my wife’s 40 mile round trip commute twice a week and epic (600 mile) road trips to see extended family all over the country at weekends. With 2 small but growing boys and the gumph that goes with them, we’ve wondered about a bigger car. The wife quite likes the idea of an S-max, I’d rather keep it smaller and stick the roofbox and towbar rack on when needed.

So, any suggestions? My wife is only 5′ tall so likes the high seat position of an mpv. I’d like a long and low fast estate. Whats the best compromise?

Budget: sensible. I’ll happily spend a reasonable amount but it needs to be justified to keep the wife happy.

In typical STW style, I’ll recommend what I’ve got – Grand C-Max. Smaller then an S-Max, more economical, relatively high driving position but drives like a normal car.

Other than that, Mondeo – all the room you need for a family of 4 and an excellent commuter.

^^^ What he said!

Absolutely love our Grand C-Max:

We were looking for something exactly the same as yourself but coming from an 05 normal Focus. I was keen on an S-Max but the Mrs was against it as they really are quite huge and we live in a terrace so on-street parking.

The grand CMax is only 15cm longer than our old Focus and the same width so we didn’t need to worry about parking (well no more than previously). But the real winner are the sliding rear seats and sliding rear doors. When the Mrs is driving the rear leg room is crazy big! 🙂

Then there are the other pluses, you can fix 7 in it if you ever needed to (mainly heading down the park when visiting the extended family), drives really nicely, and if you get the right options it can even parallel park itself! Damn thing doesn’t get itself out of the tiny spaces it can get itself into though which is a bugger sometimes! 😀

Yep, so really recommend it.

Sliding doors would be useful on our narrow drive. The only car similar is the Mazda 5.
Problem with the Grand C-Max is that its ugly. But I doubt there are any similar cars that aren’t. Except the new Merc B-class and that’s too pricey

Does ugly matter 🙁 I have a Roomster 🙂 chose it over a C-Max but too small for you I think.

In typical STW style, I’ll recommend what I’ve got – S-Max.

Same size as a Mondingo, so it is big rather than massive.

Just done a weeks holiday in ours. 4 adults and 2 small kids. With a top box on we got all of our gear in without having to cram the middle row of the cabin with too much stuff.

Averaged 43 mpg too with a 1.8 diesel.

Dead chuffed with it.

Yes, its no looker but not that bad. Looks better in strong colours rather than greys, so colour choice is critical I think.

According to Which?

2005 C-Max:
Length: 4372
Width: 2023
Height: 1588

Grand C-Max:
Length: 4520
Width: 2067
Height: 1684

S-Max:
Length: 4801
Width: 2154
Height: 1660

2007 Mondeo estate:
Length: 4837
Width: 2092
Height: 1512

Couple of Peugeot models might fit the bill – 308SW is probably the equivalent of the grand c-max above. For something slightly smaller I’ve just bought a 2010 207sw for all round driving / biking and family stuff.

budget?
got one of those cheap zafiras 1.8 petrol
managed to get 2 littluns, wife, myself 4 bikes, trailer, buggy and all kit for a weeks riding and holidaying up to scotland and back, without rack or roofbox
same mpg as my old mk1 focus
wife prefers driving it to the focus too- shes a similar height

value wise I couldnt see anything better

Saab 9-3 2.0 turbo! bikes and people fit in and it’s ridculous to drive with an ecu remap!

Do it properly and get a T5 🙂

So, any suggestions? My wife is only 5′ tall so likes the high seat position of an mpv. I’d like a long and low fast estate. Whats the best compromise?

Had the exact same problem. Wife is 5’3″ and wanted something with a high driving position. I wanted something quick and not MPV-like.

‘Compromise’ was a BMW 330I Touring. As the saying goes, you can’t have everything 😉

Toyota Verso? quite big inside with 7 seats for a golf sized car outside

Kia Carens (7 seater with fold down seats), Peugeot 3008 or 5008?

We had a Carens for a few months this year, really liked it and loads of room.

