2001 Ford Puma 1.7 from UK and Ireland

Summary:

An excellent Sports Coupe

Faults:

On first service front tires needed replacing as the tracking was out. Dealer contacted Ford and they replaced the tyres and adjusted the tracking free of charge.

My first Puma bought in August 1997, was virtually trouble free.

General Comments:

Excellent all round performance, a real drivers car, a pleasure to drive.

Braking is excellent, my first Puma had the front disc's replaced 4 times under the warranty. No trouble with this one so far.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 23rd December, 2002

2001 Ford Puma Storm 1.7 from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Cracking engine, go kart thrills, build quality gremlins

Faults:

Severe stone chipping on bonnet.

Rattles in both doors. Drivers side window does not shut properly and unaligns itself.

Rear parcel shelf keeps coming loose, water enters boot when opened after a bout of rain.

Passenger seat rattles if there is no passenger sat in it.

General Comments:

This car is near perfect, but flawed. The paint finish is to be scorned, stone chips appear so easily I dare not drive on an unfinished road surface.

Inside space is quite tight, I'm 6' 2" and can barely squeeze into the seats, but once I'm in the legroom is OK. I just wish the back of my head would reach the headrest and that the steering wheel was adjustable for height. But the funny thing is you can ignore this because the handling is superb. Long journeys are OK, but not recommended. Forget the back seats, this is a coupe. The boot is useful, but useless in the wet, all your shopping gets sodden.

The interior has some nice touches, but interior quality is substandard. The materials are very cheap and phantom rattles can be heard all over the car.

The Puma has sold on it's reputation of great handling, superb engine response, and lighting reactions to driver input. On all these points I agree wholeheartedly. The gearshift is brilliant and the way you can chuck it through bends is awe inspiring. But I get the feeling I should have bought a VW Golf which though is inferior in the handling stakes and ultimate driver fulfillment, it has a more powerful engine and is better screwed together. And one more thing the dealerships should concentrate on helping their customers, not just try to palm them off.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 16th September, 2002

18th Sep 2002, 06:49

Agree on the dealers and that quality ain't up to VW standards. However no mk3 onwards Golf will touch a Puma for twisty road thrills, whatever it has had done to it, and however much power it makes. Hot hatches don't work when they weigh 1400kg!

Puma build quality is better than the mk4 Golf's dynamics. You made the right choice.

20th Mar 2004, 16:38

Interesting set of reviews. The car is great to drive (best I've ever owned) but the reliability of mine is so awful I am always concerned about what will go wrong next.

It's had so many faults that I cannot consider buying another car from Ford. Faults are electrical and mechanical, the body panels started to come apart after 15,000 miles to let rainwater ingress to the interior. I was told it was normal wear and tear... come on dealers!

I particularly took note of the issue about stone chipping. I have never driven a car which has such fragile paint finish, the slightest little impact removes paint down to the primer. Never experienced this in 20 years of driving. As for the rear parcel shelf... well most Puma owners have to live with it spending most of it's time in the bottom of the boot.

A great shame. What could have been a great car has turned out to be a total rogue!

6th Feb 2007, 08:00

Hi i've been driving for nearly two years now and want to step up with he money that I have and have been looking into the puma thunder model with he extras, but would recommend the puma to me?