Growling prowling cat. (Ford Puma 1.7i 3dr)

Member Name: andycharger

Product:	Ford Puma 1.7i 3dr
Date:	02/05/01 (1440 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great car

Disadvantages: Expensive and plasticy

When Ford eventually ended the Probe saga a few years back, I thought to myself " They should concentrate on what they know best".
Cheap reliable cars that suit either new drivers (Fiesta's), small families (Focus) and larger families (Mondeo's).
Leave the sportier hot hatch type cars to other manufacturers.
They had success in the past with The XR series of cars and the RS series.
The Fiesta and Escort both proved market winners in the 80's with their great GTI type performance.
The Cosworth development team even went one better.
Then, the rot set in.
Probes proved heavy, slow and unreliable. Ugly huge sports cars without the performance.
Ford's fast cars days seem to have passed them by.

That was until the unveiling of the Ford Puma.
An instant success the world over. It was helped by a clever marketing advert utilising state of the art graphics with Steve McQueen superimposed into the car, nearly 20 years after his death.
An instant success with him driving the sleak Silver car, the majority of pumas seen on the UK roads were initially Silver.
They are now seen in a variety of colours on the road. This includes a very nice dark Blue that the new Racing Puma comes in solely.
The body styling is very rounded with hardly a straight line in sight.
I feel the look of the car from the front looks very mean. Very sporty whereas from the side it looks very cool from the front doors forward.
The back end, however, needs a lot of work in my opinion.
It looks far too high over the rear arches. The bodywork sits high anyway but there is just too much clearance over the back wheels. It makes you think the front of the car is set up very stiffly for cornering while the back is much softer for comfort.
The engine pumps out 126mph at top speed and it catapults you to 60 in 8.8 seconds.
Not bad when you think it is simply a fiesta subframe with a tidy engine.

For a performance car, it is very fuel economical. It promises you 38mpg in normal cycle and 35 in urban cycle.
The first models on the road came with the 1.4 16V engine only. The 1.7 16V model followed about 3 months later.
If you are buying one for looks alone, a saving of £1,500 will be made with the 1.4 model. Dont get me wrong, its quick enough but lacks that extra crisp bite a sports car should have. Its more like having a kit car version of the Puma.
The 1.7 model on the otherhand is very rapid indeed.
I have been in all 3 types of Puma now. The 1.4, 1.7 and the limited edition now and I would dearly love a special. There are only 1000 being made and a friend of mine that works for Visteon (Ford's Electronics company)owns one. It is lovely. It has the 1.7 engine with a lot of mods. It is tuned even higher, bigger wheels, different interior and wider wings and wheel arches to accomodate the wheels.
If you have 15,000....Buy one!

Summary: