Test drive Ford Focus C-Max 2003-2007 Minivan

All photos of Ford Focus C -Max 2003 - 2007

Separated by the ocean

Dodge Caliber

The five -door hatchback as a serial debuted in Detroit in 2006. In the United States, they sell an all-wheel drive version, in Europe since the spring of 2006, front-wheel drive.
Engines: in Russia gasoline 1.82.0 liters (149156 hp).
Gearboxes: 5-speed mechanical (1.8 l), an endless variator (2 l).
Complete: P0, P1, P2, for the version of SXT P1, P2.
The price of basic configurations: є17 70023 100 ($ 22 30029 100).

Volkswagen Golf
The fifth generation of the model debuted in 2003. A full -wheel drive version of 4Motion a year later. They produce three- and five-door hatchbacks with bodies.
Engines: in Russia, gasoline 1.62.0 liters (102150 hp), diesel 1.92 l (105140 hp).
Gearboxes: 5- and 6-speed mechanical, 6-speed machines.
Complete: Trendline, Comfortline, Sportline.
The price of basic configurations: $ 17 90027 300.

Ford Focus C-Max

The prototype of a five-seater mini-wen was introduced in the fall of 2002. The serial car based on the second generation Ford-Focus started in the spring of 2003.
Engines: in Russia, gasoline 1.62 l (115145 hp), diesel 1.6 liters (110 hp).
Gearboxes: 5- and 6-speed mechanical.
Complete: Ambient, Trend, Ghia.
The price of basic configurations: $ 17 95024 340.

While I went to the box office, there are already three near the Red Dodge. They go around the car with interest, try to consider the salon through glass. Of course, you can’t refuse the caliber in the original style. Thanks to the combination of a massive grille of the radiator, chopped stern and swollen wings, an already rather big car looks completely large.
The American stands out not only in the city stream. We picked up rivals for the test especially meticulously. After all, formally, the caliber slightly overgrown with the C-class model, but the cabin is clearly close to them. Road clearance like another alternate, but all -wheel drive only for Americans. A strange car was helped by readers' responses to material about the presentation of the caliber (ZR, 2006, No. 6). It was precisely those who looked at the models of C-class that were interested in the car. For a good interest, we brought border models: a three-door Volkswagen Golf and a five-seater Wen Ford Focus S-Mah.
Dodge Caliber

Looking at such a monumental car, you wait, albeit not a luxurious, but solid decoration of the salon, rich configuration. Meanwhile, the details of the light interior as if from different machines, and maybe eras. Rough plastic is too hard, sonorous on a light tapping. Under the plywood cover of the upper duffel box, black heads of screws. What car are they from? Well, clearly not from this one, where the skin is on the seats and the steering wheel.
The landing is spacious, closed. The seat is comfortable. But in order to raise the back, for some reason you need to pull it over yourself, while holding the lever on the left. A rotating pen is too expensive for a car for 22 thousand green?
Why are the buttons of turning on the air conditioner and the heating of the glass are so scanty and stuck close to the fan handle? The right steering switch is clearly overloaded.

The headlights, the foglights understand, the adjustment of the brightness of the combination of devices no matter where, but also a ring for the inclusion of ceiling in this company, in my opinion, overkill. By the way, in order to sprinkle with water on the windshield, you should not pull the handle, but push from yourself. Original, so in everything!
Do you like the current Kraisler design with powerful sidewalls and low windows? I, in principle, are also not opposed to the payment for it mediocre visibility. In the salon mirror, too, little can be seen. But the side are canceled. Side passengers on the back sofa will also be the victims of the design, if the third between them. The heads will inevitably be applied to the ceiling under a spectacularly mowed roof. However, five rarely go to such cars. In addition to group travels in caliber, the trunk does not have a small, not at all in the growth of the car.

On the go, Dodge Caliber is no less contradictory. The engine power is enough. With a calm ride, there is no need to think about how the variator works there. However, it is worth pressing the pedal on the floor of the tachometer shooter flatterly jumping on the mark of 6000, but the car, already roaring, thinks for a couple of seconds and only then rushes to overtake. You can accelerate a little faster, sorting through virtual transmissions manually. But here we need some habit: it is better not to put pressure on the floor, but to keep 30004000 rpm.
On a flat road, the caliber floats quite comfortably. True, even here sometimes you need to steal, turning the steering wheel to too noticeable corners. It is worth going to a more wavy track, Dodge even shows freight habits: it swings in all directions, the steering wheel has to work constantly. In corners, he is noticeably heated, tries to leave the trajectory. The only plus of an American high waves and grooves should not be afraid: under the graduation line 195 mm, under the engine all 210! You can go to the country without fear, only he is still not a summer resident: it is crowded for a family and a belongings. Rather, his element of the highway of the far west, where there are no intersections, do not need to go out to overtake to the oncoming or refuel the car to the trajectory after the next road wave. Paradox: just for America, the car is made all-wheel drive who are you, Mr. Dodge?
Volkswagen-golf

