Bucket Seat: Ford B-Max - First Impressions

We're expanding our brands of motoring and now welcome the American brand Ford to our pages. As you know by now I was invited by Ford last week to the their Go Further exhibition last week in Sandton, it was a showcase on what the next year held for the company in terms of strengthening their brand in Africa with various partnerships and initiatives as well as releasing new models to the market, one of which being the B-Max which I got to drive the next day as part of the official launch of the vehicle. 

Ford say that the B-Max falls in a unique segment known as the "B-Mav" with the only car that could be called a competitor being the Toyota Avanza. In theory I think both cars serve a different purpose and whilst the Avanza might be seen as a cheaper alternate to most MPV's, the B-Max has that sense of luxury to it. The design is nothing out of the ordinary from Ford with it borrowing style lines from the Fiesta and Kuga. The key talking point about this car is no doubt the door system with conventional swing doors at the front and sliding doors for the rear passenger and eliminating the need for a B Pillar. Ford say that safety has not been comprised as a mixture of high strength and mild strength steel reinforcing has been built into the doors, helping the car achieve a 5 star N Cap rating. 

Now one of the main reasons for the doors being like this is to allow easy entry and exit to the cabin through a 1,5m wide unobstructed opening as well as help load bulky packages into the car but it is flawed in a way seeing that the back seats cannot slide back with only the option of moving the front seats forward. That being said with the 60/40 seating layout, both the rear seats of the car and the front passenger seat can be folded down to increase loading capacity for objects as long as 2.34m. That is impressive to say the least, that kind of thing will come handy to us guys on the coasts who own surfboards and kayaks. 

The car is an everyday lifestyle vehicle and after the short presentation it was time to find out what it was like on the busy roads of Johannesburg. The organisers were kind enough to wait till traffic died down before sending us on our route which was roughly 100km. There are 3 models in the B-Max all of which come with their award winning 1.0 EcoBoost Engine, which I might add coped well with the demands of the car. It's a sizable vehicle but when power was required, there was no sense of lag and having to down change the manual gear box. The ride is solid and while there was no place to test the handling of the car, one feels you wouldn't really need to. 

On the inside, the interior is very comfy and very driver friendly, all models come with Fords SYNC systems which connects to your smart phone via Bluetooth relatively pain free and you can do it while the vehicle is in motion. Yes, I know this could be seen as a safety hazard but often when cruising around at 20km at a parking lot, this would come handy having not being forced to pull over to the side and connect. Once connected you can view you phone book contacts and music files on the tiny screen that's provided in the dash, still can't fathom why they sticking with a screen that most smart phones are bigger than now. Hopefully this will change in time to come. 

Overall the car is a decent buy, its well priced too with it starting at R221,000.00 for the entry level Ambiente to R271,000.00 for the range topping Titanim. The car will be sold with a 4 year / 120,000km comprehensive warranty with a 60,000km service plan. It's the perfect lifestyle vehicle offering the buyer the flexibility for whatever use they may need it for, it's something different and should be a great option for small families. The B-Max is only available with a manual gear box for now with plans to bring down an automatic gearbox later on should their be a demand.

Bucket Seat: Ford Go Further Africa

This past Tuesday I was part of many local motoring journalists that attended the Ford "Go Further" conference which was held in Sandton at the International Convention Centre. For those who aren't familiar with what it is all about, well it's Ford's very own showcase of what they have in store for the upcoming year in terms of new models, projected figures, past year figures and have a party. Basically it's their very own motor show. Besides the local media, there was international media, local and other dealers from Sub Sarahan Africa as well as key clients of the company in attendance. So you can only imagine the magnitude of something like this. 

The conference kicked off with an exhibition with some of the current models in the Ford fleet, with passenger cars like the Fiesta, Fusion, Focus and the commercial line up as well. Guests had time to have an up close look at these vehicles while having a light lunch before moving onto the main exhibition hall where the main event was being held. 

The show kicked off with Ford's CEO for Sub Saharan Africa, Jeff Nemeth addressing the thousands in attendance about the past year in figures for the company, and then highlighting the way forward for Ford RSA and Africa as a whole. At last years Go Further event it was announced that Ford would release 17 new models over 2 years and so far 11 of those have been brought to the market, the following 6 were due to be unveiled at this years event which left many eager with anticipation over what they could be. 

First up in the small passenger segment was the Ford Figo, a well priced small hatch which now comes in sedan form as well. Lot of characteristics are form the current fiesta with the same stylish interior and front headlights baring a slight resemblance as well. Moving up a segment to the next release was Ford's all new B-Max who's launch coincided with the Go Further Expo, I will be doing a separate review of this vehicle on the blog soon. 

Next up was the big boys, Ford's past Everest model wasn't the best looking product from their stable but in terms of sales it didn't do too badly but couldn't compete with the ever popular models in the same segment from other manufacturers, however with the new look Everest baring the same design style of the new Ford Ranger, this one is looking mighty fine and can see it coming in as a strong contention to rival those from the east who seem to have dominated the SUV market over the years. 

Ford's Ranger has been a sensation in SA, it was the highest selling vehicle in SA at the beginning of the year, yes, vehicle not bakkie. Ford have built over 250,000 of them in South Africa and are planning on expanding operations outside the borders with a new plant being planned for Nigeria. South Africa will still play a pivotal role in supplying the plant with panels for the vehicles and thus will see more job creation in the SA market by the company. The new spec Ford Ranger was unveiled which see's the entire front and cabin being upgraded, making the van look more masculine with a bigger grille, square head lights and bulkier look. It's sure to break more record sales for a van when released. 

It was then time to see what Ford's Performance range had to offer, the big one last year was news that the Mustang was finally considered for the SA market with the product due to hit our shores before December, all orders have officially been open around the country but no indication of pricing yet which seems strange? This year it was announced that Ford will also be bringing down the topless version of the car as well. Having a chance to see the car up close, it really is an impressive machine and if priced well, will do very well in South Africa given not only it's incredible heritage but also the look and feel of the car. 

Like all major shows, it has to end with a bang and that was adequately brought by Ford's all new Focus RS. The hot hatch which is powered by Ford's 2.3 ltr EcoBoost engine produced 257kW of raw power. This is the 3rd generation of the RS model and the all wheel drive car features dynamic torque vectoring for class leading cornering speed and at-limit handling as said by the company. Lots of words but for this car it's all about what it can do on the tarmac. It sounds superb and looks the part with aggressive styling and a massive rear wing. It will be available in 4 colours, one of which is exclusive to the RS and will be hitting our market early next year.