The new Ford S-Max concept has been revealed at the Frankfurt motor show today giving a hefty clue to the production version of the svelte-looking MPV that will replace the currently seven-year-old Ford S-Max next year.
Most recent Ford concepts have used variations on the Iosis naming theme, or latterly the Evos name. This latest concept uses a production car tag - suggesting the design is close to the final version, even though the concept is constructed from composites and individually scanned prototype parts.
The S-Max has always been what Ford design director Martin Smith describes as a “white space” car, one which occupies a previously unidentified market sector. “We invented the sporty MPV,” he says, “and it brought new customers to Ford – the sort of people who won't drive a Ford Galaxy or an estate car. Customers have described the current S-Max as sporting and dynamic, with a ‘dart-like’ profile, so we've set about building more of that into the next generation.
“We want to tell the world we've understood the market. It retains the distinctive shape of the rear window glass, but it has the new face of Ford and more pronounced rear shoulders.”
The S-Max has captured buyers from premium brands, with up to 70 per cent of buyers opting for the expensive Titanium trim. The new concept exploits this with a theme of 'modern luxury'.
Taking inspiration from themes at the last Milan Furniture Fair, it uses warm, dark, brown colours, metal finishes which change from matt to polished in the same components, and “remarkably expensive” silk carpeting.
The S-Max Concept majors on four sumptuous seats, with a fifth, centre-rear seat folding flat into the floor to create a walk-through cabin. It also features a Ford Sync system able to monitor the occupants' health via heart-rate and glucose sensors in the seats.
Power would come from a 1.5-litre, four-cylinder EcoBoost engine, part of a new family developed from the 1.0-litre triple.
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Nice
Looks nice!
We have an S-Max from 2007 with the 2,5T-engine in Titanium trim. Lovely car. Drives really sharply, goes like stink and its roomy and well made. We have only had one fault with it, the parking sensors went berserk. A simple software update fixed the problem.
Oh, and its horrible on fuel in city driving... On a motorway run i have managed to get 40mpg though.
Looking good
I think the current S-Max looks great and it, along with the Galaxy, were the best iterations of Ford's Kinetic design language, looking clean, crisp and ageing well, unlike the Mondeo, Fiesta and Focus.
This new S-Max looks even better in my eyes and although clearly an evolution of Kinetic design, like the forthcoming Mondeo and current Kuga are, it looks the best of the bunch and is better suited to the new grille (perhaps because it's balanced out better against the bigger body). If the next Fiesta and Focus are going to follow suit with this new look, that's great news as the current models and their spin offs look fussy, awkward and have not aged well.
Boring
Ford needs to stop using this grille. Too Aston Martin like. Ok it works brilliantly on the fiesta but for the new mondeo? I'm not sure. This should be the S-max facelift, then replace the car in a couple of years or so.