It’s like a baby Porsche!
It’s like a baby Porsche Macan!’ Maybe it’s the early start. Maybe it’s the mind-scrambling effects of both an early start and a Skegness McDonald’s breakfast. Whatever, I definitely just uttered those words.
The visual similarities between Ford’s new B-segment SUV and Porsche’s oh-so-capable sports SUV don’t exactly slap you around the face. You’re not going to confuse the two in a car park, let alone on the road. But there are echoes of the Porsche in the Ford. Both have, with no little success, spliced a few sports-car chromosomes into the crossover aesthetic’s existing DNA. And both aim to do the same with the way they drive. Body control, steering precision, taut damping – must these qualities be strangers to the high-rise hatch?
First thing this morning I jumped in the Ford, ignored the entirely underwhelming interior (we’ll come back to it, but suce to say the Puma’s cockpit doesn’t come off well next to the Peugeot’s… or the VW’s. Or the Juke’s…) and, phone paired with the Sync infotainment in moments, got moving. Those rakish looks make for a snug feel inside (though rear visibility is almost Lamborghini-esque; Huracan, not Urus) and the driving position’s good; a comfortable middle ground between the hot-hatch 2008 and the captain’s-chair T-Cross.
The sun was barely above the horizon as the Ford and I parped out onto bright, windswept and deserted Lincolnshire tarmac, the going a mix of truck-laden main routes and fiendishly bumpy back roads of the kind to give chassis engineers insomnia. The Ford’s ace powertrain and keen chassis made it an unlikely weapon on both.
We first drove the new Puma at launch in ST-Line X 155 trim with 153bhp whipping the front wheels into a frenzy. This is the less punchy 123bhp option, but it’s still the standout powertrain here. On the A16 the Ford gleefully leapfrogs trundling freight, the triple’s efforts bolstered by a 48-volt mild-hybrid system. The Puma’s desperate for you to clock that it’s a hybrid, from the badge proudly displayed on its rump to the power meter on the dash, slap bang between the clocks, that swings back and forth as you veer from regenerative braking to e-boosting.
And desperate as you might be to dismiss such tech as a gimmick, a mile in the Ford is all it takes to appreciate that it works, the car’s modest e-shove sharpening throttle response, helping mitigate lag (all these
engines are turbocharged) and burnishing its numbers with a little extra economy (the Puma turns in the best mpg figure on the test). By contrast the VW’s engine feels inoffensive but ordinary, the Nissan’s a touch crude and the Peugeot’s… Again, we’ll come back to that.
Half an hour from Skegness I turn off the main roads and head northeast across mud-strewn rural lanes. The Fiesta-based Puma, with the best-powertrain gong already bagged, then makes a play for best chassis. The steering – a touch light in Normal; weightier and plain better in Sport – is the best here, as you’d expect of a company that also turned out the rather excellent current Focus. While the Puma’s ride height means it can’t quite summon the same beguiling cross-country fluidity, it is very good, the suspension set-up (a touch jiggly in town, despite this car riding on modest 17-inch wheels) coming into its own as you work it a little harder.
The Puma doesn’t exactly relish being driven like you’re charging home to clear your browsing history. Not like a Focus or, better still, a Fiesta ST. But it is the only car here interested in the task at hand. Here too the mild-hybrid system scores points, the off-throttle regen effect tugging the nose on-line and helping tip the car usefully onto its nose as you turn-in.
Fun to drive, then? Yep, and for a £23k crossover that’s no mean feat. Best chassis, best engine. A baby Macan? The most Macan of these four, certainly. Your winner? Depends how much you like Fiesta interiors. The Puma has one, for better (it mostly works, and you intuitively know how it works) and for worse (lacking in feelgood design, poor lateral support to the seats, poor rear legroom). Still, before we’ve even sunk the first sausage and egg McMun of the day, the Ford’s off to a flying start. ⊲
The Ford’s o to a flyer before we’ve even sunk the first sausage and egg McMu n of the day