Ford Grand C-Max at 2009 Frankfurt motor show

By Tim Pollard

First Official Pictures

15 September 2009 09:00

Ford showed off the seven-seat Grand C-Max at the 2009 Frankfurt motor show - marking the first time the Blue Oval has nudged into the territory hogged by Renault (Grand Scenic) and Vauxhall (Zafira).

The new Ford Grand C-Max has sliding doors, another first for the Blue Oval in this segment, to help passengers climbing into the two rows of rear seats. No more excuses for dinged door panels in car parks!

You got it. You’ve already read about the standard five-seat, conventionally hinged new 2010 C-Max – and the Grand carries on where that left off. The Max-C-Max apes the Galaxy in its boxier profile, where the Mini-C-Max chimes with the sportier S-Max. That’s the idea, anyway.

So the wheelbase on the Grand C-Max is stretched to accommodate that third row of seats. And here’s another clever bit: the middle pew of the middle row folds away under the outboard pair, so you can walk through to the back row without having to fold and clamber around. It also means you can drive around in 2+2+2 format, or you can fold all five rear pews flat as a pancake.

Like the basic C-Max, the Grand premieres Ford’s new downsized tech, so there’s a suite of smaller engines breathed upon by turbochargers, direct injection and variable valve timing to trim CO2 and mpg by around 20% while boosting performance.

Not all the tech is public yet, but we know that one of the engines is a 1.6 four-cylinder built in Bridgend, Wales. It’ll be available in outputs from 148-178bhp, while bigger Fords will come with 2.0-litre Ecoboost motors.

‘Like the 2009 iosis MAX concept car, the two C-MAX models bring more emotive, dynamic design to the MAV segment,’ said Martin Smith, Ford of Europe’s executive design director. ‘We believe we have created two distinctive vehicles which customers will choose for the way they look and drive, and not just because they are practical and versatile.’

By Tim Pollard