Ford Puma | Independent Car Review | Vanarama.com

You might just remember the original Ford Puma, but you won't remember it like this. The much-loved original Puma was a little coupe made around the turn of the century, but cars like that just don't sell anymore. This model line has rejuvenated itself as what Ford calls an SUV-inspired crossover. Like the original Puma, it's based on Fiesta engineering, and it's primarily powered by the mild hybrid one-liter EcoBoost petrol engine that the Blue Oval brand has also earmarked for that supermini. Dynamic changes over the Fiesta include retuned suspension, bigger shock absorbers, and a wider track, all of which should build on the Fiesta's enviably dynamic feel to ensure that this car handles a little more sharply than recently launched direct-class competitors like Nissan's Duke, Volkswagen's T-Cross, and Renault's Captur. You might have gathered from this description that this car, launched in late 2019, is a very different thing from Ford's original attempt at a Fiesta-based small SUV, the largely unloved EcoSport, launched in 2014 and updated three years later. That car wasn't really designed for Europe, but this one very differently is, aiming to demonstrate what the Blue Oval brand can really do when it takes this important segment seriously. It's good-looking, efficient, and spacious by class standards, with loads of clever interior touches too, and if it can deliver on its dynamic promises, you might just have here pretty much everything you'd want a small SUV to be. Is that what the Puma serves up? Time to find out. Now, before we drove the old Ford EcoSport, we would've argued that it'd be tough to create a dynamic duffer using the brand's Fiesta underpinnings. Unfortunately for its bottom line, Ford proved us wrong, but they were determined not to make the same mistake again here. Right from the off in this Puma, the signs are good. Most small crossovers in this class are about as rewarding to drive as a weekend spent creosoting your mother-in-law's fence, but this one immediately feels eager, accurate, and poised. You want to drive it, not just to be seen in it. Hybrid engines aren't new to this class. Toyota's been offering one in the CH-R since 2017, but they add what for many buyers is an unacceptably large price premium to cars of this kind. The cheapest, most basic CH-R does, after all, cost well over 26,000 pounds. What if a more affordable approach into hybrid tech could be delivered that would be lighter, cheaper, and more driver-orientated, though? Well, Ford says that its MHEV mild hybrid tech does just that. Now, true, it's nothing like as efficient as a full hybrid, a plug-in hybrid, or a fully electrified model. You'll find all three technologies represented right across this segment, so make sure you know what you're buying, but in compensation, MHEV tech boosts driver feel because it's lighter and it adds a slice of extra pulling power just when you need it. Now, at this point, we're compelled to revert to what the shampoo adverts call the science bit, so feel free to glaze over for a minute or two if all you really care about is the way that this car looks. Simplicity is the keynote here, so the one-litre, three-cylinder EcoBoost petrol power plant that this car primarily features is essentially the same one that Ford's been offering since 2011, more recently enhanced with cylinder deactivation technology, which cuts down on cylinder use at low to medium throttle speeds. For this Puma, though, this unit gets a lower compression ratio and a larger turbo, and it's been embellished by a beefed-up starter generator driven by a belt at the front of the engine. Now, that stores the energy that's harvested when you brake or decelerate in a tiny 48-volt lithium-ion battery secreted at the back of the car. Now, that provides a bit of extra zip when you accelerate. Ford says up to 50 newton-metres of extra torque, and it delivers a little electric boost from low revs to torque fill while you're waiting for the turbo to spool up. So that little momentary hesitation that you sometimes get with small turbo engines when you're pulling away from roundabouts and from junctions is dealt with too. All good then, if it works. Broadly speaking, it does. A few potential Puma customers will have the ordinary version of this engine to benchmark against on their test drive, but those already familiar with it would perhaps notice that in this form this unit pulls more easily from almost any speed with fewer gear changes needed, which makes it feel like a much larger capacity power plant. There's a pleasingly fizzy, thrummy soundtrack under full throttle, and you certainly wouldn't think the little EcoBoost lump beneath the bonnet ahead of you had just three cylinders and a litreage capacity that's not very much different to that of a good bottle of Burgundy, especially in its most potent form, which delivers 155 PS, which spirits you to 62 miles an hour in nine seconds flat and maxes out at 124 MPH. Here we're trying the lesser 125 PS version of that power plant that most Puma buyers will probably settle for. The performance of which, to be frank, feels a little different. The official figures are 9.8 seconds and 119 MPH. Bottom line is then that the engine's sweet spot on the range is probably the 125 PS MHEV one litre unit we're trying today, and to get this car at its best you want to hit the same perfect point with the wheel and suspension package you choose. Essentially there are three combinations for Puma MHEV buyers, 17-inch wheels and compliant damping for the mainstream titanium spec model, 17-inch wheels and firmer sports suspension for the ST-Line versions. That's likely to be the most popular choice in the range, and 18-inch wheels and sports suspension for the plusher ST-Line X derivative, which