Yes the S-max is wider

which may or may not matter to you

My Grand Scenic is unreliable enough for me to firmly say avoid. Shame it drives well and the interior is perfect for us

Tomorrow we get it back from a repair that will cost the same as its worth. So i spent alot of time on Autotrader looking at our options

The Toyota Verso is small 7 seater but I thought it looked quite good value. Less than a Touran but in theory more reliable. Well according to this

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/

My final thought is that although I love people carriers many repairs cost more as the engine bay is harder to work on than a Estate. This is because the entrance is smaller. For example when are EGR failed they had to remove a drive shaft to get to it…

I have a hand-me-down (from my wife) current shape cmax. It is a decent car but I hate it.

I used to like it when it was hers and I only drove it on family outings. I used to have an 07 focus that was great but getting old and starting to wear out. So when she got a company car I ended up with the Thunder Bus. I feel like a mum on the school ruin the whole time.

The 1.6 diesel engine is powerful enough to get you asking and fine on the motorway with a full load but it has a hatefull power delivery. All the power is between 1750 and 2500 rpm and you have to rev it higher than you would expect to get it to pull off at any speed. I average about 47mpg which is fine and the rfl is only £30 a year which is good.

The interior is a pleasant place to sit but is bloody rattily. It is way to hard to even get one bike inside, I used to be able to get one bike in my focus from wheels on and doors locked in under 2 mins easily. It takes about 5 in the Thunder Bus. There are two bloody parcel shelves for gods sake! To get more than one bike in you need to take at least two of the back seats out and stand the bikes up. Yes the seats come out easily but where are you going to put them? And the two bloody parcel shelves?

I say get an estate. Maybe a focus estate if you like driving and going round corners fast. Have a look at the focus ST estate if you don’t mind the low 30s fuel consumption. Dont look too closely as I am considering one in the new year and I quite like the second hand value where it is.

If you just want a vehicle that is a decent size and reliable the cmax is fine.

We had a ten plate petrol focus- we were lokkjng to replace and I quite fancied the cmax. We were looking at a two year old cmax so not the newest shape. I quite fancied it due to the rear seat flexibility (normal 5 seater) and the fact that we knew the boot in the new focus was slightly smaller. Got 2 young boys so a lot of gear to cart about in general never mind the big holiday drives. I quite fancied the cmax, the wife wasnt having it at all (said its a granny-mobile) so ended up with a newer focus diesel. Power band is a bit narrower and takes some getting used to but miles better mpg and pulls well although boot even smaller than we feared with a full suze spare. Think next car in a few years will be a decent sized estate or s-max..

Any experince of a vw Touran?

I know they’re a bit plain looking but i don’t see any reason they can’t be tweaked like a t5

Some alternatives,

VW Golf (or possibly estate one if you can find it) – fails the high driving position requirement
Volvo XC 60/70
Skoda Yeti (not the prettiest car)
Rav4 (I owned a 200 model it was super reliable and good on longer trips, great load carrier, it was an auto though and dull to drive and heavy on petrol)

We are on our second Grand Picasso, both have been the 2.0 ltr diesel full automatic. Its like a Tardis inside. Does every thing we want from a family car

I’d have a mondeo anyday. CMax looks like you’ve given up and the SMax looks like an airport taxi.

I cant talk, my stop gap is a Xsara Picasso. But if I was spending 2k+ it’d be a Mondy. Not a ‘Im married/a dad and my wife owns me’.

Harsh.

Hora… how can you say an Smax looks like an airport taxi ???

This is mine…….

Apart from a couple of electrical niggles which hopefully have been sorted its been a good car. It doesnt feel as big as it looks to drive!

I’d happily buy another Verso, the D4D one we had was a lovely solid motor.

But the Galaxy we have is in a different league.
Slightly thirstier, but we tow a big caravan with it so needed the weight. But its just so damn practical.

When the time comes to replace it, it will be an Smax.

Touran is a Golf underneath so if you want to ‘play’ with it with stuff like suspension and wheels its dead easy. They aren’t the most exciting things on the road but they are very well put together. The standard ones (S spec) are stupidly basic though. On the flip side, things like sat nav are just RNS510s usually so dead easy to retrofit.

The rear leg room wasn’t great in the Touran which is why we went for the C-Max.

Considered a Volvo XC60? The D5 diesel has some welly, big roomy boot and looks good too.