1998 Ford Puma from UK and Ireland - Comments

Brake Master Cylinder Safety Recall in 1998.

Front Nearside Suspension arm needed replacing after 30,000 miles.

Front bonnet has been resprayed, after easy paint damage.

Rear parcel shelf is VERY badly designed - keeps falling out, and straps break - Ford also admitted to me that the manufacturers strings fitted are the wrong length. Despite this, they won't fix it for free.

Brake fluid freakishly discolours.

All brake pads and discs needed to be replaced at 30,000 miles (by Ford).

Rear boot light works when it wants to.

Alarm kept going off randomly - Alarm switch (nearside door) needed replacing at about 28,000 miles.

HEGO fuel sensor failed at 30,000 miles. (Common problem) I know of people who have had to replace this twice within 15,000 miles. HEGO is poorly designed in this car.

Rear seat trim is coming away from the metal which holds it.

Trim everywhere is coming apart.

Sometimes the immobiliser kicks in randomly.

Both electric side mirrors seized up (28,000 miles). They were VERY expensive to replace. £200 each!!! They cannot be repaired as they are "fixed one-piece units".

Car has started smelling really bad inside, of mould and wet rotten compost. This is despite a full valet, and constant use of air fresheners. Apparently, the Puma develops a interior water leak, a fault similar to older Fiesta models - Ford won't admit it. Other Puma owners have the same problem.

Head restraint is far too low to be of any use.

Loud wind noise on motorways.

Loud windscreen wipers, which are also weak. (Plastic nut covers fell off)

The car looks good, and retains good value.

The car IS very fast (especially 2nd gear), and has a reasonably low insurance group compared to other slower coupes.

1st gear is brake limited, and quite frankly rubbish, so may prevent you taking someone at the lights...

5th gear is a let down, the power has gone, and the car revs high on motorway cruising.

Make sure you get a newer key model. The key for this car is the size of my house. I think it is steam powered. What can be in something so big?

VERY Poor unique headlights, which can be difficult to upgrade in most shops - For example, FORD won't even offer an upgrade on the standard Puma lights.

Car creaks a lot.

Water pours into the boot everytime you open it during rain. Ford don't want to admit a well known problem.

Suspension keeps maxing out when going over bumps. This has got so bad, that it almost feels like the suspension is gonna break when going over big bumps (very loud).

Standard 15" wheels are too small on this car. 17" look much better, and improve handling, but be prepared for less comfort over those bumps.

Where are the cup-holders?! Don't ever goto to Mc Donalds in this car - believe me!

Both front and back electric de-misters are TOO weak to do the job. The rear screen doesn't clear in the cold, even after an hour. Front 'fine-wire' demister is gimicky, and takes too long. Also - it can make your eyes go funny, as you can't focus on the road ahead properly. Especially sometimes at night.

No glove box light.

Weak horn.

God awful rear windscreen wiper that has NO intermittent setting. It also goes quite fast, constantly and is either ON or OFF. How difficult would it have been to fit a better design Ford? (!)

Very limited leg space at the back, especially behind the driver.

NO footrest - Not nice on motorways. 306 had one.

Rear visibility is poor - Parking can be difficult. I requested rear parking sensors to be fitted to my Puma by Ford, but they said they don't fit them anymore (apparently!) - despite being advertised in their Puma brochures. God damn Ford.

Heated washer jets are desperately needed. This car in cold weather can turn into a nightmare (it is lucky I have air conditioning at least).

Also - Car has problems starting sometimes, where the revs just don't catch. My trusty 306 would always start first time.

MPG figures published are lies. This car seems to run in the mid 20s at best. Shocking for a Variable Cam.

Traction Control is NON-EXISTENT. Wheels ALWAYS spin - Especially when accelerating in the wet or in the cold.

ABS is very weak also - has only ever cut in once.

The clutch slips a lot, if you apply a lot of power.

Engine noise is TOO quiet and lacking. I could have sworn it used to make a nice rasping sound near to 5,500 revs... but this has gone now.

Reverse gear has same ungraceful clunk as Fiesta, that shakes the car when it engages.

Other gears are smooth and have a nice close ratio. Wonderful aluminium gear knob is probably the best bit about the car - Although, in the cold it will freeze your hand... and in the hot, it will burn you...

The green front lit display is too weak to see clearly at night. It is very difficult to check your speed sometimes (that's my excuse anyway).

The steering wheel is NOT adjustable for some stupid reason, and I have found that I can't see the dials properly because the steering wheel is in the way of my vision.

The car seat is TOO high. It feels more like an MPV than a coupe.

The electric seat that raises/lowers the seat is a waste of space. Why is it there? (!) You will never use it.

