Ford Kuga road tests and consumer car reviews

Ford Kuga 2009

I have wanted the Kuga for some time now and have just part ex’d my Mondeo for the Kuga 4X4 variant. It is a fantastic car to drive and you don’t realise that it has the 4X4 capability. There are a few minor niggles which are as follows: The water washer is drained very quickly, taking into account that the head lights are washed when you function. Second is why did Ford not indicate that the vehicle is a 4X4 on the rear of the Car? I hope that it proves its worth during the winter period, particularly in snow fall.

Ford Kuga 2.0 Titanium Auto 2011

Well, I read your reports with intrest and envy. I took delivery of my new Kuga on 1st August and only had it 5 weeks when it stopped! Not the engine, but its drive. 1st time it wouldn’t select drive from stationary. The 2nd time I was driving along at about 40 mph and it just lost power and stopped (really dangerous too) again with the engine running... No drive! It has been to two Ford main dealers courtesy of the AA relay (what helpful guys they were) and I haven’t seen it since. The dealer that has it now thinks they know what’s wrong with it but Ford won’t allow the repair until one of their ’techies’’ has seen the car. This may take between 1 and 3 weeks, meantime, I’m in a loaner Mondeo that I dislike. There’s nothing wrong with it, but I just don’t like it. It’s also unsuitable for work and has cost me several hundred pounds in lost business due to not having roof bars for a ladder. For me the Kuga has been a major disappointment and the fuel consumption is rubbish, even driving VERY gently it has only just managed 34 MPG! The Mondeo I’m in now does 47/8 at all sensible speeds and incidently, I’m told has the same power unit and auto box as the Kuga. Even with these problems, I have to give Ford a chance to effect a repair, but they seem totally uninterested, incompetent and with a sense of urgency close to ’Manana’ This is the first Ford I’ve owned and I’m pretty sure that it’ll be the last unless someone pulls their finger out. I’ve had three Jeep Cherokees, a PT Cruiser and two X-Type Jaguar estates and all of them worked perfectly throughout my 3 year contract. By-the-way, my 1 star rating is the lowest that I was allowed to enter!

Ford Kuga 2011

Having owned six 4x4/SUV’s, the last two being RAV4s I was disappointed with the latest redesigned RAV4 so looked at alternatives on the market. Driving for just over 30 yrs and owning over that period a total of nearly 35 cars I have never owned a Ford so the Kuga was the first Ford to tick all the right boxes for me and my wife. Peerless is the word I would use to describe it and the only two complaints I have are reversing into a tight parking space requires a bit of skill and manouevring, even with the parking sensors, but in time should master it, and the skinny spare wheel (yuck!). So far I have been averaging 36.1mpg, but as one Kuga owner elsewhere here stated, the car is still running in to loosen up the engine and at about 10k miles the mpg should improve to at least 40mpg. Cabin quality is nothing short of superb. Lumbar support too. Sporty styling is an additional plus although not too sure about the less than chunky tyres expected on an SUV. Mine are 19", but I suppose that is acceptable as I don’t venture off road. I can’t wait for winter to come around with lots of snow to see how it behaves and copes on frozen tarmac.

Ford Kuga 2011

Kuga is the best car for me because of its handling and comfort to drive. The fuel consumption is low too. I really like Kuga.

Responses to this review

I have a 2.0TDi Titanium. I have worked in fleet management and vehicle industry all my working life. This is the first real car I can say I really enjoy owning. AWD was fantastic in snow. There is the slight downer that it is probably not as good on fuel consumption as I had thought especially with the price hike. Hey, so what, enjoy - Mac from Worcestershire

Ford Kuga 2009

We too are very happy with the new Kuga, although we have had 2 Nissan X Trails which served us well, however, I do like Fords and this model does turn heads. Our economy is fair 38/40mpg but I expect it to get better. I have 3 little niggles: water drips onto rear seats when doors are opened in rain; a little more boot space would have been handy; I am not a lover of ’skinny wheels’ either and a spare wheel bay big enough for the nice alloys would of been better. We find it lovely to drive, visability good, comfort good, quietness, smoothness and responsiveness are all very good. I know we had a few extra packages on the Kuga we ordered but a sliding sunroof would of been nice too. I only hope the AWD lives up to its expectations in the snow too. I don’t like to nit pick but I would have of preferred to see the Model identification on the rear of the boot too. All in all we are very happy with the Kuga and its quality for the price we paid.

Responses to this review

Did the AWD live up to your expectations in the snow? My Subaru Forester AWD has been superb and I am hesitant about changing for the 2.5 Auto Kuga - Michael Eke from Aberdeenshire

Ford Kuga 2008

A very, very good car. This was my first 4x4 and diesel and until the Kuga I was very sceptical of 4x4’s.

