Ford's B-Max: Fiesta-based runaround that goes THUNK

... when you close the slidey doors, that is ...

A good THUNK... but it takes a bit of brawn to close the door

However, the extra strengthening on the opening edge of the front doors makes them hefty. You get a good closing thunk, but if the car is on a slope you feel the extra weight.

All of the passenger seats fold flat, which gives huge carrying space and the big door openings mean it’s easy to get stuff in and out. Ikea’s car park beckons.

Behold, the Tardis-like qualities of the B-Max

The B-Max was shown to the world on the back of it introducing SYNC connectivity to Europe at the Mobile World Congress in 2012. Despite being a hard-core petrolhead I took the view that I was there to report about mobile phones and went to a ZTE press conference instead of the Ford one. I don’t think I missed out.

SYNC, and the whole Ford dashboard, is supposed to replicate a mobile phone. Cool, exciting and easy to use. Yes, just like a Nokia N-Gage. SYNC is now widely available on Ford models and works well once you are over the steep choc-a-block button learning curve. It certainly fails in the “easy-to-use” metric.

The car is based on the Fiesta platform so is very short and manoeuvrable, and the thought that a city car can also be a load carrier is unusual.

Heavy car, and a decidedly practical engine

The 1.0 litre ecoboost engine is less frenzied than you might think.

The practicality extends to the engine. The review car had the 1.0 Ecoboost engine. That puts out a good 125PS, and torque, with overboost of 200Nm. However, at a shade under 1,300kg it's a heavy car and with acceleration being force divided by mass that’s a 0-60 time of 11.7 seconds and an eventual top speed of 117mph.

I didn’t try to max it but suspect it would need a lot of road and more patience to do so. The five-speed gearbox is decent and the ratios good for city driving. The steering feel is very good for a car in this class, and Ford has done well not to over-assist it. However, the lock isn’t great.

The economy is good, Ford claims, and Urban MPG of 47.1, with 67.3 MPG on the extra urban cycle, and a combined MPG of 57.7.

Ultimately it’s a car which is about getting a family to places rather than enjoying the journey. Dynamically it’s unexciting, there is a bit of roll and it all feels a bit too much car-as-an-appliance. Where it excels is in the toys. Keyless go, and access, which Ford calls the “keyfree system”, so you can concentrate on herding kids rather than opening doors.

There is a massively convex mirror which gives a panoramic view of what is going on in the back seats under the moniker of a “child observation mirror”; there are lots of cup holders; cruise control; hill start assist; heated folding door mirrors; and a great, full-length, glass roof.