Game of cat and mouse
Ford Puma 1.0 Ecoboost 125 MHEV Titanium List price £20,990 Target Price £19,741 Entry-level version of our 2020 Car of the Year can be had for less than £20k if you’re a savvy buyer. 62 June 2020 With up to £20,000 to spend on a compact SUV, you co
IF YOU HAVEN’T heard, the new Ford Puma is our 2020 Car of the Year. To sum it up, it’s a brilliant all-rounder and a better buy than any of its small SUV rivals, including the Nissan Juke, Renault Captur and Skoda Kamiq.
But what if you were to spend the same money on a nearly new alternative? A six-month-old Nissan Qashqai, for example, could be yours for roughly the same cash, and you’d be getting an altogether larger car. The Qashqai also happens to be a former Car of the Year, winning the award back in 2014, so it’s hardly a lemon.
To find out if new or used is the better buy here, we’ve lined up the Qashqai in popular 1.3 DIG-T 140 N-connecta spec. The nearest match in the Puma line-up is the entry-level 1.0 125 MHEV Titanium, which is already available with some tempting discounts, as we’ll go on to explain.
Although the Qashqai has a larger and more powerful engine, it’s also a fair bit heavier than the Puma. Indeed, in our own acceleration tests, the latter managed to hit 60mph from a standstill slightly quicker than its Japanese rival and also had the edge from 30-70mph – the sort of rolling acceleration that’s handy when overtaking a lorry on a country lane or pulling onto a motorway.
There isn’t much in it, though, and the Qashqai’s four-cylinder engine definitely goes about its business in a more subdued fashion. You hear the odd whoosh from the turbocharger, but that’s about it, whereas the threecylinder Puma has a sportier rasp. Neither car is especially hushed overall, but the Puma generates less road noise at 70mph and less suspension boom around town. It also has a sweeter gearshift and more feelsome clutch pedal, making it an easier car to drive smoothly.
The Puma’s 48-volt mild hybrid system (that’s the ‘MHEV’ bit) deserves special mention; it shuts the engine off when you’re coming to a stop to save fuel while keeping the steering and brakes supplied with power. Engage a gear at a standstill and the engine fires itself back to life in the blink of an eye, before a small electric motor lends a hand when pulling away to ease the load on the engine and reduce fuel consumption (we’ll talk more about that later). The Qashqai’s engine also shuts off automatically, but only when
you come to a standstill, and it takes longer to start back up again.
If you’re looking for a supersmooth ride, there are better options than either of these cars; consider a new Skoda Kamiq or a used Volkswagen T-roc if you’ve got a £20k budget. Mind you, the Puma is far from a bone-shaker. It just follows the contours of the road more closely than many cars of this type, although it’s always well controlled when doing so; there’s no unwanted body bounce along undulating roads.
When this generation of Qashqai was first launched back in 2014, it had the most supple suspension setup of any family SUV. But two things have happened since: one, the bar has been set a lot higher by newer arrivals, and, two, Nissan tweaked the Qashqai’s suspension during a 2017 facelift to improve the car’s cornering skills. Compared with the Puma, it jostles you around more along scarred roads and is less settled on the motorway.
Have those suspension tweaks made the Qashqai great fun to drive, though? In short, no. That’s not to say it’s a wallowy barge; it’s just completely outclassed by the lighter, lower Puma, which has more grip and changes direction far more eagerly. The Puma’s steering is also more precise and gives you more feedback, making it the more rewarding car to drive when the road becomes twisty.
BEHIND THE WHEEL Driving position, visibility, build quality
The Puma looks like the lowerslung, sportier car, so you probably won’t be surprised to learn that you sit closer to the road than you do in the Qashqai. Whether that’s a good or bad thing depends entirely on your viewpoint, but there’s no doubt the Qashqai gives you more of a mini Range Rover experience.
That said, sitting in the driver’s seat of the Puma doesn’t feel like you’re just behind the wheel of a Fiesta; you sit more upright and noticeably higher than you do in a regular hatchback. Both cars’ driver’s seats are comfortable on long journeys and have adjustable lumbar support to help ward off lower back pain, although the Puma’s seat holds you in place better in corners.
You’ll find the dashboards in both a doddle to use, thanks to simple controls for the air conditioning and chunky, clearly labelled buttons elsewhere. And although neither of these cars
INFOTAINMENT Although the graphics on the Puma’s 8.0in touchscreen look a bit crude, this is actually a pretty good system. Satnav is standard, as is smartphone mirroring for Apple and Android devices, while the screen is mounted nice and high, meaning you don’t need to look too far from the road to see it. It’s also responsive to inputs and has big icons that are easy to hit on the move.