A yellow tidy lemon does not compete with a large five -door car? But not! Driving is not at all more closely, the entrance is no less convenient. True, the landing in the golf is quite low, in addition, you have to overcome the developed sidewall of the chair in Sportline. However, this annoys only quite fat.
Of course, climbing back is not very convenient. But taking on this work, you find that the three of them are not bad there: there is enough space for the knees, their heads do not rest on the ceiling. Still, the front chair was returning to the original. The fact that it must be adjusted again, putting passengers back, for such a well -thought -out car, is strange. But the trunk behind passengers is more spacious and convenient in shape than in Dodge.
The dynamics of 2-liter Volkswagen is beautiful. Especially if you transfer the automatic gear lever to position S (sports). Then the machine changes the transmission faster than usual and does not switch to the sixth. There is no need to go into manual mode.
The work of the suspension and steering for this class is perhaps the reference. On the slightest fluctuations in a steering wheel, the obedient German responds quickly and clearly. But you remember this pleasant feature by dashing on not too smooth roads. A very rigid suspension transfers information about each bump not only the body, but also through

portable seat to the driver. By the way, the chair provides a convenient, correct, but too strict landing. Perhaps I would not choose this for protracted travel, especially on Russian roads.
The brakes are good. Actually, all tested showed very good results on this part. But in the Volkswagen, managing slowdown is easier than on Dodge and Ford: the car responds to the pedal exactly as it expected.
At first glance, climate control of the dignity of a primitive air conditioner. But on compact cars at an outdoor temperature of about +25C in the cabin, you need to set a knowing cold of 18 degrees, otherwise it will be approximately inside, like outside. This applies to Volkswagen and Ford. Therefore, a cheaper air conditioner would have been quite suitable for me.
Still, the class, which includes Volkswagen Golf, is not in vain as before they call him a name. However, to the question whether the advantages correspond to the price exceeding the cost of many classmates, I think not everyone will answer in the affirmative.

Ford-Focus s-Mam
To understand what the compact class mini-ven is strong, we will begin to get acquainted of, of course, with the trunk. That's really the scope! And if you fold the seat airfield! The middle part of the sofa can be turned into a table or removed, and the side is extended. True, I would sacrifice a fraction of volume for the sake of a full -size spare wheel. This is not an obsessive idea. I just well imagine how much kilometers two hundred from civilization to change the wheel, which, what is good, cannot be repaired. Even if this happens once every few years, memory and respect for a normal spare time will remain for a long time.
In the back seat, it’s not bad for three, only the ceiling is low. By the way, this is an example of the fact that the established stamps, say, is high mini-van, are not always and not entirely correct. Nevertheless, Ford honestly earned an increased assessment for the transformation of the salon. The front is cozy, comfortable, even somehow at home. Good chairs, controlled from the first seconds. It's nice that the on-board computer communicates in Russian.

From such a car you expect leisurely, like bus imposing. However, s-Mahs with a 2-liter engine is a frisky and assembled, quite a passenger car. The motor allows you not to part with the gears. But turning on the transmission lower, you can make a very rapid overtaking. By the way, it is better not to call transfers the transfers is easily and clearly and clearly.
Rolling even on wavy (to put it mildly!) There are practically no roads, like rolls on corners. The designers worked on the suspension and steering to fame. The reactions to the rotation of the steering wheel are not as sleepy as Dodge, but not as sharp as the Volkswagen. Everything is right, because this focus is not a sportkup, although there is a common feature: there is very little road clearance of 120 mm under the protection of the engine for family wan!
Nevertheless, Ford focus s-Mama is perhaps the most balanced of the three experimental, a universal car. Including in terms of price.

On different shores
So still, who are you, Mr. Dodge? We never found an exhaustive answer. It is only obvious that a newcomer is a representative of another, not quite familiar world to us. The one in which, according to the wide, direct hayvems, go smoothly and measuredly, McDonald's is considered a restaurant, children's militants are ranked for serious cinema and even speak a little more, not quite English.
In my opinion, with all the differences, Volkswagen and Ford expresses much more understandable. Fans of overseas culture, lifestyle and cars, of course, have the right to disagree with this.

Sergey Kanunnikov:
Cars that do not fit into the usual framework and laws not only believed by numbers, but all the more unwritten, will never be translated and will find adherents. It is only important that the latter clearly realize the advantages and disadvantages of the former.

Dodge Caliber is an American not only by appearance, but also by character. He liking evenly, wide highways or irregularities, overcame very slowly.
General assessment 7.3
+ Expressive, original appearance, very large road clearance.
- Very mediocre visibility, small trunk, sluggish steering, tendency to build up.

Volkswagen Golf embodiment of the concept of a German car: fast, rationally, but soundly trimmed, obedient and expensive.
General assessment 8.1
+ Excellent handling, good dynamics, excellent brakes, spacious interior.
- A harsh suspension, the front seats, high price are uncomfortably shifted.

Ford Focus C-Max Balanced Family Car, equally convenient for travel and city.
General assessment 8.1
+ A cozy, convenient salon, a huge trunk, a burdened engine.
- Small Road clearance, a dock in a nonsense car.