is the one we have here. Now, none of these options will shake your teeth out over poorer surfaces, but they'll all deliver ride that's a touch firmer than the class norm, so if you are sensitive to that, then buy something else in this class, maybe say a Volkswagen T-Cross or a Skoda Kamiq, at which point you would, though, kiss goodbye to any real sense of driving enjoyment or, more preferably, stick with a Puma and stay with the smallest wheel size. The payoff that this car's more focused damping setup gives you, though, is handling at speed through the turns. It's in a different league to pretty much any other small affordable crossover you might care to name, which kind of makes it appropriate that the driving position here is a little lower set than most rivals, too. To be honest, you would still probably have more fun in a Fiesta, but the Puma certainly gets closer to that class benchmark than you'd think any SUV ever would. As you'd expect, it borrows pretty much all its basic engineering from its supermini stablemate platform, suspension and so on, but it gets a 58mm wider track, its bushes are tougher and there are changes to the springs, the dampers and the top mounts to stiffen everything up. As with the Fiesta, there's the best torque vectoring system in the segment, this being one of those setups that works when you're powering through tight turns to apply an imperceptibly small amount of braking to the inside front wheels, assisting tractional stability and firing you from bend to bend. As a result of this and the other tweaks just mentioned, you can throw the car into corners at speeds that most rivals just wouldn't be able to countenance. For best results, you'll need to get familiar with the standard selectable drive mode system, which tweaks throttle response, steering feel and, if you take up the option that Ford offers with the 125PS MHEV engine of an automatic gearbox, gearshift timings too. Scrolling through the various settings, we've found the steering rather light in normal and eco. It's great for town work, it's not so good for driving enjoyment. Switch to sport though, at which point the digital instrument cluster does a little jig of red animation and the steering wakes up nicely and it feels quite a bit more positive. There are also additional slippery and trail modes which adjust the powertrain and the braking settings for extra traction and slippery conditions. This is, in short, an uncommonly well-engineered little car. It won't suit everyone, it wouldn't be as good as it is if it did, but it redefines the kind of thing a little crossover can be for the better. What do you think? There's certainly a lot going on here, maybe even a hint of miniature Porsche Macan if you squint a bit, but this little Ford has very much its own look, which is an achievement in itself in this proliferating segment. The original Puma was smaller than the Fiesta it was based on. This one is quite a lot bigger, its five-door SUV body being 46 mils longer, 54 millimeters higher, and 71 millimeters wider. Plus, this car has a 95-millimeter longer wheelbase than the Fiesta. These unusual canoe-shaped headlights are high up on the bonnet like the first Puma, and Ford says that the beady daytime running lights you get on ST-line variants like this one are a nod to a more modern Ford coupe, the GT Supercar. Maybe for the GT Supercar comparisons to make any sense, you'd have to imagine the car without this wide honeycombed grille, which is flanked at the lower corners by fog lamp bezels integrated into these functional front air corner inlets. From the side, most compact crossovers have a wedge-style profile, something the designers here deliberately wanted to avoid, hence this more distinctive silhouette with its undulating shoulder line, floating A-pillar, this angled crease which flows up from the front wheel arch, and the exaggerated rear haunches. As you'd expect with the current fashion zeitgeist, the pronounced arches shroud big wheels, 17 inches at the foot of the range, but more commonly, these 18-inch five-spoke alloys. You can even have 19-inch rims if you really must. At the rear, you get more of a feel for this car's neat wheel-at-each-corner stance and its 58-millimeter track width increase, something emphasized by this mid-level horizontal tailgate line and by the spaced-out model name lettering just above it. There's a big roof spoiler, large split LED tail lamps, big lower corner reflectors, and this sporty lower diffuser section, all disguising the fact that the bits that you can't see come straight from a humble Fiesta. This Puma sits on the same Global B platform as that car, and though, as you may have seen in our driving experience section, the suspension bolted to it is pretty bespoke, the under bonnet stuff is pretty much identical too. That won't matter much to likely buyers, but they will want this Puma to feel considerably more upmarket than its supermini stablemate inside. Let's take a look. Is it different enough? Well, you decide. There are certainly lots of Fiesta parts carried over, but you get a bespoke digital instrument cluster screen, and you sit 60 millimeters higher than you would in that car, which does give you a slightly more commanding view ahead. Your forward vision is bookended by a slightly Porsche 911 fashion by the curved front wings. The designers have clearly tried to do what they could to give this cabin more of a special and lifestyle-orientated feel. Things like the cool silver trimming for the gear knob, and for this strangely conventional handbrake, and this ST line variance carbon style fascia finishing, the red highlights around the outer vents, and the red stitching. Despite all this, you can't help wishing that Ford had spent a little more here. Big slabs of black plastic proliferate, and