Ford B-MAX: final report

So the B-MAX goes back to Ford this week, minus a fully functioning door mirror on the driver’s side (see previous update). After three months with me, it’s now got more than 5,200 miles on the clock and has seen every kind of action. There have been plenty of motorway blasts, but also lots of low-speed around-town mileage. The 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine has been genuinely impressive in all environments. It doesn’t sound, feel or perform like something so small. The only downside, as with most new cars these days, is getting anything like the official combined fuel economy is almost impossible. I consider myself to be a pretty economical driver – I’ve done the eco-motoring courses and put the theory into practice. But I’ve reset the average several times and each time it settles around the 40mpg mark, no matter how I drive it. Ford’s figure is a somewhat unrealistic 55mpg. More on the car’s practicality later in the week.