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" Democratising Technology. The motor industry loves its catch phrases and I&amp;#039;ve heard this one twice in the past week, once on the launch of the B-Max in Germany and at a future transport conference in London. The common denominator being that I was with senior Ford personnel on both occasions, so expect to hear a lot about &amp;quot;Democratising technology&amp;quot; from the men and women working for the Blue Oval.  Ford&amp;#039;s B-Max, which is based on the global B-car platform, Fiesta to you and I, is powered by the clever and powerful, three-cylinder 1-liter EcoBoost, 118 bhp engine. At a later date a 98 bhp model will be available along with an optional twin-clutch auto; there&amp;#039;s also a pair of diesels. Having spent a couple of days driving both gasoline and diesel models in southern Germany, I wouldn&amp;#039;t have thought that Ford&amp;#039;s European sales aspirations of 60,000 a year would be that difficult to achieve.  We know from past experience with the engine in the Ford Focus how good it is and it doesn&amp;#039;t fail to deliver in the B-Max either. What does come as a pleasant surprise is how fluid and dynamic the car is; tall(er) cars like this with a quite high seating position tended in the past to have floaty rides combined with body roll under cornering. Not so with the B-Max which, on admittedly paper smooth German roads, delivered an almost sporty eagerness to turn-in and grip under cornering thanks to its Torque Vectoring Control.  But what about &amp;quot;Democratising technology?&amp;quot; B-Max comes with a number of firsts for the European market, most obviously the twin sliding rear doors that interlock with the front pair to eliminate the `B&amp;#039; post. During its development, Ford used a squad of employees to observe motorists loading their cars, strapping baby seats in, etc to help create a versatile, user-friendly interior. Omitting the `B&amp;#039; posts, which could appear on larger vehicles in the future depending on weight and demand, was the most obvious result, but the flexible 60:40 split rear seats that can be folded flat with a simple &amp;quot;one-hand, one-motion&amp;quot; mechanism together with the front passenger seat which can also be folded, creating an extensive flat load floor from front to rear, suitable for loads up to 92 inches in length are other examples.  B-Max is also the first European Ford fitted with SYNC and the first in its segment to deliver Active City Stop, designed to help motorists avoid low speed collisions with stationary or slower moving traffic in front. This car is yet another example of Ford&amp;#039;s future strategy where global solutions, i.e. the platform and mechanicals, are then adapted to local solutions \u2013 expect to see a lot more of this from Ford in the future as it &amp;quot;democratises technology&amp;quot;.        Related posts:  Ford B-Max Revealed Ford B-Max Revealed \u2013 2012 Geneva Auto Show Preview Driven: 2012 Ford Focus 5-door Hatchback Titanium  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/news/a9168/driven-2013-ford-b-max-38173/>