Ford Focus C-MAX LX 1.6 TDCi 109 PS Roadtest

My grandfather disappeared for a week one day in June. At least he said it felt like a week. He was driving his car in the West Country when it skidded and plunged into the undergrowth, where, 24 hours later, a farmer found him trapped behind the wheel. Grandpa always maintained that his ordeal was the result of his car being green, and therefore camouflaged from passing traffic.

The June in question was some eighty years ago, but Grandpa's off, and others like it, gave rise to a widely held belief that green cars were unlucky, simply because they were less likely to be spotted in such circumstances. This apocryphal dogma haunts the motor trade even to this day, and green cars are still shunned by many on the grounds of their being 'unlucky', without anybody knowing quite why. Well now you do.

Ford is very adept at gauging public opinion, and therefore I was quite surprised to find that the C-MAX test car was sprayed all over in something called 'Honour Green'. Also surprising was the fact that it came bundled with CVT transmission, hitherto not one of the motor industry's most endearing inventions.

Since DAF first introduced Constant Velocity Transmission on its Daffodil back in the 1950s, a number of attempts have been made by various manufacturers to revive CVT transmission, generally with little success. So when Ford announced the introduction of Durashift CVT (now meaning Continuously Variable Transmission) to its C-MAX range, I had expected the usual irritating mix of a high-revving engine and what sounds like a badly slipping clutch.

Wrong. To say that Ford's CVT is a delight to use would be an understatement. Mated to the 1.6-litre TDCi engine powering the C-MAX test car, it proved to be just about the most effective coupling of engine to wheels I think I have ever encountered - better even than Audi's impressive DSG pre-select 'box.

The seven-speed CVT transmission can be used in one of two ways: either as a fully automatic gearbox or as a sequential, semi-manual box, both with quite different but notable virtues.

Taking full advantage of the Stage lll Duratorq's impressive torque output of 240 Nm at just 1750 rpm, the automatic side of the CVT transmission reaches for the highest possible gears on all occasions. Flicking from 'D' to sequential at 30 mph, I noticed in the LCD display that the car was already in sixth gear, and despite the fact that the engine was turning over at less that 1500 rpm, as soon as I squeezed the throttle the take-up was immediate. Under heavy acceleration the 'box naturally dropped a cog or two but the transition between ratios was so smooth that I found myself using the tacho to detect the changes.

Flicking the stubby, high-mounted gear stick to the right introduces the sequential mode, and again the CVT gubbins displays virtues not commonly found on hybrid 'boxes, CVT or otherwise. Normally up- and down-changes on sequential transmissions are inhibited by the engine management system, which, for example, prevents the selection of a gear that it judges too low for the road speed. Not so the Ford CVT. If, for whatever reason, you want to drop several ratios, two or three taps on the lever will get you the gear you want, and no ifs or buts. Total control, total ease, in one neat package.

The CVT system, designed in conjunction with ZF, still uses a stepless belt system as did Daf, but there the similarity ends. Try as I might, I could not make the engine race, and not once did I detect even the faintest inkling of a clutch-slipping sound. Driven moderately, it seems for all the world as if the car has only one gear, which serves it from walking pace to the legal limit. Before we move on. it is worth noting that fourth gear is a direct-drive ratio (1:1), and those above are all overdrive ratios, with top gear being a remarkable 0.42:1.

The low engine revs and effortless flexibility of the 109 PS Duratorq engine are particularly suited to town driving, the easy driveability being to some extent enhanced by the higher-than-average seating position of the Focus-based C-MAX. If there is a downside to two-pedal motoring, CVT-style, it is in the fuel consumption. Returning 39.8 mpg on the urban cycle, the CVT C-MAX uses about 10 per cent more fuel than its stick-box equivalent. This differential virtually doubles on the extra-urban cycle, where the 57.6 mpg of the two-pedal car is more than 11 mpg adrift of its manual mate. In combined mode, the difference reduces to an exact eight miles per gallon - 49.6 and 57.6 mpg for the CVT and manual car, respectively.

