For the first time in a decade I am starting to worry about Ford’s new cars. Since it launched the Mondeo in 1993 its products have been almost unable to do any wrong. That car was the best in its class, as was the Focus that followed it, the Fiesta, the Galaxy, the Puma and two more generations of Mondeo besides.

But last year I drove the new Fiesta and thought it more competent but a lot less charming than its predecessor. Then I drove the largely pointless Fusion. I enjoyed both the Street and Sport versions of the Ka, but the Ka is the oldest model on Ford’s books, a car from the days when no Ford could be signed off for sale unless its handling made the entire board of directors smile.

This new C-Max suggests further that those days when the driving counted for as much as the ownership experience are over.

This is a deftly executed mid-sized MPV, cleverer by far than its bland looks suggest, but if you’re looking for the first car in this class to offer something truly special to the driver, your hunt will continue past the end of this page.

It feels supremely competent but is less well balanced than I had come to expect from Ford. Its steering, the critical interface between car and driver, is now good rather than the exceptional you might presume from the blue oval. Then again, you may think this scarcely matters. This is, after all, a people carrier, not a racing car. But I think it all the more important that cars such as these offer their owners something to smile about before a long journey, and its appearance — though less blobby than other MPVs — is unlikely to be one of them.

You do benefit from a smart interior and the usual multitude of bins, trays and cubby-holes, but much the same can be said of any number of other cars on the market. What you won’t find in the C-Max is extra seats. If a people mover that’s unable to move any more people than usual makes a nonsense of the entire MPV concept, the buying public seems not to have noticed. The best-selling MPV in the country, Citroën’s Picasso, offers just five seats, and Ford reckons half of its C-Max customers won’t even have children.

And this is where it’s clever. Instead of making extra seats appear from nowhere, the C-Max’s party trick is to make one of its few existing seats disappear. By pushing the centre rear seat back into the cavernous boot, you can move the two outer seats diagonally rearward and inboard, at once creating luxury limousine levels of leg and shoulder room in a car the size of a Ford Focus. This, Ford is gambling, will be of much greater use to its customers for much more of the time than installing a third row of seats that will hardly ever see a backside.

Instinctively I am with Ford on this one. Were I a parent of many I’d not want any child sitting so near the site of a rear-end accident; I would drive as large an MPV as I could afford even if it meant buying second-hand.

I expect people who already have seven-seaters will be put off the C-Max (and as the seven-seat Vauxhall Zafira is the second biggest seller, that’s a sizeable chunk of the market), because they will see it as trading down. However, they should ask themselves how often those seats are ever in use.

For in other areas the C-Max is quite impressive. Its handling won’t have you giggling in the same way as so many Fords of the recent past, but its chassis still offers a better blend of ride and response than most rivals. I drove a 1.8 litre petrol that offered distinctly modest performance (0-60mph in 10.8sec, top speed 120mph) and I’d be surprised if either of the two diesels (1.6 and 2 litres) did not prove better options when sales start in November. Certainly the car is astonishingly quiet so I’d not expect any refinement issues from Ford’s latest generation of diesels.

So having started by saying how worried I am by this car, I will end by saying the C-Max is preferable to both class bestsellers — though how its sales perform against rivals such as the VW Touran and the next-generation Renault Scénic remains to be seen.

Yet still I’m concerned, and this is why. It’s not actually called the Ford C-Max: its real name is Ford Focus C-Max. But the Focus on which it is based is not the car beloved of so many millions of drivers, but next year’s all-new model. And while it may or may not be all right for an anonymous looking mid-sized MPV to be only mildly appealing to the driver, the same should not be said of the next Ford Focus.

When the current Focus was new it was the best driver’s car in its class by a staggering margin. Five years on, it still is. It is the defining characteristic of a car that has been this country’s bestseller for every year of its existence. That is something Ford dilutes at its peril.

VITAL STATISTICS

Model Ford Focus C-Max 1.8
Engine type Four cylinders, 1798cc
Power/Torque 118bhp @ 6000rpm / 122 lb ft @ 4000rpm
Transmission Five-speed manual
Suspension (front) MacPherson struts (rear) multi-link axle
Tyres 205/50 R 17
Fuel/CO2 39.7mpg (combined), 170g/km
Acceleration 0-62mph: 10.8sec
Top speed 120mph
Price £13,000 (approx)
Verdict Thoughtfully conceived and likeable but not the driver's MPV many will have hoped for