some of the lower moldings, the door bin edges, for example, really don't have the solid feel that you'd expect in a car of this price. Still, as we said, there's quite a lot to distract your attention from all this. Principally, the 12.3-inch instrument cluster screen that we just mentioned, and it's standard on the ST line models. It springs into life with fancy graphics, but unlike some other rival model of virtual cockpit screens, it can't be specified to show full-width navigation mapping. Select one of the five available driving modes, and it alerts your attention in a really eye-catching way with a digital speedo alongside the bespoke setting layout that you've chosen. Otherwise, the display is based around the central area, and that can be configured in various customizable ways. It's flanked by two outer virtual dials, the speedo on the left and a rev counter on the right, which initially look rather curious due to the absence of outer bezels. Between those gauges, you can prioritize readouts for audio, navigation, or phone info, or choose select screen, which allows you to choose display options from quite an extensive list. Although we're not quite sure why Ford feels the need to restrict you to just seven choices. A click on this steering wheel button can scroll you through readouts for things like fuel economy, trip computer info, tire pressures, an eco coach option, and a hybrid gauge, and that shows you when deceleration or braking is regenerating energy. Now, if all of this represents information overload, then you can also select a calm screen, at which point nothing at all will be shown between the gauges. Anything this instrument cluster can't tell you will be covered off by the further eight-inch Sync 3 monitor, which you'll find sitting rather awkwardly proud of the fascia molding, as it does in a Fiesta. As we've remarked when testing other Ford models, there's nothing too much wrong with the functionality of this setup. Thankfully, it features the proper rotary volume and zoom controls that some rival models have unwisely dispensed with, but its graphics lack the crisp clarity of those you'll find in a Volkswagen Group product, and its refresh times are slower too. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring systems, they are built-in, but when you use those, you lose the helpful shortcut audio, phone, navigation apps, and settings press selections at the base of the screen. That is a little bit annoying. There is voice control too, but it's nothing like as intuitive as a system that you'll find in a rival Volkswagen T-Cross or T-Roc. On the plus side though, Ford includes a much better DAB audio system than you'll get on most rivals. It's seven speakers as standard, with this car's premium 10-speaker B&O setup, and that's an affordable option. Plus, as standard across the range, you get embedded Wi-Fi connectivity, which comes courtesy of the built-in modem, which is included in this car's Ford Pass Connect package. Enough on screens. What else have we learned from our week behind the wheel here? Well, if you're switching into a Puma from some comparably priced rivals, a Volkswagen T-Roc, for example, you might wish that you were seated a little higher, but others will really like the sportier feel that this car's chosen driving position delivers instead. It is a pity though that Ford couldn't have delivered that with better front three-quarter vision. The aggressively angled front pillars do compromise that a little. Thanks to the rising rear window line and the chunky C pillars, the view rearwards isn't that great either, so it's just as well that rear parking sensors are standard fit. It does cost quite a lot more to get a rear view camera. You also wonder whether the Ford design team really thought enough about winter motoring before applying these cool silver surfaces to the gear stick, the handbrake button, and the door pulls, all of which feel unpleasantly cold to use in colder temperatures. Media connectivity is not bad. We've already mentioned the Ford Pass Connect modem. There are also plenty of plug points too, a 12-volt port and a USB slot by the gear lever, and another USB slot in this lidded box between the seats, so you can charge your phone out of the sight of prying eyes. You won't be able to do that if you take advantage instead of the wireless charging pad, which rather impressively was standard across the range at launch and which sits in this shallow recess at the base of the center stack. Staying on the subject of cabin cubbies, there is a reasonably sized glove box plus two cup holders and a coin tray here by the gear lever. There's no overhead compartment for your sunglasses, but the box between the seats that we mentioned earlier has a lift-out tray. There are ticker clips in the sun visors, and the relatively small door bins have integrated bottle holders. The seats are comfortable and supportive enough, and they even include a standard lumbar massage function. Sadly, for the time being anyway, Ford isn't offering for our market the zip-off washable covers that you can get elsewhere. Time to take a seat in the rear. We talked earlier about this car's size increase over a Fiesta. Its wheelbase is 95 millimeters longer, but it's still 192 millimeters shorter than a Focus family hatch. One of those would probably cost you a bit less. How much of a spatial sacrifice is going to be necessary for you to make more of a fashion statement? Our hopes weren't especially high here. A Fiesta is, after all, somewhat on the cramped side at the back. Despite its lengthier platform, this crossover isn't really much bigger than one of those, but it would make a lot more sense than a supermini as a second family car. True, these small side windows don't help to create much of a roomy feel. If you have lanky