Ford S-Max 2.5 | Shed of the Week

Can a people carrier ever qualify as rortmungous? Twenty years ago, Ford had a go...

By Tony Middlehurst / Friday, 16 January 2026 / Loading comments

Ever had déja vu, i.e. the illusion of memory? Shed gets it all the time. Turns out that there might be a medical reason for that we won’t get into here, as it’s a bit dark and we don’t want to frighten anyone. Point being, Shed’s latest episode of déja vu came earlier this week when he saw this Ford S-Max in the PH Classifieds. He was as sure as he could be that he had done a Ford S-Max in SOTW before, and recently too, but try as he might, he couldn’t find any evidence whatsoever of that.

All good though because it means Shed can now claim another SOTW debut with today’s S-Max. This midsize MPV was hailed for its style and driving characteristics when it launched in 2006 and Shed agreed with that. He really enjoyed the 2.0 TDCI diesel he ran for a year, finding it very practical with its fold-flat seats and heated windscreen and surprisingly agile for something of that size. He used it to take Mrs Shed and the family to the Alps for some skiing, only for their son Potting to be helivacced off the mountain in the first hour when his knee did a painful impression of a heron’s one.

Thwarted, Shed angrily enjoyed the Ford on the premature drive back to the UK, the simple addition of some noise-cancelling headphones drowning out Potting’s screams from the third row. He wasn’t so enamoured of the facelifted version of the 2015-on gen-two S-Max that he rented for a weekend in 2022. Something seemed to have gone wrong somewhere with the handling. Ford agreed, apparently, because they stopped making S-Maxes the following year, along with the Galaxy, which of course went on to greater fame as a chocolate bar.

Fortunately, our shed is an early (Jan ’07) gen-one. Better yet it’s the near-range topping Titanium model. And even better than that, it’s the rare and potentially rortmungous 2.5, powered by the same five-pot turbo motor as the Focus ST. In the S-Max, it warbled out 217hp at 5,000rpm and 236lb ft of torque from 1,500 to 4,800rpm, enough with the 6-speed manual box for a 0-60mph time in the low sevens and a family-petrifying top speed of 143mph if you could afford to keep putting the fuel in. It wasn’t especially light at 1.9 tonnes.

In Shed-type usage, the official combined average figure of 30mpg would quickly turn into something beginning with a 1. The sheet on Shed’s wall tells him that the UK tax rate for 224g/km’s worth of CO2 choking is £415, but it might be £430. In fact it might be anything. Shed is so fed up with himself for getting these rates wrong on an almost weekly basis that he invites you to do your own research on it.

Interestingly, or not, the nearest to the 2.5 on performance in the gen-two S-Max range was the 2.0 EcoBoost Sport auto that, despite weighing the best part of 300kg less than the 2.5, was slower than its predecessor on both 0-60 and top speed. That’s progress for ye. Or maybe it’s Shed getting it wrong again. We wouldn’t bet against the latter.

What might go wrong with a 2.5 S-Max? Well, you might suddenly find that the oil level has dropped to a dangerously low level. That can be down to solenoid seals on the VCT (variable cam timing) units leaking, often as a result of a blocked breather. Generally speaking, S-Maxes are pretty reliable. They can suffer from electrical issues, but if you can name another car that never has those Shed will come round to your house and present you with his prized collection of Razzle magazines that he’s no longer allowed to look at anyway.

Some of you will have noticed that PH Classifieds now feature an MOT readout on each car advertised. This momentous advance has cut out a large amount of Amstrad keyboard pounding for Shed, who, up to now, has had to spend most of his waking hours looking up the Government’s MOT history site for every car he researches. The only advisory on last July’s test was ‘undertray fitted’. Most would say that undertrays are a force for good, protecting the mechanicals and improving the aerodynamics, but our cynical Government still sees them as a nefarious means of hiding problems, or ‘testable components’ as they like to call them. For Shed, the phrase ‘undertray fitted’ makes about as much sense as ‘knickers fitted’. In his view, neither constitutes a problem as long as you’re prepared to persevere and you own a decent torch.

The location of the dealer will undoubtedly get some of you running for the hills, but surely we can’t blacken all cars from this town with the same brush? Or can we? Feel free to have a go.

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