After liquidating its line of minivans a few years ago,
Ford
has decided to introduce a vehicle that caters to the demand for a
small car which can also transport a family by introducing a new
“family car” on the US in 2012.
The Grand C-Max
will be available in America in two years, although the name of the car
will most likely change before the final product hits your local Ford
dealer. The Grand C-Max has three rows of seating and sliding
minivan-style doors, but Ford does not want consumers to think of the
sporty new vehicle as a “minivan.”
“Minivans have a stigma,” says Derrick Kuzak, group vice president
of Ford’s global product development team. He prefers to call the Grand
C-Max a “people mover” with style. “We tried to provide that
functionality but with an inspirational design.”
The Grand C-Max will be the largest in Ford’s new line of C-Max
cars. The platform will be used to develop up to 10 new Ford vehicles,
and should account for 2 million in global sales volume for Ford each
year. The growing small car market in the US is making some headway,
but Ford thinks that a more minivan-like car will fill a niche that is
not currently being satisfied. It is longer to accommodate more seats
and has more trunk space for family items like a stroller, all while
avoiding the “refrigerator on wheels” look that Kuzak says plagues most
minivans.
The price of the Grand C-Max may prove to be its weakest attribute.
The C-Max goes for about $23,000 in Europe, which might be a bit too
expensive for its size in the U.S. market, says Jim Hall, an analyst at
2953 Analytics. “If you shop around, you can get a full-size minivan
for under $20,000,” he says. “So they’re going to have to duke it out
if they want to do high volume.”
Photo by Ford