Two buses. One black, one red
For a long time there has been talk of a new A-Team movie. Rumour has it a number of stars have been considered to play the famous soldiers of fortune, including Jim Carey for 'Howling Mad' Murdock and Mel Gibson as Hannibal.
Who knows whether the film will ever be made but if they need something to replace the biggest star of the show, the A-Team van, I'd like to suggest the PH S-Max. I’ve been at PH a month now and have just managed to bag the keys for the S-Max, which can be tricky as Garlick and RacingPete seem to love it. Keen to find out what all the fuss is about I took the big Ford home on my normal route of dual-carriageway, urban crawl and back road.
Rolling on its fat 20” rims, with tinted windows and a bodykit it has all the brutish presence of a black GMC van with a big red stripe and bull-bar. The only thing that would have made this MPV feel tougher would have been to have a tooled-up BA, Face, Murdoch and Hannibal in there with me. But whereas the A-Team’s stead of choice made lots of noise but never really seemed to go that fast, this big old bus really shifts. The growly 2.5 turbo really gives the S-Max some shove from the lights and the whole thing feels rather surreal.
Curbing wheels was a constant worry
You sit up high like in any MPV but the whole experience feels more like a giant hot hatch, it certainly doesn’t feel top-heavy, instead chunky and planted to the road. The handling is flat and grip is decent, although mid-corner pot holes can be an issue. Unfortunately the steam-roller tyres don’t do much to help ride quality or tram-lining. For this reason I was left puzzled as to whether I should leave it in ‘Sport’ mode (which inevitably it was left in when I got it) or hit ‘Comfort’ and have a wallowy but softer time.
The idea of comfort is certainly reflected in the cabin. There are all the toys – heated seats, sat nav, Bluetooth phone and more – and the whole thing is very well finished. You feel cocooned inside the S-Max, merrily rolling down the street, squashing smaller cars as you go. As I climbed out of this behemoth, glancing at the DVD monitors in the back, I couldn’t help thinking it had managed to cover all bases.
Now, I wonder how much Mr T will give me for it?
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