Conversely, there is scarcely any difference in performance. The top speed of the 1.6 TDCi C-MAX manual is 115 mph, against the 112 mph of the CVT. The latter is slightly more sluggish off the mark but only by a split second or two, the CVT stopping the clock at 62 mph in 11.9 seconds, the manual in 11.3.

Ford is confident that the CVT model will account for about 16 per cent of all C-MAX sales in the United Kingdom. I think the company is being quite conservative. Having driven most of the C-MAX derivatives, I would make it my first choice, by a considerable margin, and I suspect anyone who tries it will agree with me.

But what about the rest of the C-MAX package? As ever, this larger-than-life Focus is good value for money. Despite being somewhat larger than the donor car, this sort-of-midi-MPV tips the scales at a reasonable £16,915. At least that's the sticker price of the car I tested, a lead-in LX model.

I suppose the principal attraction of the C-MAX, over and above the regular Focus (which continues to sell well despite being in its run-out year), is the clever rear seating. Unfortunately, the LX model lacks the full monty - five-into-four seating, which I shall explain shortly - but it does have removable rear seats, which supplement the usual tip-and-tumble arrangement. With the rear seats removed, the C-MAX will swallow up to 1692 litres of luggage, which by my reckoning is about 11 LBS, or Large Brown Suitcases. But even with all the seats in place, the C-MAX still has a huge boot, and a low loading-height, so hard-pressed mums with buggies, shopping and a crate of Vino Collapso should have no trouble in stacking everything away.

Buyers of Zetec and Ghia models get the so-called 'Rear-Seat Flexibility' system, in which the centre (20 per cent) seat slides back into the boot space enabling the two outer seats to be slid both backwards and inwards to create more leg- and shoulder-room.

The C-MAX is big on storage for large things, but the LX lacks all but the most basic storage facilities for the little things in life. There are door bins, of course, and a couple of cubby holes and cup-holders between the front seats but that's about it, except for two under-floor stowage areas beneath the rear footwells. Although great for hiding valuables, these miniature priest holes are not very convenient on the move. Nor is the wide, lidded tray atop the fascia quite as useful as the size of the lid would suggest. In fact, it's too shallow to be of much use except as a giant sandwich toaster. I made the mistake of leaving a cheese on rye in the tray on a hot summer's day and it came out looking like it had spent an afternoon in front of the fire.

Although the C-MAX, as tested, came with few frills other than obligatory air-conditioning, immobiliser and electric this and that, it does have side and curtain airbags, which reflect the car's image as a family all-rounder. And that it certainly is, in that it manages to combine the tried and tested (and reliable) virtues of one of Britain's all-time favourite cars with the space and seating versatility of a small people carrier.

In case you think that C-MAX is one of those odd, made-up names which have no meaning, I should tell you that in the mind of Ford executives, C-MAX has a very real meaning, several in fact, as Joerg Pfisterer, Ford of Europe's brand manager for medium-sized cars, explains: "The reaction to the (original) Paris concept car convinced us that the Focus C-MAX name summed up very neatly what this car is all about. 'C' indicates the car's key attributes - Comfort, Confidence, Control - while MAX is short for 'maximum', which is an expression of the levels these attributes have been targetted to deliver."

But why only five seats when most other midi-MPVs and the like go for seven? The fact that it will accommodate fewer bums does not detract from Ford's vision of the C-MAX as a multi-activity-vehicle. Apparently research reveals that most people who own a seven-seater MPV seldom use more than five seats, and many expressed reservations about having passengers in the rear-most (third) row. Hence the C-MAX, in having just five seats, is in accordance with what Ford sees as popular demand.

And with Ford's lustrous, metallic Honour Green proving just how elegant 'unlucky' cars can look, perhaps long-held superstitions will give way to popular demand of a different kind.