The C-MAX has always been a bit of a wet-flannel in the stylish Ford range, its shape and detailing heralding from the original Edge design of the Mk1 Ford Focus. If you wanted a car to shout ‘family man’ (i.e. I have no choice!) then this was it – in fact the only other car in the Ford range with less street-cred than the C-Max was the Fusion, itself an MPV version of the Fiesta.

So to rescue the dedicated family man form the dullness of MPV life, Ford is launching the new C-MAX taking design cues from the stunning iosis MAX concept car unveiled at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, and following on from the already successful Kuga SUV.

So, Ford have now moved the C-MAX on to it’s ‘kinetic design’ styling language introducing a dynamic and dare we say desirable profile with coupe-like lines and yet still retaining all the comfort, space and practicality of the car it replaces.

Ford is using the term MAV (Multi-activity Vehicle), perhaps to distance the C-Max from the uncool MPV crowd, but if it drives anything like its S-MAX and Kuga siblings then it won’t need a new acronym to distance it from its competitors.

The new C-MAX will introduce a host of new technologies to the Ford range, including an all-new 1.6-litre Ford EcoBoost direct injection petrol engine and other advanced features to enhance convenience and safety such as semi-automatic parallel parking and a blind-spot detection system.

The C-MAX will be launched during the second half of 2010, but more details will be forthcoming when it is unveiled at Frankfurt on September 15th.

c-max ford kinetic design kuga s-max