REVIEW | Why the Ford Puma is a cat of a different tale

When I was a teenager, the internet used dial-up modems, smartphones didn’t exist and the Ford Puma was a sleek coupé. I knew this because I used to squander my pocket money on month-old copies of the UK’s Car magazine bought from a place called Magz: a once-popular newsagent that sold imported publications by the kilo.

In 1997, the magazine was a good read with lots of edgy photographs and equally spiky copy; the antithesis of our local rags. It also showcased numerous vehicles exclusive to the UK and European market — machines of whim and mystery capable of stirring hearty breaktime debate among my group of equally car-obsessed mates.

While some of them thought the Puma a bit girlie, I was — and remain — a fan of its very swoopy 1990s styling. It was also a great piece of marketing. Take the underpinnings of the Ford Fiesta (then in its fourth generation), slap on a sporty three-door body shell and, wham, you have an affordable coupé that makes discerning continentals feel like they’re at the helm of something more special than an old humdrum hatchback.

The year after I graduated from college, 2005, I grew to like the Puma even more after I stumbled upon the original UK TV commercial uploaded to something called YouTube. Set in modern-day San Francisco, it was a 60-second masterpiece that used footage from the unfathomable 1968 crime caper Bullitt, including actor Steve McQueen, who was digitally cut and pasted behind the Puma’s steering wheel. This made me want to drive one even more but, unfortunately, I never got a chance. Though, on a trip to London in 2009 I spotted a few parked on the street near my B&B in South Kensington.

Closer to home in Melville, Johannesburg, I recently had a crack at the new second-generation Ford Puma. Well, new to South Africa, anyway, as it has been available in overseas markets since 2019 and was only launched to us scribes in November 2023.

Small coupés might have been all the rage when the Spice Girls were blowing up the charts, but in this terrible era of social media and narcissism they’ve been cancelled in favour of compact crossovers — questionable creations straddling a rather useless line between regular hatchbacks and small SUVs. This is why, in a rather incongruous twist of fate, Puma Version 2.0 gets five doors instead of three and 164mm of ride height to better negotiate urban obstacles such as speed bumps. Other than the oval-ish shape of the headlamps, there’s nothing linking this cat to its svelte forebear. Or is there?

Scratch the surface and you will discover the new Puma, like the old one, is nothing more than a repurposed Fiesta again pandering to fickle consumer tastes. This means it is genuinely good to drive with direct steering, decent feedback and an ability to sniff out apexes with a keenness akin to a junior hot hatchback. The trade-off is a slightly choppy ride on Johannesburg roads (especially in STLine Vignale trim, where 18-inch alloy wheels wear skinny 215/50 tyres), but if you enjoy driving it’s worth putting up with.

Momentum is provided by a plasticky 1.0l three-cylinder EcoBoost engine that combines decent power (92kW/170Nm) with claimed fuel consumption figures achievable only in a laboratory or on the moon. My achieved 8.0l/100km was way off Ford’s 5.3l/100km.

A seven-speed automatic is the only transmission available on the Puma and, for the most part, it does a reasonable job at switching between cogs. Those looking for manual intervention will be disappointed, though, as Ford’s engineering team decided not to fit paddle shifters to the steering wheel. I can excuse such a decision in something like a Corolla Quest, but it is a serious oversight in a car as engaging to drive as this.

To compensate, the Blue Oval went absolutely nuts on the tech side of things, with the Puma ST-Line Vignale coming attached to practically every gadget, doodah and gizmo known to modern motoring man. Floating eight-inch touchscreen infotainment screen? Check. Massaging partial-leather seats? Check. Digital instrument cluster? Check. Five driver modes? Check. There’s also a wireless charging pad, ambient lighting, automatic climate control, a 10-speaker B&O sound system and side-mirror puddle lights that at night broadcast a somewhat cheesy silhouette of a puma in full-on pounce mode.

Though we can’t argue about the Puma being well equipped, we can quarrel about its build quality. Or, rather, lack thereof. Some of the cabin plastics seemed nose-wrinklingly low rent, while the “Fantastic Red” paint applied to the exterior of my test unit displayed a level of orange-peel effect that would make even its 1990s predecessor blush. We can also rant about the clever two-tier boot that, though capacious, is accessed via a dim-witted hatch that doesn’t fully clear your head when opened. I frequently clobbered my nut against its leading edge when loading/offloading groceries and gear.

However, the biggest barney is reserved for the price tag: a whopping R614,400 on the ST-Line Vignale. This excludes a service plan that comes standard on cheaper rivals such as the VW Taigo and T-Roc, Toyota C-HR and Opel Mokka. All of which got me wondering whether McQueen would be quite as enamoured with this Ford Puma as he was the last.