teenagers to ferry about, then we'd steer you clear of the optional panoramic glass roof that eats into the headroom. Otherwise, a couple of six-footers would be comfortable enough. That would be helped by the way that they could slide their big size 10s under the seat in front, although there is less leg and knee room than you get in a segment rival like the Skoda Kamiq or the Volkswagen T-Roc. Ford make a big noise about the boot area's cleverness and flexibility. We'll get to that in a moment. To be frank, we'd have preferred the design budget to have been spent on the replication of really useful rear compartment features long established in this segment that absolutely do make everyday life easier. The sliding rear bench that you'll enjoy in a rival Renault Captur or a Volkswagen T-Cross, the cinema-style flip-up seat bases that you'll find in a rival Honda HR-V, or the reclining seat backrests that you'll get in a Mini 5-door. There's none of any of that here. Perhaps that was predictable given the packaging limitations of the hybrid system, but we had expected Ford to try a bit harder in easier areas. No effort has been made, even in this plush model, to break up the drab plastic of the door cards, and your teenagers aren't going to be happy to find that no connectivity ports are provided back here. That seems an astonishing oversight for such an otherwise media-savvy car. You don't get a central armrest, which is predictable on a supermini drive model, and there are no overhead reading lights either, but you do get a couple of overhead coat hooks and netted seat back pockets. Finally, let's take a look at the boot. We will pause on the way to mention the Ford EasyFuel capless refueling system that's designed to stop you from putting diesel into a petrol model or vice versa. Now, what's it like back here? Well, this hands-free powered tailgate is optional, but you don't really need that because the hatch is light to lift, and it opens to reveal something we haven't seen for a very long time, a decently sized boot in a small Ford. This one had a 456 liter capacity, one of the largest in the segment. It's 164 liters bigger than you'll get in a Fiesta, and 115 liters more than the Focus, and there's more too. You might have noticed when I lifted the tailgate that the parcel shelf rises out of the way with it, flat against the tailgate glass, so you won't have to keep detaching the thing and storing it in the corner of a dusty garage every time you have bulky loads to carry. There is also an adjustable height boot floor that you really can adjust with just one hand, and when it's in its lower position, up to six carry-on suitcases will fit back here, although that is one less than you get in a rival Volkswagen T-Roc or Skoda Kamiq, but this Ford trumps rivals like those with what lies further down here. Now, this Puma has a higher boot floor than a Fiesta, possibly to free up space for the battery of a future plug-in or full electric variant. Well, that's not needed here, even on this mild hybrid model, and since the Ford designers were determined not to offer a spare wheel with this car, they decided to use this space instead to create this so-called megabox recessed underfloor well. Now, this is not as unique an idea as Ford would have you believe. Honda's ultra-luggage concept of 20 years ago was pretty much identical, but it's a clever way of using the extra space, which means that tall items like plants or golf clubs can be transported upright if you move the adjustable boot floor out of the way. It's a 68-liter space that's big enough for a couple of extra carry-on bags, and it can take up to 50 kilos in weight. Plus, it's waterproof, watertight, and even has a plug hole beneath this base rubber mat so you can flush the area out after transporting filthy wellies or muddy boots. You can expect that plug to be the most common missing part from all used Pumas, or perhaps you might want to carry your koi carp down to the chippy. I mean, in theory, almost anything's possible. Again, we don't want to pour cold water on Ford's enthusiasm for this feature. It's certainly very useful. If the brand was going to offer it, though, we think it should have standardized run-flat tires to make up for the resultant impossibility of fitting a spare wheel. Now, another thing which is important lacking back here is a ski hatch or a 40-20-40 rear seat back split, the kind of thing that would enable you to push, say, a pair of skis between two rear-seated occupants. In terms of more mundane practicalities, there are bag hooks on either side, a 12-watt port on the right, a light on the left, and four tie-down points. Push forward, the 60-40 split rear backrest, and a 1,216-liter space reveals itself. The Puma pricing structure from launch, at least for our market anyway, reflects current figures at the upper end of the small SUV segment. From the introduction of this car, the brand decided not to offer the entry-level Zetec trim level and the lower-spec 95PS version of the 1-liter EcoBoost engine which is available on the continent. The entry-level point in the range for UK Puma buyers was what would usually be mid-range titanium trim. That explains why British customers for this car at its introduction were looking at needing to find between £21,000 and £24,000 for the mainstream models. Of course, Ford hopes that many prospective Puma buyers will want to spend a lot more. That is easy to do once a few extra desirable kit items are added. This particular test car, for example, lists at around £26,000. That's for plush ST-Line X trim with a few extras. You can pay even more if you choose the flagship leather-lined ST-Line X Vignale variant. Most of Ford's Puma business though will be done either with mid-range ST-Line spec expected to account for around 40% of customers