64 June 2020
INFOTAINMENT
The Qashqai’s 7.0in touchscreen can be a bit sluggish to respond to inputs, and you wouldn’t call it high-de nition, either.the system comes with Apple Carplay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring and has the ability to update software and maps over the air. It’s a shame the sound system isn’t a bit more powerful, though, and overall the Puma’s operatiing system is that bit more user-friendly. troubles the class benchmarks for interior quality, both have a suitable amount of soft-touch plastic inside, including on their dashboards. The Qashqai feels more upmarket overall, though.
Visibility isn’t a particular strength of either car – at least when it comes to looking through the windows. Depending on where you set the driver’s seat, you’re likely to find the windscreen pillars block some of your view out at junctions, and both cars have small rear screens. However, while the only parking aid you get in the Puma is rear sensors, in the Qashqai you get sensors at both ends, plus a 360deg bird’s eye view camera to give you even greater confidence when manoeuvring.
Both cars make do with relatively old-school halogen headlights as standard, although you can add more powerful LEDS to the Puma (for £1250, as part of the Technology Pack). If you want them on the Qashqai, you’ll need to look for a more expensive Tekna or Tekna+ model. And while the Puma comes with a heated windscreen for fast defrosting on winter mornings, this feature was a £295 option on the Qashqai.
Ford Puma vs Nissan Qashqai
SPACE AND PRACTICALITY Front space, rear space, seating exibility, boot
The Qashqai is some 20cm longer, 14cm wider and 6cm taller than the Puma, so surely it’s a far more practical family car? Well, in some respects it definitely is. There’s more leg and head room in the rear seats, for example, so six-footers feel less hemmed in – although you won’t exactly struggle to carry adults in the back of the Puma. And on those occasions when you need to carry more than two grown-ups in the back, the Qashqai’s extra width comes in really handy.
Likewise, clashes of elbows are less likely in the front of the Qashqai. Surprisingly, though, the Puma actually has a bit more front leg and head room, even if you’d have to be really tall to appreciate this. Both cars have a couple of cupholders and storage under their front central armrests, along with door pockets that will carry at least a 750ml bottle of water.
What might also surprise you is that the Puma’s boot wins for clobber-holding capacity. Both cars can swallow six carry-on suitcases in their main boot areas (below the parcel shelf), but the Puma has a trick up its sleeve. Lift up its boot floor and you’ll find a large well (which Ford calls
a Megabox) underneath that can take a further two cases. If you clip the boot floor vertically against the rear seatbacks, you can stand two sets of golf clubs or a couple of tall plants upright in the well. There’s even a plughole at the bottom, so you can hose out any mud afterwards.
The Qashqai has no such nifty feature, although it does at least have a ‘false’ boot floor that you can raise or lower depending on your requirements.
Set the boot floor to its highest position in either car and there’s barely any lip at the boot entrance or step in the floor of the extended load bay when the rear seatbacks are folded down. Those seatbacks split in a 60/40 arrangement in both cars; it’s just a pity there’s no handy ski hatch in either, unlike some rivals, including the T-roc.
BUYING AND OWNING Costs, equipment, reliability, safety and security
A six-month-old Qashqai in excellent nick and with less than 6000 miles on the clock can be yours for about £19,000. That’s a few hundred quid less than you’ll pay for a new Puma if you buy using our New Car Buying service or do some haggling yourself.
Buying nearly new is a great way to let someone else pay the often large initial depreciation hit on a car, and doing so on a Qashqai will certainly save you several thousand pounds over its list price when new of £25,170. However, going forwards, it’ll still shed value faster than the Puma. It’ll cost more to service and insure, too.
In our real-world True MPG test, the Qashqai averaged 41.3mpg. We haven’t tested this version of the Puma yet, but even the 153bhp version averaged 45.1mpg, so it’s a safe bet the Puma will net you several more miles to the gallon. In fact, factor in all the bills you’re likely to face during three years of ownership and it’s likely to end up costing you about £4000 less.
It’s also worth noting that the Qashqai will have two and a half years (capped at 60,000 miles) of its manufacturer warranty remaining, unless you fork out extra to extend this. The Puma, meanwhile, obviously comes with the full balance of its three-year warranty (also with a 60,000-mile limit) intact.