Ford Kuga 2009

Superb handling... excellent fuel figures... seating and trim first class finish. All-around vision excellent. In fact, I am very pleased with the whole package... only one minus... After spending 25,000 + I did expect to have a cable to handle my grand-children’s iPod... any suggestions?

Responses to this review

Did the brochure say your new purchase included a ipod lead, otherwise why would you expect them to include it? If I buy an Aston Martin for £75K+ should I expect a number of free additional assessories as well?! - Amy from London

You don’t need the cable - just have bluetooth on and then where it says CD/AUX click onto aux and it picks up the iPod. Strange I know! - Fiona Kidd from Renfrewshire

Ford Kuga 2.0Diesel Titanium 2WD 2009

I have now had my Kuga for 4 months and I am really pleased with it. The handling is great and the power seems plenty for the driving I do, which is mostly motorway. It is comfortable and the build quality seems very good. I opted for the titanium model because of the better trim level and the added extras including the DAB radio which is fabulous. It has even held its price over the first six months. Only criticism is that the marketing material says up to 54.6mpg and I am averaging 38/39 and I am not a particularly hard driver.

Responses to this review

I am also a very pleased owner of a Titanium 2.0 AWD and my one and only critism is that I was expecting lower 40’s mpg but am currently getting 38.5 mpg. My daily journey is an 80 mile round trip at an average speed of 60mph so do not understand why the mpg is so low. Suspect Ford figures I guess under perfect laboratory conditions?? - Bob O’Neill from Angus (Forfarshire)

The engine needs running in. Every car mpg improves as the engine ’loosens up’. If you’re getting 38.5 mpg at new then you’ll be in the mid to low 40s by the time it’s done 10k - K M from Perthshire

Ford Kuga 2008

"You’re testing what?" asked my girlfriend. "The Ford Cougar isn’t new - it’s been out for years you fool!". "Ok Honey, if you say so"; I feigned ignorance and graciously accepted her mocking snigger at yet another demonstration of my inherent stupidity - then I slipped the glossy brochure onto the table before her. "Oh" she said as her smile faded, "It sounds like the other one". She’s right, of course, Cougar and Kuga do sound the same. The first was a valiant effort by Ford to market a sports coupe (it was around the same time that Vauxhall came out with the Calibra), whilst the second is their entry into a new market, the compact SUV (yet another bloody urban 4x4!). An hour or so before I was due to pick up the shiny new Ford Kuga an announcement was made in the slightly dysfunctional family kitchen - Jacob, my girlfriends son, had to stay away from school for the day. and I was designated babysitter. Eight year old Jacobs eyes were bulging as he checked out the range of new cars in the Ford showroom whilst we waited for our chariot to arrive. Not being particularly used to babysitting an eight year old boy alone I could feel my chest tightening under the stress as he fired question after question at the bemused sales staff. The surprising part was that he did actually know a fair bit about the cars, and in some instances proved that he knew more about them than the sales team! Now, if I hadn’t been "forced" behind the wheel of a Ford Ranger Thunder just a few weeks ago I probably wouldn’t have even contemplated taking out the Ford Kuga. I hated Fords, or thought I did, until the Ford Ranger Thunder single handedly reversed my views entirely. We watched, Jacob somewhat impatiently, as the Ford Kuga turned into the car park and snaked its way towards us. With its familiar looking grill, sweeping headlights, and menacingly masculine body styling it was already winning me over. The Ford Kuga, is a little more impressive looking, I’d say, than the Nissan Qashqai, without going overboard on the "mean" stakes. The chap from Ford gave me a very good tour of the Kuga, not just pointing out the obvious but talking at some depth about the pro’s and con’s to each feature (an unusual, but admirable trait in a showroom sales person). Some of the features were very obviously of more use than others, whilst some it seemed, were simply there to fill line space in the brochure. The first feature which springs to mind as being particularly brilliant and worthy of mention on the Ford Kuga is that you can’t accidentally shove a petrol pump nozzle into the diesel filling point - it simply won’t fit. As a driver of both diesel and petrol cars this little feature is reassuringly comforting. Another feature which I would find useful are the "secret" compartments (shhh!) hidden in the footwell behind the front seats. Ideal for hiding valuables from sight when parking up, but would be so much better if the designers had just added a simple locking mechanism of some kind. I was a little confused as to exactly what the purpose of the dual opening tailgate/boot is on a car like the Ford Kuga. Why would anyone want to only partly open the boot? The smaller opening is quite high up, so it would make loading anything into the car quite a tricky operation (imagine split shopping bags spilling fruit and veg all over the nice clean interior). Personally, I think that the money spent on developing and building this little addition would have been better spent on enhancing other aspects of the car (like adding a lock to the "secret" compartments!) or shaving a little off of the price. We jumped in. The driving position in the Kuga was excellent - the electrically operated and heated leather seat was comfortable with really good lumbar support, the multi-position steering wheel enhanced the feeling of control, and all of the buttons and gadgets were well within reach. Up front, the interior felt airy and spacious despite the dark colour. Jacob hopped onto the large and very comfortable rear seat (belted for three people). The rear seats of the Ford Kuga are elevated slightly to give a nice riding position. On the downside, legroom in the rear of the Kuga isn’t brilliant. Even with my stunted little legs in the front there wasn’t a huge amount of legroom in the back which seems to detract from the comfort-ability afforded by the elevated sitting position. I do love the capacious boot of the Ford Kuga though. Plenty of room to put in a dog cage and more than a few shopping bags, or golf clubs, or gun cases, or as Jacob mentioned, body-boards and wetsuits. The rear seats fold flat or split too so that you can carry loads that are just a little longer. One does wonder though, if the Ford Kuga is being sold as a family vehicle, why a little of the boot space wasn’t sacrificed to afford a smidgen more leg room for passengers in the rear seats. We pulled away from the forecourt, made our way through the town, and headed up the dual carriageway. The first thing that I noticed, as I always do, was the engine noise, or lack of it. Noise inside the Kuga was minimal - not at all like driving the diesel monsters of yesteryear. The car handled fantastically well. Steering was positive, and the visibility was generally very good (although the rear pillars did create a bit of blind spot for reversing). The six speed box was lovely and smooth, and for a heavy car with just a 2.0 litre engine, the Kuga didn’t feel particularly sluggish at all. Another version of the Ford Kuga is due to be released with a 2.5 litre turbo petrol engine (the same as in the Ford Focus ST) which should make the car much more exciting to drive. All in all I did like the Ford Kuga, but the 2.5 turbo petrol should make a great addition to the range. Nissan were first off the blocks for SUV’s with this type of styling with their Qashqai, and some would say that Ford were just a little too late too release the Kuga, but I disagree. The Nissan Qashqai set the scene, opened the market up if you like, and prepared it for the arrival of the Ford Kuga. I think sales of the Ford Kuga will take off quite nicely as a result. Being so new, outright purchase deals on the Ford Kuga are slim. Ford aren’t about to rush out and offer everybody generous discounts on their new baby when they really don’t need to. Contract hire deals are out there though, so take advantage of the cheap money.

