Ford Puma review

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The driver's crossover returns with a new design and a much-needed tech lift - is it now the best in class?

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The Ford Puma now has the unenviable task of picking up where the Fiesta left off.

It must become the brand’s crucial entry-level model that draws buyers in with a well-sorted chassis, new interior technology, good practicality and competitive fuel efficiency before they migrate to cars further up the range later in life, and it must be a worthy successor to the pre-facelift model, which is the UK's best-selling car.

Now that the compact crossover class is bursting at the seams as manufacturers cash in on demand for SUVs, the competition tussling for your attention against the Puma has never been so hot.

Crucially, though, the Puma always had a trump card. This segment had long been devoid of something genuinely good to drive, until the pre-facelift car came along in 2019. Sharing a platform with the now-departed Fiesta, it became the dynamic benchmark in its class, and this new one wants to continue that legacy.

How, then, does the smallest Ford measure up to the likes of the Nissan Juke, Skoda Kamiq, Renault Captur and Volkswagen T-Cross? Let’s find out. 

The Ford Puma range at a glance

The UK Puma line-up is relatively straightforward. Power comes from Ford’s 1.0-litre Ecoboost petrol three-pot, which is available with either 123bhp, 153bhp or 167bhp in the top-rung ST. Eeach one features mild-hybrid assistance and is mated to a seven-speed automatic gearbox as standard, but the 123bhp engine can also be had with a six-speed manual gearbox.

Titanium spec represents the entry level and is followed by ST-Line, and ST-Line X. 

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A battery-electric version of the Puma is in the pipeline, but this is not scheduled to go on sale until early 2025.

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DESIGN & STYLING

Ford Puma side

Key among the exterior changes for the latest Puma are new headlamps, a restyled front grille and new wheel designs which give its proportions a worthwhile freshen up. 

It is built in Ford's Craiova plant in Romania and sits on the same B2 platform that the Fiesta sat on, although it has been stretched and widened to meet the more spacious crossover brief. The upsizing is considerable, the new model being 146mm longer (95mm of which is accounted for in the wheelbase) and 71mm wider than the Fiesta, with track width up 58mm.

Naturally, the roofline also sits far higher, while the exterior design rivals that of the Juke for sheer individuality and references the original Puma in its slightly bug-eyed, open-mouthed face. Ford deliberately made the car’s beltline flatter than usual in an effort to keep the car’s proportions balanced and less raked towards the nose, as is commonplace among rivals.

Ford is marketing the Ford Puma heavily on its hybrid status. An integrated starter/generator replaces the alternator and, as well as recovering some energy during braking and allowing the car to coast with the engine off, provides torque fill at lower revs for better throttle response and acceleration. The system can add only 37lb ft, so nobody should expect dramatically improved acceleration.

On a related note, with the mild-hybrid system masking lag, Ford has been able to add a larger turbo. Cylinder deactivation is then carried over from previous versions of the non-hybrid Ecoboost engine and can cut three cylinders down to two in just 14 milliseconds under light loads.

With its extra ride height, there is ‘more’ suspension than in the low-riding Fiesta, although the Puma’s rear torsion beam is said to be stiffer and there are firmer suspension bushes and top mounts. A common crossover bugbear is overly firm suspension, a result of trying to contain a taller body while cornering, so it will be interesting to see how the Puma fares in this respect as it continues to strive for class-topping dynamics.

INTERIOR

Ford Puma interior dashboard

It is clear that most of the Puma's development budget has gone to its interior. 

Ford has thoroughly rethought the design and upgraded the technology with a new 'floating' 12.0in infotainment touchscreen running Ford's latest software, SYNC4, together with a 12.8in instrument cluster and wireless charging, both of which are standard across the range. Ford says these systems have “twice the computing power” of the previous car’s, with over-the-air updates, built-in Amazon Alexa and 5G connectivity.

In keeping with the times, the buttons for the climate control and heated seats have now been integrated into the touchscreen, which has come as part of a move to reduce the number of physical switches for a “cleaner design”. The small size of the touchscreen icons mean it would be more convenient to have kept them as physical switches, but you eventually get used to their placement.

The Puma’s interior still doesn't have the most eye-catching design and material quality has taken a noticeable step down. The pre-facelift car had clearly been built down to a price, but now it seems Ford is simply seeing what it can get away with. The materials atop the dashboard, the door cards, the glovebox and surrounding the centre console feel nasty, and the infotainment screen’s bezel flexes at even the lightest touch.

Another gripe we had was that the right-hand stalk that previously controlled the windscreen wipers has been removed, leaving an ugly black cover where it used to be and the left-hand indicator stalk with too much to do. What's more, the new steering wheel does not include paddle shifters on automatic versions, which means you can no longer change gear yourself; strange for a sporting crossover.

The saving grace is that the major touch points such as the steering wheel, gear lever, vent adjusters, and combined indicator/windscreen wiper stalk feel of a decent quality.

