Ford B-Max Is the Latest Deceased Minivan - When Sliding Doors Die, Angels Cry

It’s a question parents don’t ask often enough: are is our children learning?

More commonly queried: why not are our doors all is sliding? Furthermore, why is minivans are not mini?

Ford gave it a five-year whirl, slapping sliding doors on the side of the Fiesta-based B-Max. But according to a report in Romania’s Automarket, production of the Romanian-built B-Max ends this fall.

Are is our automakers learning?

Taking over from the B-Max at Ford Motor Company’s assembly plant in Craiova, Romania, will be the — you guessed it — Ford EcoSport. Ford will increase the size of the Romanian workforce in order to meet anticipated demand for the EcoSport, demand that never fully developed for the B-Max MPV.

You’ll recall that while America’s Ford EcoSports will hail from Ford’s Chennai, India facility, it’s appearing increasingly likely that the EcoSport will be called upon not only to fill a void at the bottom of Ford’s U.S. utility vehicle lineup, but also to replace the Fiesta. Yes, that Fiesta. The one on which the B-Max is based.

Through the end of 2016, roughly 225,000 copies of the B-Max had been sold in Europe during a period in which Ford sold 1.5 million Fiestas. Meanwhile, European sales of the Nissan Juke, were more than twice as strong as sales of the B-Max.

Perhaps pricier than potential customers could tolerate — the Fiesta-based B-Max was priced like a mid-grade Focus — the B-Max was nevertheless highly regarded by critics. “In normal driving the vanlet feels much like a regular small car—even a sporty one, especially when equipped with the aforementioned 1.0-liter three,” Car And Driver wrote in 2012. Top Gear said the B-Max, “could actually be the smartest, most intelligent supermini-MPV this sector has yet seen.” AutoCar gave the B-Max 4.5 out of 5 stars.

But to what extent was the B-Max a total misstep by the Blue Oval? Prior to the B-Max, Ford’s previous Fiesta produced an offshoot known (oddly) as the Fusion. It seemed silly and contrived in 2002, but that Fusion’s recipe — tall subcompact with boxy SUV-like styling and no all-wheel drive — now appears ahead of its time.

The innovative Ford B-Max, on the other hand, was a decade or two late to the MPV party. No matter how good it was or is or could be, this is not what the people want.

[H/T AutoVerdict]