Responses to this review

Have you got verbal diarrhoea? - Anthony Cavill from England

Hi there, I have had my Kuga nearly a year and I can’t fault it. I had the good fortune to have a mother-in-law who wanted us to get a larger car and was willing to pay half towards it so we went to our local Ford dealer in Kings Lynne and they gave us £5,600 for our 05 Fiesta so to me this was a bargain. one of the main features is the small tailgate, which I leave open where my dogs (English Springers) can sit and watch when I am in the field until I need to work them. I had the misfortune of going into a small ditch in the snow, which broke and made a hole in the plastic air deflecter underneath but only cost £14.60 for a new one (Ford parts are cheap.) This car is the best car I have ever had and was brilliant in the snow and goes across muddy fields as good as if not better than most 4+4 I have driven - Paul Ridgway from Norfolk

Ford Kuga Titanium 2008

I test-drove this vehicle the other day with a certain amount of apprehension but it handled so much better than my present car (C-Max) that I ordered one on the spot. I know it’s early-days but I think Ford have a ’winner’ in the Kuga. Many of its features are quite remarkable such as the split tailgate which I think is an excellent idea, and something which will be used often.

Ford Kuga Zetec 2008

This was my first 4x4 and diesel and until the Kuga I was very sceptical of 4x4’s based on my experience of a colleagues Nissan X-trail. I need not have been worried as there is no comparison in terms of comfort, ride and handling. It is great fun to drive and it is very easy to forget you are not driving an ordinary car. We use it to tow a caravan and it has proved to be a very competent tow vehicle. Minor niggles? Yes there are a few but then that is my fault for taking delivery of a new model so soon after launch (I bought it during launch week). Niggle 1: In wet weather, when opening the rear door, water drips on to the rear seat (I had an old style Mondeo that used to drip water into the boot space so seems to be Ford designers don’t test in wet weather) Niggle 2: Well a bit more than a niggle, but beware that if you want to use a roof box, you have to have roof rails as you can’t fit roof bars without rails - they cost an arm and a leg to retrofit so ensure you get optional roof rails fitted as part of the deal! Niggle 3: There is no warning for low washer level. But despite these niggles, I am still happy to give the Kuga a five star rating.