Ford Dealership is absolutely terrible. I cannot stress this to you enough. (My last car was a Peugeot 306, and the dealership was great, and cheap). Everytime I take my car in to Ford, it costs an absolute fortune - despite false publications claiming low service costs.

They like to take a long time to 'diagnose' the problem at £55/hour.

Apparently, my local Porsche dealer charges less, and makes you coffee while you wait.

Also - Ford are never willing to let me watch the work being carried out - Something which I find disturbing. In the Porsche dealer, they actually encourage you to watch them.

Ford are so incompetent, they managed to spill one litre of my GTX Magnatec oil all over the front seats (which ruined the interior). Problem occured after I requested that they perform the simple task, of putting my own decent oil into the engine (as they use really crap stuff, and were unwilling to put in anything else, unless I brought it with me).

Despite having a full warranty on the car, I never seem to be able to make a claim on it for anything - It is always one excuse or another - You end up having no choice, but to empty your bank account. So far infact, I have been unable to claim once on it. The warranty cost me £600.

(My last service (30,000 miles) ended up costing more than £600)

I don't think that the handling of this car is as good as people say it is. On corners, I feel as if I am going to die sometimes... Car skids a lot if you put your foot down.

There are more faults and problems with this car... but I am getting tired of writing this now... I hope it helps you... I think you get the picture.

To be honest... this car is fun, but problem ridden, and has proved very expensive in both time and money to maintain. The high unseen costs make this affordable car a bad choice. I am never going to buy a Ford again, and I consider this car to be the best they make in the UK.

Out of all the Fords this IS the BEST. I still like the car, BUT I wouldn't have bought it, had I known about all the problems, and the lack of support from Ford.

Oh my God, you need to get out more. "Wonderful aluminium gear knob is probably the best bit about the car - Although, in the cold it will freeze your hand... and in the hot, it will burn you..." what sort of comment is that. You are the type of person who isn't happy until they have something to complain about. Why didn't you pick up on the seats etc when test driving the car, sounds to me you are way too picky and using your own image of the brand to judge the car rather than judging the car on its own merits. GET OUT MORE MR/MRS MISERABLE.

Sorry mate. I have to say that this all sounds a bit bitter. I have just ordered one and obviously only after a lot of research. Firstly, if 'other puma owners' have all these problems then it wouldn't be deemed the fantastic lower value sports car that it is. It wouldn't have just about every car magazine recommending it for its drive over its practicality. Oh yeah? Why not moan about that whilst you are at it! No room in the rear? So what. You buy an MPV if you want rear room. This is a pure drivers car and contrary to your opinion (and it seems to be only your opinion) it achieves that perfectly.

We all know Ford suck, so you were accurate there, but tone down the personal vengeance theme you have going!

I was lead to this review via the Puma People website. I have owned my (used Puma) for around 4 weeks, having just sold my 98 Volkswagen Passat Turbo Diesel, real quality, excellent fuel economy, reliable, and repair bills, air con that was difficult and expensive to fix, and in my view not effective, horrendous handling (double decker bus can do better, but would have another tomorrow. My Partners VW Bora is equally good, but better handling.

But back to the Puma, it's not built as well, but we all know that, seems not bad to me, small fuel tank an irritation after only being used to filling up every 700 miles, but I knew that too. The Puma is pretty well equiped, and I read all the articles, all the reviews, but they never prepared me for the driving experiece that I'm getting. my car is on 17 inch wheels, admittidly, a little bumpy on harsh roads, but it's worhth putting up with for this level of roadholding. I've owned a succession of fast spory hot hatches and coupes, but none of them can hld a candle to a Puma for smiles per mile!

I think the author must have had a bad car, or wasn't choosing the right car for him.

I don't think the owner of this car is a one off case with a personal vendetta against ford, I've had my puma now for 14 months, I have had basically all of these problems and then some, and now I don't even bother going back to ford (who also won't let me watch any work). It is a nice car, but be prepared to pay more than you expect for repairs.

Same problems, but used a local garage,much cheaper.

I bought my wife a new Puma 1.7 in September 2001. More than 3 years and 30,000+ miles later, I still smile when I get in it. It's been trouble free. Local Ford dealer collects and returns it from/to her work place for service (the only 3 times it's been to a workshop - other than for tyres). Can't remember how much the services were, but they were less than £100 and NO extras ever needed.

We both drive it 'enthusiastically', returning 22-25mpg on average. Though it doesn't have an appetite for tyres (nearly 12000 miles on first set).

