Ford Takes Her.ie Behind The Scenes At Their Belgium Test Centre… And It Was Pretty Eventful!

We almost felt like we were in a James Bond movie... Heading off on a bus into the heart of Belgium to make our way to Ford’s testing centre in Lommel was nothing short of an action movie moment for us. With a group of us headed to check out the new Ford C-Max, as we wove our way through the roads and were warned about the top secret nature of a lot of what we were about to see, the excitement began to build. Lommel Proving Ground, Belgium. In essence, the Ford C-Max aims to keep up with changing market trends in order to capture modern family life on the move, with durable fabrics inside and a number of eye-popping technology inclusions that captured our attention straight away. Boasting a number of pretty cool features from the Adaptive Front Lighting System to the MyKey technology, which restricts the car’s top speeds and can disable the audio system if the driver and/or passenger aren’t wearing safety belts, there was a lot to admire in the car from the off. The car has a number of safety features. But first things first, the fun kicked off with the lovely folk at the Proving Ground providing us with a pregnancy suit along with a thick and restrictive body suit, to mimic old age, in order to show us exactly how adaptive the car is for people with mobility issues getting in and out of the car. Not exactly rocking the look... From there, we were out to the testing ground where we got to try out their collision avoidance – in other words, a feature whereby the car monitors the speed at which its approaching stationary objects and pre-charges the brakes if there is a risk of collision (yes, pretty amazing, we agree) - and also, its safer parking system, to include Perpendicular Parking. We checked out the collision avoidance feature. One of our favourite features had to be the Cross Traffic Alert, which aids drivers when they are backing out of a parking space by alerting them to oncoming traffic from the sides. Couple this with their hands-free tailgate technology, which enables you to open the boot when your arms full, and we were hooked almost immediately. With all of this going on, it was easy to get distracted by the modern technology at your fingertips – of which there was plenty – but the basics of the car were there to wow too. Comfortable seats, ease in transitions, and a roomy interior all helped to make this drive even easier. It has everything you need for easy driving. Qualified Ford test-drivers then took us out on the track to put the car through its paces, from suspension tests to a number of different road conditions, temperatures and surroundings and as we made our way back to Brussels and the airport for home, it wasn’t easy to leave this one behind us. Our verdict? The perfect family car – two big thumbs up.