or the base titanium trim model that's expected to account for around 35% of sales. Think £22,500 to £23,000 for the kind of version you'll probably want. It's likely that you'll be in about the right pricing ballpark. Part of the reason why Ford feels justified in asking that kind of money is because of this car's relatively sophisticated mild hybrid tech. Yes, the MHEV electrified engine. Now, from launch, the brand offered a version of the 125 PS one litre EcoBoost engine without it, but almost no one will want that given that doing without the mild hybrid gadgetry only saves you an insignificant £300, which you would gain back in reduced running costs over your ownership period anyway. Now, all three of the main trim levels offer a choice between 125 and 155 PS versions of this one litre EcoBoost hybrid MHEV engine. It costs £750 more to upgrade to the more powerful version. We're guessing that many customers won't bother. Even fuel will be interested in the 1.5 litre 120 PS TDCi diesel engine that you can ask your dealer about, but for urban-based folk, the optional seven-speed automatic transmission, that could hold some interest. What about how the pricing of this car fits into Ford's model range? Well, you might be wondering how much it would cost to trade up into a Puma from an equivalent Fiesta. Well, think in terms of around £2,500 for a comparable model if you're stacking this crossover against an equivalently specced and engine standard Fiesta variant, but the difference would only be, well, a couple of hundred pounds if rather more realistically you were instead comparing a Puma against an equivalent version of the more lifestyle-orientated Fiesta Active model. Now, if you're wondering, a comparable Focus family hatch would cost you over £2,000 more than a Puma or nearly £2,500 more if you were to look at an equivalent version of the more comparable Focus Active model. Why then would you now buy a Focus Active? Well, answers on a postcard, please. Most likely, Puma customers, though, will be more likely to have half an eye on the other proper SUVs in their local Ford showroom rather than a more conventional hatch. Now, from launch of this car, the brand was continuing to offer its older small SUV design, the EcoSport, which at the time of this test in spring 2020 had the advantage of being available in base Z-Tech spec, which is not available to Puma buyers, and that meant a much more affordable starting price of well under £19,000. We can't imagine that model continuing on for very long, though. For reference, an equivalently specced and engine EcoSport will save you less than £400 over a comparable Puma. It's probably more relevant, though, to talk about the gap in price to the next model up in Ford's SUV hierarchy, that's the Cougar, and that costs from around £24,000. Although, because Cougars are too big to use the one-liter EcoBoost engines, direct comparisons against this Puma are somewhat difficult. Onto the value proposition offered by Puma pricing against the many other brands competing in the small SUV segment. Now, at this point, we usually point out that for proper price comparisons, it's necessary to be comparing apples with apples. This is a supermini-based B-segment SUV crossover, so it needs to be price-matched against other similar designs, rather than against the slightly bigger Qashqai-class C-segment SUV contenders that Ford targets with that larger Cougar model. In this case, though, the picture is clouded in a couple of ways. First, by pricing that lifts this car right up alongside cheaper models in the Qashqai class, and secondly, by boot space, which actually isn't much different from that of a bigger crossover in that C-segment. Ford points out that there's 26 liters more luggage capacity in a Puma than you'll get in a Qashqai, although they neglect to mention that that Nissan's boot is way smaller than its most direct rivals. As we said, this is a supermini-drive model, and you'll discover that from jumping in the back seat, so we're going to price-match it in that way. Even if you're there are now really pricey plug-in and full electric versions of models in this class available, but at the time of this test, in spring 2020, this Puma was the only mild hybrid model available in the segment. The bottom line is that if you want an engine with electrified assistance in a crossover of this kind, this Ford provides it far more affordably than its rivals, well, for the time being anyway. Obviously, that will make this car a little more expensive than its conventionally-engined rivals. How much more expensive are we talking? Well, in preparation for this test, we spent some time perusing the price lists and taking a look, and the results were interesting. Yes, amongst key rivals, there are plenty of cheaper options, but virtually all of them cost more to run and or are slower. If you add in the navigation system, that from the launch of this Ford was standard on all Pumas, then the pricing on just about any key competitor that you care to name ultimately isn't that much different. If having considered all that, you conclude it is a Puma that you really want, then you're going to need to know just how generous Ford has been when it comes to the standard specification. Well, the answer is that they'll probably be rather more included than you might expect. Now, earlier, we referenced the fact that the range starting point from launch, titanium trim includes a navigation system, but it'll also give you quite a lot else. There is a set of 17-inch 10-spoke alloy wheels and front fog lamps with cornering lights, plus auto headlamps with auto high beam and auto wipers. Other kit features you might have expected to pay extra for include a wireless charging mat, lumbar massage front seats, a quick clear heated windscreen, electronic