its been a while since iv been here but i could possibly be returning to the ford ownership.

currently we have a 2004 Smart Forfour which is my pride and joy which is my 'forever car' and a 2009 Honda Civic 2.2 diesel (which replaced the problem 2005 1.6 Focus saloon we had) which is my mums car.

in the next few months we well need a 7 seater but the Galaxy and S-Max are both out of the question as they are too big for my mum to drive which brings me to 1 of 2 cars im considering, the Nissan Qashqai+2 and the Grand C-Max.

i signed up to a Qashqai forum but the welcome and advice was far from helpful and has put me off the Nissan somewhat. and the fact that the Qashqai+2 was made for about 3/4 years before being dropped, makes it hard to find one locally.

so... there are a couple of questions i want to ask about the Grand C-Max.

out of the 2 diesels that im thinking about, will the 1.6 feel under powered when it has 6 passengers or would the 2.0 be a better option? given that we have a 2.2 Civic diesel which is a phenomenal car for performance, it pulls from nothing in every gear with 5 passengers. and has anyone bought a tuning box for the 1.6 and does it feel better to drive over standard?

as my mum is disables but cant get a motability car, im also considering an auto. are there any issued with an auto i need to know about? its more her right foot thats the issue and not having to lift off to change gear may help her to a certain degree

i know both the 1.6 and 2.0 diesels have DPF's and am aware that they will need a run on the motorway every now and then, which doesnt bother me.

DPFs need to be run more than every now and then. Certainly no point getting a diesel to do the school run every day then have a blast down the motorway on a sunday afternoon.

Unless you're doing 70 mile round trips frequently then a diesel would have little benefit, especially with all these new taxes/emissions stuff rumours floating about.

That being said people carriers tend to be diesel nowadays, so finding an ecoboost one might be harder.

If your Mum is getting an auto on Motability it doesn't matter if there are any issues - likelihood is it'll be long after the 38 Month lease is up before you get any problems, and even if it does cause grief, a) your Ma ain't paying the bill, and b) if its persistent and a major problem, Motability will just chuck a new car at her.

The other think is the auto will coat your Ma £500+ extra, cash she'll never ever see again.

Mrs Tull has a Motability car, albeit the chose the dull (but actually rather good) Kia Sportage.

Jethro, my mother dearest CANT get a motability car, her disability allowance isnt at that bracket to allow a car.

only the diesels are available in auto, why i dont know... what are the petrols like. id rather have an ecoboost over an older engine, dont want to have issues like we had with our 1.6 TiVCT focus saloon. again i dont want it to feel under powered when carrying 6.

i work in wakefield so i could take it once a week to regen the DPF

Sorry, my bad.

BTW, 6 folks equates ago about 3/4 tonne of payload, plus their luggage.  When running at that sort of capacity you're going to know about it on any of the available engines.

i agree with what your saying Jethro but i dont want to feel like its struggling. i recently got 130KG worth of IKEA shelves in the back of the civic and it still pulled like a train. anyone who has had the pleasure of driving a Honda 2.2 diesel will know what im trying to say.

i also bought a set of 17" wheels and tyres for my Forfour, and had my wife and daughter in the car and again, again pulled like a train.

whats the auto box like? is it a duel clutch job?

I weigh over 120kg, so I would rather hope a Honda would manage that - Mrs T had the CRV with that engine and its fairly meaty, but I would hope even a Smart car 0.7 would manage 130kg.

6 occupants works out in the region of 750kg, a big jump from some IKEA shelving.

Yes the auto box is a dual clutch,, I think the 1.6 has the troublesome one with dry clutch bands the later version fun wet clutch bands and are more reliable but do need expensive oil changes

If i were to get a petrol i know there would be no auto option, and i know that i don’t want the old 1.6 version, id rather have the ecoboost engine.

i have noticed that there are 2 versions of the 1.6 ecoboost engine. Is there any way of telling which is the higher powered one of the 2 other than driving them? Are there no visual clues like the old 1.6 and the TiVCT 1.6?

also iv driven the 1.0 (high powered version) focus which my uncle has and love it. Does it feel just as spritly in the grand c-max or would either 1.6 ecoboosts be better?

after a long search it looks like we will be returning to the Ford ownership.

i managed to find a white, 13 plate, 2.0 diesel auto Grand C-Max, with 17,200 miles on the clock in Montrose and we will be going to pick it up this weekend.