Elsewhere, you get a 456-litre boot that is competitive with the T-Cross (455 litres) and Lexus LBX (402 litres), and space in the rear row is acceptable for those under six foot, but the car’s sloping roofline means those over it will struggle for headroom.

Up front, however, there is much more practicality and adjustment on offer. There’s a wide range of adjustability in the steering column and seat base, which affords you the opportunity to sit in a marginally lower, slightly more immersive driving position than you’ll find in many of its rivals. Given the Puma’s heightened focus on energetic driver appeal, this flexibility is welcome.

Ford Puma multimedia

All Ford Pumas sold in the UK have Ford’s Sync4 infotainment system as standard. This comprises an 12.0in touchscreen that’s used to operate effectively all of the suite’s main features, which include sat-nav, DAB radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Its responsiveness is excellent and it offers clear graphical sophistication, even in comparison to its Volkswagen Group rivals. The HVAC buttons have been moved to run along the bottom edge of the screen, although physical buttons around the display’s border would still be preferable.

FordConnect comes as standard across the range, too, adding a WiFi hotspot with connectivity for up to 10 devices. Meanwhile, the FordPass mobile app includes handy features such as a vehicle locator and vehicle status checker, so you can verify the fuel level and oil status remotely, and unlock the doors as well.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

Ford Puma front three quarter lead

The Puma’s powertrain has a downsized, turbo three-pot capable of shutting off entirely when the car’s coasting; of deactivating a cylinder when running lean; and of using on a 15bhp, 37lb ft electric motor to boost overall efficiency, outright performance or drivability. It works really well 99% of the time to conceal the technical complexity needed to achieve all that.

It hauls the car along from lowish revs with impressive responsiveness and a pleasingly accessible sense of oomph. Perhaps more importantly, it only allows you to become aware of the complexity of its operating brief in the most fleeting moments – sometimes with a slightly abrupt take-up of drive just as you tip into the accelerator pedal. These are problems you’d be likely to become conscious of only if you were anticipating them, though.

Considering how much it plainly does to boost low-rev torque, saving you from otherwise necessary gearchanges, the mild-hybrid system adds much more to the car’s overall drivability than it detracts. 

On a wet test day, the Puma took a two-way average of 10.0sec to hit 60mph from rest, a fairly strong if not exceptional showing. But the fact that it was almost 7.0sec (or about 40%) quicker accelerating from 30mph to 70mph in fourth gear than the 1.0-litre turbocharged Juke illustrates the difference made by Ford's hybrid system.

When pulling from low engine speeds in higher gears, you can feel the torque it contributes quite clearly – and, if you watch the tacho needle, you can also feel the point in the rev range (just above 4000rpm) when the electric motor has to switch off.

The car has a healthy-feeling outright performance level for mixed road driving and a short, pleasant, well-defined gearshift action. It’s smooth enough and as powerful and stable as it needs to be, under braking, although it’s easier to judge your initial pedal inputs once you’ve learned to squeeze the middle pedal only after you’ve already selected a lower gear.

It’s best not to downshift in the middle of a deceleration phase where you can avoid it, since doing so interferes slightly with the regenerative braking you get from the hybrid system and spoils the initial braking response a little.

The automatic gearbox somewhat lives up to the engine. In every mode it's smooth-shifting to the point where you don't notice it's there, but sometimes it can be too eager to change up and too reluctant to kick down, which blunts performance when you most need it.

You can solve this by putting it in sport mode, which makes it more willing to go down through the gears, although this means the engine doesn't rev through the mid-range as much as it should.

Ford Puma assisted driving notes

The entry-level Titanium Puma has autonomous emergency braking, conventional cruise control and lane-keeping assist. An optional Driver Assistance pack brings blindspot warning, cross-traffic alert and traffic jam assist systems, among others, and adds ‘intelligent’ distance-keeping functionality to the cruise control.

The systems are generally tuned so as to be quite discreet but can, in most cases, be adjusted for sensitivity and, in some cases, deactivated completely. Even in its most sensitive setting, the lane-keeping aid keeps the driver engaged. However, it didn’t always detect the bounds of a motorway lane through roadworks or in bad weather.

RIDE & HANDLING

Ford Puma ride and handling

The Puma was clearly intended to be a crossover hatchback that would handle before it left the designer’s sketchbook.

It’s lower riding and more athletic-looking than most of its class opponents and quite clearly carried certain key advantages forward into its dynamic development phase for its chassis engineers to seize on. Even so, it’s remarkable how well those engineers have done and how clearly this car stands apart from its rivals in a class that has until now struggled to produce anything genuinely appealing to drive.

Titanium cars have smart-looking 10-spoke 17in alloy wheels as standard. ST-Line models also get 17in alloys but in a different style, while ST-Line X cars move up to 18s.
Simon Davis
Road tester

The steering rack feels light, and the snatching, grabby awkwardness of the pre-facelift car has been replaced by intuitiveness, precision and exceptional responsiveness. Combine this with good levels of grip, a punchy engine and a tightly controlled but still compliant ride and quickly you realise why this is a dynamic benchmark for the class.

