2002 Ford Puma from UK and Ireland - Comments

Replacing a Puma is hard. I'm looking at picking up an older ST170 but I think I'm going to end up paying more for my motoring and although I may go faster I doubt if it will be as much fun as the humble Puma... :- (

I wouldn't go for the hyundai. Perhaps a good choice would be the toyota. Not really many modern coupes to shout about, the Mazda RX8 is very good and are incredibly cheap used, but fuel economy is awful (20mpg).

The focus is a nice car, they don't seem to pull as well as they should though for 170bhp.

Some earlier reviews were addressing the Type R owners who are everywhere - I have noticed it as well. It does seem off topic when it happens and a bit unfair when comparing something like the puma. On the other hand I have massive respect for the type R's, my brothers Integra was insanely good, a pure out and out racer, but in the end that is why he got rid of it, he wanted something a bit less raw.

Also, the guy with 1.7 puma running 300bhp off a chip? Just a bit curious for further details on all this really, quite entertaining.

To Mr CTR.

I would rather kill myself then to be seen in a cheap Japanese piece of tin can like the Type R! My Puma is 100 times much better car to drive than that plastic piece of Japanese garbage!

I mean if you want a proper sports car, buy a Porsche mate! A Puma might not be as quick as that tin can but it is a far better looking and far better handling car than the Civic. And Clio looks crap and feels horrible to drive. You won't get a second look in the box.

So what your saying is that the Clio and the Civic both look crap and are not as good to drive as your Puma?

HA! Nice joke mate, but come off it, I mean the puma is a Fiesta with a coupe body, and to say the Civic and Clio are ugly and then claim the Puma is good is strange.

I mean for a start look how high that back end is on the car? It looks like it would topple when cornering.

Get to grips with what your car is; a cute little girls fiesta made to look faster. Sure it might drive good, but so does a Fiesta! I'll never forget the original ad for the Puma, Hmm Steve Mcqueen gives up his gorgeous classic 390 Mustang Bullitt for a Puma! Ha yeah right!.

A capable muscle car for a cheap city runabout, I'm sure he would prefer it. LOL.

I think you should open your eyes and see the truth.

I've driven the Puma and now own a Clio Sport, and believe me, the Clio Sport is vastly superior.

The Puma is OK and handles well, but is quite a bit behind a good hot hatch such as the Clio or Civic.

90% of all the comments made here should be totally discounted as they are nothing more than 'the car I own is great and the car everyone else drives is rubbish'

Very rarely have I read such infantile, misinformed and downright incorrect rubbish.

The Puma was universally highly praised in every magazine and TV road test at it's launch and is still very highly regarded today and not simply through 'rose tinted glasses' either - it's only been out of production for 6 years, not 26 years.

I do own a 1.7 Puma as my daily use car and also own a highly tuned Fiesta Mk.2 XR2 which I have won many concours trophies with. The Puma isn't as fast as my XR but it's handling more than makes up for that.

I also don't regard it as a girl's car either - any more than any hot hatch is, which let's face it are all 'shopping' cars with bigger engines and uprated brakes & suspension. That is not meant as a disparaging comment on hot hatches, far from it - I love them, but it's the truth.

A healthy and well driven Puma is more than capable of punching well above its weight as there are few cars that manage to perfectly balance the power delivery, road holding and braking performance to provide a really great driving machine. It's this 'balance' that marks out a truely great car. Many cars have monster power outputs which vastly overwhelm the chassis, or great handling cars that are underpowered.

In the words of EVO magazine, who have amongst the best and most respected motoring journalists around, Good points: Everything. Bad points: Nothing. Given the fact that they have driven every performance car every made, try and find another review that says that (the only other is the Ferrari 550 Maranello, which won their 'Car of the Decade' award). And before anyone pulls up that comment as me comparing the two, I'm clearly not, but the contributing factors from both that resulted in the identical summaries are plain to see.

PUMA!!! This is the worst review in the world, it handles good, well done!! its not a race car nor Quote (sports tourer!) it's a coupe, a run about, nothing else, that's it end of!!

Now lets exaggerate!!

"Pumas are the fastest cars in the world" quoted from timmy mallet, I've got £3000000 spent on mine and it goes 0-60 in minus 100 seconds you turn inside out its that quick!! and you gotta have a pink paint job with fluffy dice hanging from the rearview mirror, it just sets it off.

Geoff (the pub goer) back again comments "i have sexual relations with my puma and its awsome!! even the car loves it!! I am now trying to legalise marriage with cars as we wanna have car kids together and live happily ever after (god I love her so much)

PUMA!!! Enjoy.

So your saying the puma is not a shopping car either?

That doesn't even get uprated components!!lol, at least a hot hatch does and is all the better for it.

Having read all of the comments with glee, I love them all until you move onto my current set of wheels, the Clio.

Firstly, let me clarify my driving experience before everyone gives me grief. I've owned or driven lots of exotica and have been lucky to own some of the best drivers cars ever made. Namely, 205GTi 1.9, 306 GTi6, Corrado VR6, Prodrive Impreza Spec C and my current baby, the Clio 182 with cup pack. I've driven M3s, Rs4s, RS2s, Ferraris 355, 360CS and 430Scuderia and Porsche 993, 996 and 997 GT3s. Some on track, some on the road and have also driven both the Puma you're talking about and the CTR.

Now, with any car, it's not about how fast it goes or how well it corners (trust me, the Impreza buries all of the above on real roads, including a straight line and the twisty stuff), it's about how it makes you smile at the end of the day.

The Puma is fabulous to drive. Loved it. Not very powerful but what a wonderful chassis and one of the truly great cars of the past 20 years.

The Mazda MX5 is there as well, certainly in 1.8iS form. Performance similar in both terms and both fabulous to drive on any B road.

My favourite of all the above though are my old Corrado VR6 and the Clio.

I've only driven the Integra once and found it too hard.

The Civic is only great in current Japanese import form with the 225BHP engine.

The 197 needs to be revved, and is in my opinion, a compromise where the bean counters got in the way of Mugen. It is OK but not great.

The Golf is better, just not as reliable.

However, the Clio is, in my very experienced opinion, the best out of the bunch and makes me smile every time I drive it. I own 2 of them and I do car reviews for a living.

Driving is not straight lines (unless you are American) and I think it is actually fair to compare the Puma to an M3 or any other performance car in pure enjoyment terms, just don't expect the same performance without a blower.

Anyway, to all owners, if it makes you smile on a dark afternoon with an empty bit of road in front of you, don't get too het up about how many ponies are pulling or pushing you.

2001 Puma 1.7. Bog standard, owned for the past four years.

It does a 16 mile commute along some of the best driving roads in the South East every day of the week. If you want to talk stopwatches and pub bragging figures, it's not the car for you. If on the other hand you want to enjoy a perfectly balanced chassis, set up and fine tuned by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, it is perhaps one of only three or four front wheel drive cars ever made that is capable of doing what it does. Can be driven past its mechanical limits of grip yet remain steerable, confidence inspiring and controllable, delivers feel by the bucketload, and yes, is quite capable of showing up some far more powerful machinery on the right road.

Being a Ford it's also mechanically tough and cheap to look after. Why the venom on here? Is there a law anywhere forcing you to buy one?

I know (and the professional opinions of some far more capable drivers over the past decade than myself, and I suspect most of the ranters on here back me up) that you won't find a finer balanced or more engaging chassis for anything like the money. But believe what you want - it's your life. I really can't believe people get so wound up.