2018 Ford C-Max Reviews

Ford Australia senior management has taken a swipe at the controversial Toyota Prado boot saga. Speaking at the launch of the new Ford Everest Tremor, Ford Australia marketing boss, Ambrose Henderson, has made it clear he believes his company’s product offers better luggage space than its arch-rival.While the Prado has a theoretical advantage, measuring 906-litres compared to the Everest’s 898L, Toyota didn’t design the third row seats to fold flat into the floor, so added a plastic riser box on the seven-seat Prado GXL, VX and Kakadu variants. The result is a higher load height and question marks over its usability from critics and would-be buyers.The Everest was the best-selling large SUV in Australia in 2024 but the arrival of a new-generation Prado should create an intense fight for that honour in 2025. But if Ford is worried, Henderson is not showing it.“You know, we're here to run our own race,” Henderson said. “And we're really confident in the range that we've put forward and the value proposition that that presents to customers as well. Really top of mind for us on everything we do is delivering for customers what they want and what they're telling us and making no compromise on that. And our strong belief is we've done that and that's why we got the results that we did last year.“The that you speak of is a formidable competitor. And you know, they've had a very long run of having wonderful products in these spaces. But, I think when you compare our products back-to-back, you can see where we've made strategic decisions not to compromise, and others may have compromised items that are very important to customers in these segments.”Henderson continued and made an unsubtle swipe at Toyota’s boot design for the Prado.“As an example, being able to fit your luggage in the boot,” he said. “So, you know, there are really important things that we will not compromise when we deliver our products.”He added: “When we deliver our products, it's about delivering what customers want and not compromising on that.”However, Toyota may have the last laugh if the January sales data is a trend for the year. In the first month of 2025 the Prado out-sold the Everest 2847 to 1679 - more than 1100 units.As we’ve previously reported, Toyota is confident in the packaging and presentation of the Prado, with customer interest remaining high. "The order bank for the new Prado remains very healthy and we are delighted with the level of customer acceptance for the new vehicle," a Toyota Australia spokesperson told CarsGuide in November.

Ford has trademarked ‘Mach 4’ in the US, suggesting a four-door Mustang could be on the way.

The federal government’s new emissions regulations have claimed their first victims. Ford has confirmed it will discontinue the two-wheel-drive Everest Ambiente and Everest Sport variants, which are the two most affordable versions.

One of Nissan’s oldest nameplates, Pathfinder, may not be long for Australia as we know it, as legislative changes here and abroad determine the car’s future.But the potential replacement looming for our market to better take on the big-selling Ford Everest, Toyota Kluger, Hyundai Santa Fe and Kia Sorento in the big three-row SUV segment might be the knockout blow Nissan sorely needs against such tough competition.According to Nissan Oceania Vice President and Managing Director, Andrew Humberstone, the main stumbling block with the existing Pathfinder is around maintaining profitability and competitiveness in the face of looming tariffs in the United States.“Pathfinding is an interesting one because… of what's going to happen with tariffs, the whole Trump effect,” he told CarsGuide.“So where does that leave us, and how do we manage that?”Like its closest competitor, the Kluger (or Highlander, as it is known in North America), the past two generations of Pathfinder have been sourced from the US.That works in the Nissan’s favour post-tariff implementation, but the three-row SUV uses components from Japan, Mexico, China and elsewhere, meaning it is subject to potentially punitive taxes, that in turn makes the vehicle more expensive for Nissan Australia to import.And affordability has been the current model’s biggest bugbear with consumers.With the consistent low volume the Pathfinder delivers, Humberstone believes that the Pathfinder business case as it currently stands may not work moving forward.Last year, Nissan only managed to register 523 units, which represented a 63 per cent decline over 2023’s results of 1400 sales. The latter is still around a third of what the series used to manage a decade ago in Australia.Why? The Pathfinder was severely hamstrung by the unavailability of the base ST and mid-grade ST-L versions that the existing R53 series launched with here in late 2022.This meant that the cheapest version, the Ti, started from over $70,000, instead of under $55,000, where the entry-level alternatives, including Kluger, the Santa Fe and Sorento, commence.“We have opted to streamline the Pathfinder line-up due to unavoidable supply constraints and ongoing disruption in the global production environment,” a company spokesperson said at the time.This situation was only partly rectified mid-year with the return of the ST-L, which currently kicks off from $59,945 before on-road costs, meaning that the old ST remains AWOL.Additionally, the Pathfinder only offers an albeit magnificent V6 petrol engine. This competes against the far-more economical, now hybrid-only Kluger and Santa Fe HEV hybrid, that costs similar money to and less respectively than the ST-L, further eroding the Nissan’s appeal.In fact, with the NVES kicking in from January 1 this year, federal government-mandated fines in the future seem certain for the Pathfinder if things don’t change. Currently it emits an average of 245 grams per kilometre of carbon dioxide, against this year’s 141g/km standard – and the latter figure will fall annually.So, what about the alternatives?The strongest contender currently must surely be the current series’ Chinese fraternal twin, unveiled at the 2023 Auto Shanghai show, built by partner Dongfeng and also badged Pathfinder.In one stroke, this restyled and reengineered version with a sleek fresh look inside and out (while still boasting the same, big dimensions) would address the US R53’s biggest drawbacks – expensive sourcing and a thirsty powertrain, since it instead uses Nissan’s KR20DDET 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine.Producing 185kW of power and 386Nm of torque in Dongfeng spec and driving either the front or all four wheels via a nine-speed torque-converter automatic, in China the combined average fuel consumption figure is 8.6L/100km. That’s nearly 2.0L/100km less than what’s in Australian models today.Note, however, that the latter is also set to replace the V6 in the US Pathfinder soon, so we may see the four-pot turbo arrive in the existing shape in the not-too-distant future.Of course, other contenders may also follow, but these loom largest for Australia right now.According to Humberstone, Nissan has vowed to be more reactive and proactive with future models, giving consumers what they want whilst striving to deliver industry-best aftersales care, to win back buyers.“We need to be very agile in this kind of global economic situation,” he added.To that end, replacing established models with more cost-effective (read: cheaper) solutions from China is not out of the question.“We have a broad range of opportunities, between joint ventures with Chinese manufacturers, between product all over the world,” Humberstone explained.“What we're dealing with at the moment is: what is best for the market today and serves our purpose today, where we have critical mass that works for, number one, the consumer, number two the dealer network and, number three, for us.“Let's see if there's opportunity.”Watch this space.