air temperature control, and power folding mirrors. If you're choosing at this end of the range, then you'll be pleased to note that the asking figure also includes items like rear parking sensors, cruise control, LED tail lamps, and a Fatum alarm. Core Puma features come integrated into the package, of course, that includes the selectable drive mode system and the megabox recessed area beneath the floor. There's a high standard of infotainment too via the eight-inch SYNC 3 center dash infotainment screen that includes a high-quality seven-speaker DAB audio system, Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto smartphone mirroring, voice control, and an embedded Ford Pass Connect Wi-Fi modem. As I mentioned earlier, though, the most popular Puma trim level will be ST line trim, and you'll be tempted to stretch up to that for two key reasons. Firstly, to get the mid-range variants slightly meaner look, which comes courtesy of upgraded five times two-spoke 17-inch alloy wheels and a body kit with a large rear spoiler and sport suspension. Secondly, because you have to stretch at least as far as ST line spec to get this car's signature cabin feature, the 12.3-inch full digital instrument cluster display. Other ST line inclusions run to a flat-bottomed sports steering wheel, leather finishing for the handbrake and the gear knob, driver's seat lumbar adjustment, and, on the manual models, alloy sports pedals. Curiously, though, at this level in the range, the electronic air temperature control of the titanium model is downgraded to basic manual air conditioning. Here, we've chosen to test an ST line X variant, which probably represents a trimming sweet spot in the Puma lineup if you're not too budget-limited. The X editions include larger 18-inch wheels, part leather upholstery, carbon-look fascia trim, privacy glass, and an upgraded 10-speaker B&O audio system. Plus, there's lumbar and heart adjustment for the front passenger seat, and the electronic air temperature control package is restored to run the climate system. Now, from launch, extra cost first edition packs were offered with each of those three core trim levels. We've got one of those fitted here, and if you want even more kit, you can ask your Ford dealer about the range-topping ST line X Vignale variant that includes full leather upholstery, fixed LED headlights, and keyless entry. Okay, enough with standard trim inclusions. What about options? Well, your dealer will want you to consider the openable panoramic roof, but at around £1,000, that is pricey, it reduces rear headroom, and specifying it means you can't add in two further popular options, roof rails and a black contrast color roof. Quite a few other Puma buyers also want the hands-free powered tailgate and the fixed LED headlamps. With titanium and ST line trim, you're also going to be tempted to pay the £450 more that Ford wants for its premium 10-speaker B&O audio system. Also popular across the range is the optional comfort pack that gives you heated seats and a heated steering wheel too. Bear in mind, if you're looking at titanium trim, that level in the range, you'll have to pay extra for the 12.3-inch full digital instrument cluster screen. Onto aesthetics. Now, bear in mind that you'll almost certainly be paying your Ford dealer extra for your choice of paint shade. The only standard color is solid blazer blue. Even ordinary frozen white costs extra, and that's one of the four premium colors that most Pumas are sold with. If you are happy to pay more, then there are five further exclusive colors, including the shade that features on this test car. It's rather dubiously christened gray matter, which doesn't sound very pleasant, does it? Buy into the range above titanium trim, then you'll be able to specify the largest 19-inch wheel size too. Not all small SUVs can be had with a tow bar. This one can though, and it's of the detachable kind. Also staying with practicalities, if you've got roof rails, you'll be able to add a roof base carrier and the crossbars that you'll need for the optional G3 roof box. A rear bike carrier is available too. Now, you can't specify any sort of spare wheel. That's thanks to the hybrid battery replacement and the megabox out back. That wouldn't be so much of an issue if you could have run-flat tires as an alternative, but you can't have those either. You can though add in floor mats, door scuff plates, mud flats, and front parking sensors. For the boot, there's a reversible floor mat and a load liner. While to improve things up front, your dealer will sell you a Ford Performance carbon fiber gearshift knob, a Garmin dashcam, sports pedals if your car doesn't already have those, and if you've still got some old plastic discs, a CD player too. Enough with general options, let's consider now this Puma's safety credentials, which as expected, are well up to standard. All models get at least some degree of camera safety kit as part of a package which incorporates two cameras, three radars, and 12 ultrasonic sensors, which together are able to monitor 360 degrees around the vehicle and scan the road ahead up to a distance of 130 meters. That's more than the length of a football pitch. This setup's most important function is its autonomous braking. Ford calls its system pre-collision assist with pedestrian detection. As usual with these kinds of things, it scans the road ahead in search of accident hazards as you drive, and it has the ability to specifically identify pedestrians and cyclists. Using the same tech, various other features are thrown in too. Lane departure warning that alerts you if you drift out of your lane, and the lane keeping aid will apply subtle steering lock to ease you back to where you ought to be. Traffic sign recognition, that's a feature which pictures speed signs