Even in Titanium trim, without the lowered sport suspension of ST-Line cars, its lateral body control and chassis response are excellent.

But just as the driving position seems to place you only medium-high at the wheel, so the keen, level, agile and engaging handling makes you question whether you’re driving a crossover at all. The car arcs neatly towards an apex and maintains its dynamic composure and chassis balance under load and when driven quickly, and in both respects, the car could easily just pass for a well-sorted, athletic-feeling hatchback.

When the electronic traction and stability controls do intervene in the driving experience, they do so progressively and without intruding at first. The car only gives you the option to disable the traction control, leaving the stability aid on in any circumstances; and just occasionally, once you’ve really got to grips with the potential of the chassis and are at risk of actually enjoying yourself, that does seem a shame when it begins to intrude on the car’s ability to entertain.

Ford Puma comfort and isolation

For a compact crossover so keen on entertaining with fleet-footed, spry handling responses, it’s pleasingly refreshing to discover that ride refinement hasn’t been sacrificed. The impressively tuned suspension provides a good blend of close body control and well-mannered fluency when travelling at pace, enabling it to confidently smooth over successive low-frequency compressions.

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Its low-speed ride is quite prone to upset, however, particularly on ST-Line cars. A T-Cross will more consistently distance you from the sorts of physical and aural intrusions that accompany runs over cratered stretches of road, but having said that the Ford's ability to soften all but the largest impacts means it doesn’t trail too far behind.

If you do opt for an ST-Line Puma, we’d recommend sticking with the 17in wheels. The 18s on the ST-Line X make the ride feel especially harsh on pockmarked town roads. Either that, or buy an entry-level Titanium car fitted with regular suspension.

At motorway speeds, the Puma’s cabin is reasonably well isolated from wind and road noise to avoid undue criticism, but it doesn’t quite rewrite the playbook, either. The three-cylinder engine can also boom back into the cabin if load is applied at crank speeds below 2000rpm.

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MPG & RUNNING COSTS

Ford Puma front three quarter

Entry-level and mid-rung versions of the Puma offer generous equipment levels at a price competitive with its biggest rivals. All of the available engines are strong and frugal even the entry-level Titanium car comes well equipped, with climate control and automatic lights among the amenities included.

As for fuel economy – a pivotal battleground in the crossover class – the Ford Puma does extremely well. Officially, it yields 49.6mpg - already more frugal than the equivalent T-Roc and Juke - but in our real-world testing the 152bhp engine returned 51.4mpg with a mix of driving for a typical driving range of 360 miles.

We feel the price of entry-level and mid-tier specifications is worth it for what you get, however this doesn’t apply the higher you go. Our top-spec ST-Line X test car, for example, is too expensive considering the interior’s cheapness.

VERDICT

Ford Puma verdict

When it first launched, this crossover succeeded where other manufacturers had failed and furnished the all-important compact crossover market with a car that represents the company’s long-standing core strengths brilliantly.

This latest car has continued that legacy with a range of efficient and redined engines, much-needed advancements to on-board technology and peerless drivability.

What's more, the exterior design changes have given it some really distinguishing design appeal and, for its handling deportment and its universal driver appeal, it rises above the standards of its peers even more clearly. You don’t need the most powerful engine or sportiest trim to experience the car at its dynamic best; and you needn’t accept compromises to practicality, refinement or ride comfort in exchange for any of its dynamic strengths.

Much as the completeness of its dynamic performance impresses, the Puma has an interior plagued with cheap plastic and a lack of space for rear passengers, which means it isn't quite as compelling as it once was.

Nonetheless, this is unquestionably a strong contender for the class lead. It's more fun to drive than the Kamiq and T-Cross, just as compliant as the Captur and more practical than the Mokka. With the smaller Fiesta now off sale, you could do much worse than to stick the Puma on your shortlist.

Jonathan Bryce

Jonathan Bryce
Title: Editorial Assistant

Jonathan is an editorial assistant working with Autocar. He has held this position since March 2024, having previously studied at the University of Glasgow before moving to London to become an editorial apprentice and pursue a career in motoring journalism. 

His role at work involves writing news stories, travelling to launch events and interviewing some of the industry's most influential executives, writing used car reviews and used car advice articles, updating and uploading articles for the Autocar website and making sure they are optimised for search engines, and regularly appearing on Autocar's social media channels including Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

Charlie Martin

Charlie Martin Autocar
Title: Editorial assistant, Autocar

As part of Autocar’s news desk, Charlie plays a key role in the title’s coverage of new car launches and industry events. He’s also a regular contributor to its social media channels, providing videos for Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook and Twitter.

Charlie joined Autocar in July 2022 after a nine-month stint as an apprentice with sister publication What Car?, during which he acquired his gold-standard NCTJ diploma with the Press Association.

Charlie is the proud owner of a Fiat Panda 100HP, which he swears to be the best car in the world. Until it breaks.

Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders Autocar
Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Tesla Roadster, Ariel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren Senna, Renault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.

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