Think buying the biggest, baddest ute or SUV will keep you safe in a crash? Think again.New research from the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which performs a similar role to the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) in Australia, shows a bigger car does not necessarily translate to it being the safest.The research was conducted in the US, which is a country that knows a thing or two about super-sized vehicles. The IIHS examined crashes involving two vehicles that involved either SUVs or pick-up trucks over a roughly 10 year period to examine fatality rates. The vehicles also had to be between one and four years old at the time of the accident to present a proper like-for-like crash comparison.It found if your car was lighter than the fleet average there was an increased risk of a fatal accident, but no matter how much heavier than the average your vehicle was than the average it posed very little benefit, according to the data.The average weight for a  vehicle in the US is about 2270kg, which is about the same as thef the average dual-cab ute such as the Toyota HiLux or Ford Ranger.The research found the heavier vehicle the more danger it posed to others in a crash. For every roughly 225kg above the fleet average the rate of fatalities dropped by only one per million registered vehicles, while increasing the fatality rate of the other vehicle by seven.“For American drivers, the conventional wisdom is that if bigger is safer, even bigger must be safer still,” IIHS President David Harkey said. “These results show that isn’t true today. Not for people in other cars. And — this is important — not for the occupants of the large vehicles themselves.”Australian vehicles are on average smaller than those in America, but that is changing as a new wave of super-sized vehicles are gaining traction Down Under.Aussies now have the choice of four different US-style pick-up trucks: the Ram 1500, Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-150 and Toyota Tundra.The GMC Yukon, which is bigger than any SUV currently on sale, arrives later this year.Each generation of vehicle generally grows in every direction, slowly bringing up the fleet average.The head of ANCAP Carla Hoorweg told CarsGuide last year it had concerns about the proliferation of giant utes on our roads.“We’ve definitely got concerns. There are a lot of community concerns we are fielding,” said Hoorweg.“We’re looking at vehicles that are being designed for the US market, they’re not necessarily going to have a focus on pedestrian protection or vulnerable road user protection, that’s not a focus in those regulations. So we know there’s going to be a gap there.”“We are considering what our options are around physical testing, so there’s potential for pedestrian impact testing,” she said.This test involves firing adult and child head forms and leg forms at the bonnet, windscreen, front bumper of a vehicle to determine how well it can physically protect pedestrians from serious head, pelvis and leg injury.ANCAP’s new focus comes as its US equivalent, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), plans to crackdown on large pick-ups, SUVs and vans after pedestrian fatalities rose by 57 per cent between 2013 and 2022.

The most economical car argument is still a valid one, despite the fact that oil prices have stabilised around the world.

More crucial powertrain details for the incoming Ford Ranger plug-in hybrid have been revealed.

Utes are Australia’s most popular type of vehicle, but which models offer the best resale value when the time comes to selling them? CarsGuide’s analytics team crunched the numbers so that we could bring you this exclusive report. 

Ford needs to find out how Chinese battery makers produce such outstanding batteries and then become better at it for the company’s survival, the company’s global boss said recently.

Who says a giant ship can’t be turned around quickly?