Have you ever thought to yourself: “Man, I really dig the Ford Focus ST, but I wish it were a bit higher off the ground.”
Market
Well, let us be the bearers of good tidings and tell you that such a thing is now available at your local Ford dealership. It’s called the Kuga and it’s Ford’s first entry into the medium SUV segment in South Africa. There is a problem though… it may be a new vehicle on local shores, but everywhere else in the world it’s been available for four years. So if you think about it, it’s actually older than most of the cars it’s trying to steal market share from.
That’s not to say that it’s not as good as any of them. The design may be four years old, but it’s still a good looking car. The Kuga is bold, muscular and edgy. It’s made for people who prefer their cars to have a presence on the road. You can even have it in orange and ensure that other road users move over when they spot you in their mirrors; and they would have to move over, as the Kuga uses the same powertrain as the Focus ST. It’s still the same old 2.5-litre, five-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, but it’s been tuned to suit the nature of an SUV. It delivers a combined fuel economy figure of 10.3l/100km and has an average CO2 output of 244g/km.
Engine
In the Kuga, this engine delivers 147kW and 320Nm of torque. This allows it to accelerate to 100km/h in 8.8 seconds and achieve a top speed of 202km/h. That’s not blisteringly quick, but you could give a few hot hatches out there something to think about.
It is, however, still an SUV. Try and drive it like a Focus ST and you will be sorely disappointed. It handles nicely enough when you’re driving at a brisk pace, but push it any harder and the Kuga becomes nervous quite quickly. The steering is very light and it doesn’t give you enough feedback. To be honest, that’s not really a problem since most SUV drivers don’t place handling prowess high on their list of priorities.
Cabin
A smart interior is far more important and on that front the Kuga does very well for itself. There’s a generous amount of space for all passengers and a host of hidden storage spaces all over the cabin. For those odd occasions when you need it, the second row folds down completely flat and basically triples the load space.
Specs
Not only is the interior smart, but it’s tech-savvy as well. Even in base “Trend” specification, you get a lot of kit as standard. These include a start button, cruise control, Bluetooth with voice control that actually recognises a South African accent, full leather, a six-way power driver seat and heated front seats. Moving up to Titanium specification sees the inclusion of rain sensitive wipers, auto dimming rear-view mirror, dual temperature control and rear parking sensors.
Being a family car, it has a wide range of passive and active safety features. Kuga is equipped with decent disc brakes that do a marvellous job of slowing it down. Other active safety features include: ABS, EBD, ESP and a wide range of other acronyms designed to keep you on the road.
Overall, it’s a nice car. But we can’t help being concerned about the lifecycle of this vehicle. Ford says the replacement vehicle isn’t going to be available in South Africa any time soon, but a replacement for the Kuga was shown at the Detroit Motor Show recently. Motoring hacks in the UK reckon it will be launched there before the end of 2012.
The Kuga has aged remarkably well. It can hold its own against all the competitors out there, but it doesn’t do the job better, or worse than any of them. In the end it will most likely come down to brand preference and that’s all that really matters. Ford families had nowhere to go once they grew out of their Focus and fortunately that’s no longer the case.
The Kuga comes with a comprehensive 4-year/120 000km warranty and a 4-year/ 80 000km service plan. Added peace of mind comes in the way of a 3-year/unlimited kilometre roadside assistance plan while service intervals are staggered at 20 000km.
Pricing:
Kuga 2.5 Turbo Trend AWD Auto R375 000 Kuga 2.5 Turbo Titanium AWD Auto R395 000
