Ford’s future lies in models such as the Puma ST. Drivers of a certain age will fondly remember Ford’s sporting derivatives of fairly ordinary, nothing-to-shout-about family cars. The world has moved on in the last five decades and families have also changed and want something more than a saloon or hatchback. So it was only a matter of time before the marketing and engineering people at … [Read more...]
Sunday drive: Ford Focus Active X Vignale
Ford say their new passenger cars are going all electric in Europe and will not have internal combustion engines from 2030, writes David Miles. Their commercial vehicle ranges will follow that move a couple of years later and by 2026 all their new cars in Europe would be fully electric or plug-in hybrids. But for the here and now in addition to conventional petrol and diesel labelling the … [Read more...]
Sunday drive: Ford Fiesta ST-Line Edition 1.0 mHEV
One of the many recent updates to Britain’s best-selling car in 2020 was the introduction of mild hybrid support for their 1.0-litre, 3-cylinder turbo petrol 125 and 155hp petrol engines used in the Fiesta and other Ford model ranges, writes David Miles. But it’s the latest Fiesta 1.0 mHEV 6-speed ST-Line Edition 5-door version I am trying for this part of the lockdown period priced at … [Read more...]
Weekend roadtest: Ford Fiesta ST3 3-door
More than any other car in modern times, the Ford Fiesta has defined British motoring and the ST-series is the most desirable, particularly among rally fans. Consistently one of the top selling cars in the UK market, the Fiesta is the right size for thousands of buyers looking for three or five door jack-of-all-trades transport. It has appeared in the top ten list every year since 1977 and has … [Read more...]
Weekend roadtest: Ford Puma Titanium 1.0 MHEV 6sp
The Ford Puma is the company’s latest crossover and it’s strongest new generation of family cars to date. The name has been used before by Ford and between 1997 and 2002 it was on an unusual model, a compact three-door coupe. That was based on the latest Fiesta and ironically the new car is also derived from the current Fiesta. Built in Romania and slotting between the EcoSport … [Read more...]
Sunday drive: Ford Kuga ST-Line X 2.5 PHEV
After the Coronavirus lockdown Ford is in full delivery mode with the all-new third generation Kuga SUV 5-door range, writes David Miles. That’s good timing as pent-up demand by UK customers saw overall new car sales increase by 11% in July but sadly remain nearly 42% down for the year-to-date. The Kuga is crucial in Ford’s sales performance as it is their third best selling model range … [Read more...]
Sunday drive: Ford Puma ST-Line X hybrid-petrol
Ford revealed its new 5-door Crossover – you could call it a compact SUV – towards the end of last year with UK deliveries scheduled in January, writes David Miles. However the COVID-19 lockdown derailed delivery to over 7,000 early adopter customers awaiting this new addition to the market place and more than 90% have chosen the petrol/hybrid 48V mHEV models. My initial test drive programme … [Read more...]
Weekend roadtest: Ford Fiesta Active Edition 1.0T Ecoboost
Ford has put a lot of eggs in its family car basket as it seeks to build sales in difficult and highly competitive times. The best-selling Fiesta has been given a new name at the top of its range, a crossover series called Active, which is probably more widespread in appeal than the stablemate and slightly dull EcoSport suv. Now, not so many years ago the Active would have been a regular version … [Read more...]
Sunday drive: Ford Ranger Double Cab Limited 2.0-litre
In the UK the award winning Ford Ranger sold 16,458 units in 2019 retaining its top sales position in a market sector of 53,055 sales, a 1%fall over 2018, writes David Miles. Europe’s, and the UK’s, best selling pick-up range received major changes towards the end of last year plus the addition of new variants to the line up which includes 2-door 2-seat Regular Cab, 2-door 4-seat Super Cab and … [Read more...]
Sunday drive: Ford Kuga 2.0 diesel auto 4WD
The very popular Ford Kuga mid-sized SUV first launched in 2008 is now in its second generation which was launched in 2012 and continues to be very popular with UK customers, writes David Miles. It remained in 2019 the second best selling SUV of any size just behind the British built Nissan Qashqai and ahead of the South Korean Kia brand’s Sportage. In the Spring of this New Year the all-new … [Read more...]
