GENEVA — Like a mirror held up to Europe’s economic and political woes, the Ford B-Max is a fine example of the cars automakers have planned for the continent. Look beyond the wishful thinking about electric cars, the lust-inducing craziness of supercars and the stupendously outrageous SUVs headed for China and you see cars like the B-Max are Europe’s reality in 2012.
The car, which made its official debut here at the Geneva Motor Show, may be new but not shockingly so, as you'd expect from a company projected to lose some $600 million in Europe this year, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. It’s a surprisingly practical mini-minivan (a microvan!) based on the subcompact Ford Fiesta, with a pair of sliding doors like an urban version of the late, great Subaru Sumo.
The realities of Europe are further illustrated by the fact manufacturing will be handled by Automobile Craiova, which became Ford’s Eastern European subsidiary in 2008 after three turbulent decades under Romanian, French and Korean ownership. This is how Europeans outsource: Expensive Western European plants are increasingly running under capacity as work is transferred to factories in Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.
But enough about the economics. On to the specs. Because the B-Max is a car you’ll actually be able to buy this year, it has a turbocharged engine as opposed to batteries, fuel cells and fairy dust. Ford’s 1.0-liter three-cylinder turbo EcoBoost is a compact, clever unit not unlike what we saw in the Sumo. Ford says it's good for 118 horsepower and 57.6 mpg on the European cycle. This being Europe, there are of course two diesels to choose from as well, along with a smaller, or larger, gasoline engine.
No less cool is the body, which does not have a B-pillar. The front doors latch at the floor pan and header, while the sliding rear doors latch to the floor and the slider. Open them together and you've got a gargantuan opening a full 60 inches wide. Impressive, given the B-Max is a hair less than 165 inches long.
Weird as it may sound, the B-Max is rather like the Toyota GT 86 and Subaru BRZ: A 1980s idea that has been refined, improved and built more cheaply and efficiently. In that regard, it's a reality check for the industry: We can dream of hydrogen-powered, hyper-connected glass bubbles whisking us to a cleaner, greener future, but cars like the B-Max are what we'll actually see on the road.
