Faults:

A lot, mostly wear and tear. Seemed to go through brake discs and pads like crazy. Heavy on tyres also. Mechanic checked alignment and suspension, could not find cause, and I drove carefully.

ABS sensors, oil leaks, coolant leaks.

Poor interior and exterior quality - paint was peeling here there and everywhere at only five years old. Inside the dash had cracks. Plastics broke.

A/C died. Electric mirrors failed.

General Comments:

Can't fault the Focus C-MAX for comfort and space, but everything else was... terrible.

2.0 petrol automatic is not exactly fast and barely gets 33 mpg. Insurance was OK, but some repairs were expensive. Not a cheap vehicle to run.

Very spacious as mentioned. Interior comfortable, good visibility all round. Ghia model had electric everything.

But it was a poor MPV, there are better. The car just had such a cheap nasty feel about it and I was glad when I sold it. Honestly no better than my previous Kia!

Faults:

Lots, but mostly wear and tear expected of age and mileage. Need brakes, suspension parts, exhaust, and so on. I kept the car serviced and looked after best as I could.

Alternator and battery failed.

Interior is very worn, but it was family used. Air con is dead. Alarm developed a fault and the auto electrician recommended I just disconnect it and not bother fixing.

Exterior is showing signs of rust, but it is over 15 years old now.

General Comments:

The Focus C-Max has a spacious comfortable interior, and is not bad to drive, but these are about this car's only positive features. The rest is just typical of an MPV from the time period - dull, average at best reliability, and nothing memorable.

The 1.6 engine had poor performance and economy, really struggled for 40 mpg. High 30's mpg is more likely with heavy traffic. Reliable enough if serviced on time however, and I have heard it is more reliable than the diesel engines in this car at the time.

Zetec spec is mid range, had plenty of electronic equipment and nice alloy wheels.

Hard to say much more, and hard to recommend, it is what it is, just a dull family vehicle. My previous Zafira was similar. These MPV's are only worth checking out if you have a large family and need a spacious interior; they are not much good at anything else. As it is starting to rust I will be getting rid of it soon, it will start failing MOT's. For what I paid for it 5 years ago it has been decent though, I understand they do not last forever.

Faults:

I've noticed of late, that on my C Max the idle rpm appears steady on the tacho gauge, yet on listening to engine, it sounds like the timing is out?

And there's an occasional loss of power when the air con is on, mainly in the lower gears.

Anyone else had or having this?

General Comments:

Apart from the above, and having a new set of gear linkages fitted, all seems well.

Faults:

Nothing so far.

General Comments:

I was a little worried about buying the car after reading poor comments here and elsewhere, but so far my concerns have not been justified.

I bought the car new via an on-line broker and saved 37% off the list price!!! The car was driven to my home (which accounts for the first 220 miles) and a very thorough and professional handover was completed, after which I paid the balance for the car and took it for a ride, dropping the driver off at the local railway station.

I have had the car for a little over a month and it now has 2,150 mile on the clock, most of which are motorway miles. I have been impressed with the motorway performance, where the engine feels perfectly at home. Indeed I have been quite surprised with the performance, as being the 90ps TDCi, I expected it to be weak in this area. It is, however, not a flying machine, and it lacks the punch of powerful diesel engines such as the 2.0 TDCi which I recently hired in Spain. I suspect that if you were to load the car up more than I do, the lack of power would become more evident.

So far the economy has fallen a little short of the manufacturer's claims, and I have been averaging around 52mpg. From previous experience this will improve as the engine settles in, though I do not envisage it achieving the claimed 58.9 on the combined cycle, especially when my motoring returns to the A roads, which I spend most of my time on.

I find the car reasonably comfortable, though my retired father has commented that the seats are too hard. The only other negative is that the housing around the gear lever extends into the space where my knee naturally falls when cruising on the motorway. The car is spacious enough for 4 plus luggage, but I would not like to use it for more than that.

So far I have not had any reliability problems, which is more than I can say for my Mini One Convertible, which is reported on elsewhere in these pages. I am aware that things can change, but my experience is that even the best manufacturers can make a lemon every now and again: it is just that some do it more frequently than others. I think that this time I have bought a good one.