as you pass them and then displays them on the dash, and auto high beam that dips your headlights for you at night. There is also a post-collision braking system, and that, in the event of an impact, will automatically brake the car to reduce the chances of you going on to hit something else. Want to go further? Then you'll want to look at the optional driver assistance pack, and that will upgrade your Puma to state-of-the-art safety status. This pack throws in some extra parking assistance, a rear view camera, front parking sensors, and an active park assist system which steers you into spaces, but the main inclusions are of the camera safety sort. Let's run you through the pack's various features now. There's a blind spot information system with cross-traffic alert setup. This works on the move to warn you if you're just about to pull out to overtake when there's a vehicle in your blind spot. It also warns you of oncoming traffic when you're reversing out of a parking space. There is also intelligent adaptive cruise control. That will automatically regulate your speed to the surrounding traffic on the highway. You also get a new local hazard information feature. That informs the driver of hazardous situations in the road ahead before they become visible to the driver or the vehicle sensors. The pack additionally upgrades the autonomous braking system with a more sophisticated radar camera. On manual models, the pack also gives you an evasive steering feature which, in an emergency situation, adds instant steering lock to help you avoid a hazard. When an automatic gearbox is fitted, the pack also gives you two extra features, traffic jam assist, that can take over steering and throttle for you at low speeds in traffic queues, and the stop and go feature for the intelligent adaptive cruise control which will seamlessly automatically stop you and then start you off again if you come across a slow-moving highway traffic tailback. To finish, we'll revert back to the standard safety spec and cover off the more common passive safety features that all Pumas come with. Every variant is fitted with twin front, side, and curtain airbags. The side bags have been designed to lift the occupant's arm away from the impact zone. Some rivals do include a driver's knee bag too, but Ford says that this Puma doesn't need one of those thanks to a clever locking seatbelt tongue attachment on the driver's belt which will prevent slippage of that belt during an accident. The rear outer seats feature load limiters and pre-tensioners, and inside the doors are pressure sensors that enable restraint systems to be activated several milliseconds earlier in the event of a side impact. Pedestrian protection is enhanced with headlamps that are designed to travel rearwards on impact, plus there's a collapsible cowl and wiper spindle assembly too that's designed to give way in the event of head impacts. Plus, of course, you get ABS braking, ESP stability control, tyre pressure monitoring, and hill start assist too which will stop you from drifting backwards on uphill junctions. Ford liberally uses the word hybrid with a capital H to describe this car which we can't help feeling is a touch misleading. This isn't, after all, a hybrid in the usual sense that a potential buyer would understand. It can't drive on electric power alone, nor can it be plugged in. This is instead one of the new generation of so-called mild hybrid power plants. Ford calls them MHEV units, basically ordinary engines lightly tinseled with a tiny lithium-ion battery that just about justifies the electrified marketing spin. The way that mild hybrid tech works is pretty universal, but we'll recap on it here in case you haven't viewed our driving experience section. The one litre three-cylinder EcoBoost turbo petrol engine, already pretty efficient thanks to its use of cylinder deactivation at medium to low throttle speeds, is embellished here with a belt-driven integrated starter generator, that's the BISG, this one of 11.5 kilowatts output. This replaces the standard alternator and enables the recovery and storage of energy usually lost during braking and coasting to charge a tiny 48-volt lithium-ion air-cooled battery that's secreted beneath the rear seat. The BISG also acts as a motor, integrating with the engine and using the stored energy that it harvests to provide extra pulling power during normal driving and acceleration, as well as running the vehicle's electrical ancillaries. The belt-driven starter generator is also able to aid the power plant stop-start system in urban traffic, restarting the engine in approximately 300 milliseconds, that's about the same as the blink of an eye, and the BISG also enables the Puma EcoBoost hybrid's auto start-stop technology to operate in a wider range of scenarios for even greater fuel savings, including when coasting to a stop below 10 miles an hour and even when the vehicle's in gear with the clutch pedal depressed. Thanks to all of this, the subsequent reduction in the amount of work required from the petrol engine results, says Ford, in a fuel efficiency improvement of up to nine percent. So what does that actually equate to in terms of stats? Well, let's start with the Puma variant that most will choose, the 125 PS MHEV one litre EcoBoost hybrid manual gearbox variant that we're trying here. This returns up to 51.4 mpg on the WLTP combined cycle, up to 96 grams per kilometre of any DC rated CO2. The auto gearbox, you can specify with this engine, has relatively little effect on those figures. You'll need some class perspective here though, most directly comparable conventionally engined B-segment SUV models deliver about five miles per gallon less and put out about 15 to 20 grams per kilometre of CO2 more. You can actually see directly the difference that the MHEV tech