Ford’s first engineering prototypes for the next-generation Focus family have hit the road. This is a mule for the new C-Max snapped outside the Nurburgring in Germany.

The C-Max will be the first of the new breed of Focus models; we should see it in 2010, ahead of the hatchback’s debut later next year. So the recent Focus facelift will have to keep the range soldiering on until the newcomer arrives in the next two years.