Given that the Ford Puma of the late 1990s arrived with the bold tagline ‘A driver’s dream’, Ford‘s decision to reprise the name of its pint-size coupé on the tailgate of a crossover seems perplexing.
With a larger frontal area, a higher centre of gravity and more weight, this new Puma clearly distances itself from traditional ‘driver’s dream’ territory where the 1034kg original did everything budgets would allow to get closer.
But times have changed. Today, the compact crossover class is bursting at the seams with members as manufacturers cash in on demand and the mass-market space for more unusual, enthusiast-minded projects has rapidly shrunk.
However, what this segment has long been devoid of is something genuinely good to drive, which is where – Ford says – this new Puma will justify its name. The car will slot into the range between the dreary Ford EcoSport and the Ford Kuga and it shares a platform with Ford Fiesta, which, as you may have heard, is easily the dynamic benchmark in the supermini class.
Technical specs
Model tested:
Puma 1.0T 125 MHEV Titanium
Keyword: Ford Puma Review (2021) | Autocar