makes because the Blue Oval brand does theoretically offer a conventional non-electrified version of this 125 PS EcoBoost one litre power plant in this car. Why? We're not quite sure because almost no one will buy it. Ford hasn't given us a fuel stat for that variant, but we do have a CO2 reading 103 grams per kilometre, so seven grams per kilometre worse. So it's as it says on the tin, the difference MHEV tech makes is indeed mild, but that shouldn't detract from what is a very strong running cost showing, assuming your comparison point lies with rivals in this class using conventional engines. And that showing isn't diluted much if you go for the higher output 155 PS version of the MHEV unit that records 50.4 MPG on the WLTP combined cycle and up to 99 grams per kilometre of any DC rated CO2. For completion we'll tell you that the minority interest 1.5 litre TDCi diesel engine manages returns of just under 60 MPG and just under 100 grams per kilometre. All the figures we've just given you assume that you're running the car in the most frugal of its various selectable drive modes, eco. It might be instructive at this juncture to compare this Ford's efficiency to what you get from a full hybrid model in this class. The car of that kind that's most likely to spring to mind is Toyota's little C-HR. One of those in 1.8 litre hybrid form manages a WLTP rated combined cycle showing 54.3 MPG and an NEDC rated CO2 reading of 86 grams per kilometre. That's the kind of comparison that the Blue Oval brand would probably like us to make here against a full hybrid model that isn't that much more efficient and costs a significant £5,000 more to buy. Unfortunately for Ford though there are other full hybrid models in this class that also manage to deliver next level efficiency with much less of a price premium. The Hyundai Kona hybrid we recently tested for example manages 56.5 MPG on the WLTP combined cycle along with 90 grams per kilometre of NEDC rated CO2 and at the time of this test in early 2020 that was priced from around £22,500 but it's nothing like as good to drive as this Puma so ultimately as usual it all depends on your priorities. What else all we need to cover here in terms of what you'll need to know about the running costs of this Puma? Well let's tell you about servicing which on all engines is required every two years or 18,000 miles whichever comes first. Two pre-paid servicing plans are available one that costs £340 and covers you for two years and two services and one that costs £550 and is transferable to future owners and covers three years and three services. Maintenance bookings they can be done online through the MyFord portal and this is part of the Ford Blue service scheme which wraps up all the care and maintenance of your car into one bundle which includes a free 30 point e-check of vital parts and highlights any work required with red, amber and green traffic light warning to rank items which will need attention in order of importance. There's also the Ford service app that you can download to your phone for free it lets you locate your nearest dealer and make a booking plus it has a couple of extra elements it allows you to find petrol stations and it includes a park me feature which remembers where you left your Puma so you won't have to hunt for it say in a busy multi-story car park. As for the warranty well like all Fords this one comes with a 36 month 60,000 mile package which includes one year of Europe-wide breakdown assistance on top of that there is an anti-corrosion guarantee for 12 years. On to insurance that's an important consideration for the many younger buyers who will want to be able to choose this particular car it's 17e for the 125 PS MHEV model or 20e for the 155 variant. Residual values are encouraging 54% after two years and 46% after three that's a fraction better than obvious rivals. Ford's decision to reuse the Puma name wasn't universally popular amongst enthusiasts for the original model but that doesn't matter much after all for the target market here this car's badge is more likely to suggest sportswear or trainers than a classically styled sports coupe and that lifestyle orientation fits with the kind of little SUV that this Ford is trying to be active trendy charismatic and current. Back in 2014 when the Blue Oval brand got their approach to this sector so wrong with the EcoSport they left the door wide open for another maker to provide what Ford normally delivers in so many other segments an affordable contender that's not only good looking and well packaged but also darn good to drive. Now we've seen loads of new models launched into this class since of course but rather astonishingly none of them has quite succeeded in meeting that need so Ford has had a second stab at it and they really nailed the brief this time. It isn't perfect of course this Puma is a little on the pricey side once you specify the MHEV engine and a decent level of trim and once you've paid the money you might well find that quite a few elements of this car's cabin trim remind you that it's very much based on a Fiesta costing quite a lot less. The optional diesel engine is of course also borrowed from that car although if the electrified tech is really going to deliver what Ford claims it will we don't really see why the brand felt the need to offer a black pump fueled version at all. Overall though there's an awful lot to like here having moved its third generation Cougar SUV a little upmarket Ford needed a more credible entry-level point for its SUV lineup and this Puma fills that role very well while setting fresh standards for the kind of driving enjoyment a little car of this kind can serve up. As enthusiasts we still can't help wishing it was a small coupe but as pragmatists we reckon Ford has got this car just about right.