I've suprised much more powerful cars down the country lanes where we live, driven hard it really rewards. It certainly is not unstable or unpredictable. The car is so well balanced and easy to drive, the road really needs to be very greasy for traction control to cut in, likewise ABS. Stomp on those pedals, you'll get TC and ABS working - no indicator light for either though!

Faults?

Door cards work lose.

Steering wheel surface has worn rough (wife's rings?).

Head lights have extremely hard cut-off on dip.

Tail gate does drip water into boot when wet.

Nothing else that wasn't apparent on test drive - ie: we knew it was noisy, we knew the interior was a bit plastic, we knew the gear knob would be a hot/cold thang! We knew it was bloody good fun.

I recently delivered cars for a living. I've driven nearly everything available in the UK from Citroen C2 to AM DB7 (great job, crap pay!) I've not found anything I'd replace the Puma with. I have found plenty of fellow 'platers' that don't like them, but then some people like Marmite! I'll not tell you what to like, but I do tell you to go drive one before you dismiss them as a Fiesta in drag! As a small fun coupe it's unmatchable for performance and value (IMHO!)

I have a 1998 ford puma and have had my problems with it. I had to replace the wishbone bushes, both offside and nearside and had to have a new clutch fitted. but, I've had the car for 2 years and expected some problems. I have put new pads and discs on it and fitted an induction kit and performance exhaust, to make the sound match the speed. because, for a small sporty car it is very fast (especially above 4'000 rpm and the handling is astonishing. I have left small sporty Citroen saxo Vtr's for dead on backroads and vauxhall vectra's 1.8 16v were no where to be seen on motorways.

The ride can be a little bumpy over sum unlevel terrain, but that can be expected from the vehicle because it is of a sports nature with its stiff suspension.

All round it's a good car to have as long as your willing to put in the time to learn how to drive it the way its designed for at high performance.

My Puma is about to hit 100,000 on the clock its been relatively awesome! I have had a few problems (suspension needed replacing, parcel shelf is terrible - I just threw it in the garage eventually!) I am thinking about getting a Vauxhall VX220 next, but am worried it won't be as reliable... the puma goes plenty fast enough, I have a stock engine, and one night I did push it to 130 MPH... thank god no one can track my email on this thing! acceleratioon leaves a bit to be desired, but if you hang longer on the gears than feels right you can get a bit more out of it... great affordable car!

130! I had 137mph down the motorway in my stock puma and it would have been more if not for the fact I had to slow down for traffic. it's an amazing car and wouldn't swap it for anything. except maybe the racing version. the parcel shelve had to go straight away though.

Speedo inacuturate. top end is only 128mph.period. very slow car.

Ford Puma!! What a car! My wife and I have owned one since '99 and we've still got it. It gets through disks and pads a bit quick, but I think that's because the rear brake adjusters seem to seize up so the front gets hammered. It's got 65000 mls on it now so the suspension bushes are on the way out, but that's cars for you. All the time we've owned it's never let us down and it doesn't cost a fortune to run.

The best thing though about the car though is the handling, it's incredible, a proper b-road stormer!! Still brings a smile to our faces every time I take it out. Seems a bit shallow to judge a car by it's gear knob!

I wonder if the originator of this thread actually drove the car prior to ownership - a test drive for example. The faults no one can legislate for - and to be honest when owning mine for 3 years - and over 100,000 miles. It initially had problems starting in the wet - a can of wd40 took care of that. Yes it leaks into the boot - yes the parcel shelf rattles, but they're well known and documented. As for all the gripes about steering wheel position, cup holders, size of the wheels - it's bizarre that someone would even purchase the thing in the first place, were it not to their liking!

I have had my puma over 2 years and have had no trouble until recently when the sensor needed replacing and now the engine light is on and the mot and service is due, I am thinking of replacing it with a rav4 but I still love my puma it is stylishh and looks good, but I am finding it expensive to keep up to I don, t know what to do I know if I get rid of it I will regret it, but I also like the rav4.

I imported my Puma myself from Belgium 6 years ago from new and can say it has been a great car.

I agree completely with the OP regarding the rear parcel shelf. It is more of a nuisance than anything else, but when it's raining hard and you just want to load up the boot quick and go you have to muck about putting the shelf back first.

My other observation of this car - which has only really appeared in the last 2 winters is the way the inside keeps steaming up unless you have the air con on all the time. It's quite distracting when driving and the although both front and rear screens have heaters - the side windows are a nightmare with the steaming up.

I've tried every variation of the heaters, the air con, the blowers etc... to no avail. So unless there is something else I can do I just live with it.

"Out of all the Fords this IS the BEST. I still like the car, BUT I wouldn't have bought it, had I known about all the problems, and the lack of support from Ford."

Gooooood God, this is the best? No wonder Ford is in trouble.