Ford Kuga 2.0 TDI - Crossing The Great Divide

The new Kuga has a transatlantic job to do and it does it just fine

History tells us that a one-size-fits-all policy can be a dangerous thing, especially when you’re trying to sell American automotive stalwarts to Europeans and vice versa. Imagine trying to convince a ‘mid-size’ Taurus owner that a Ka has ample boot space. Yet the Blue Oval’s One Ford policy, where model proliferation across markets is out and global homogeny is in, is exactly that. And this, the Ford Kuga, is the latest fruit of those pancontinental loins. The new Kuga will replace both Europe’s Kuga (ours too) and North America’s Escape, which retains its maiden name. That jumble of DNA has had to be fed into a car whose chassis has been engineered in Cologne, its powertrain in Dagenham UK, its upper body and interior in Detroit.

‘It required a lot of diplomatic skills,’ says design boss Martin Smith. ‘We had to persuade the Americans that an SU V didn’t have to be big and boxy.’

The new Kuga will replace both Europe’s Kuga (ours too) and North America’s Escape, which retains its maiden name.

Certainly the Kuga does look a little different from other European Fords, but the resemblance to the last Kuga is clear, while the old Escape should be filing for a paternity test. The Kuga feels European to drive, too, like a scaled-up Focus essentially what it is.

Whilst the full line-up will only be released closer to the vehicle’s launch later this year. Ford of South Africa has confirmed, that local buyers will be able to choose from models powered by either a 1.6 liter turbocharged Ecoboost petrol engine with a six-speed Select Shift automatic or a 2.0 liter turbo diesel with Ford’s Power shift dual clutch transmission. Today though, we’re driving a 120kW/340Nm 2.0 TDi with four-wheel drive and a manual gearbox.

The Kuga feels European to drive, too, like a scaled-up Focus – essentially what it is.

You step into a Focus-like cabin, with the dashboard’s angular swoops and futuristic swooshes and its superhero-torso-like center stack, and you sit on a nicely padded, highly comfortable driver’s seat part-leather bolsters with grippy technical fabric in our car. Deeply scalloped door cards and an excess of headroom lend an airy feel, while the there’s plenty of room for 6ft 1in me to sit behind myself where a Focus feels far more cramped. Shame the multi-media system is so unintuitive: you can feel neurons exploding inside your head as you fail to operate it.

You can even recline the rear seats a little to create a loungey ambience, or pull the same levers to fold the 60/40-split seats almost flat and tap into 1653 liters of luggage space. This generous boot can be accessed by waving your foot under the rear bumper to activate the electrically-powered tailgate. Nice touch, but it takes forever for the hatch to be hoisted on its comically large light-sabre struts. Gimme the handle! I’ll do it myself !

You can even recline the rear seats a little to create a loungey ambience, or pull the same levers to fold the 60/40-split seats almost flat and tap into 1653 liters of luggage space

There are no plans to offer a handy seven-seat version, as Nissan does with its rival Qashqai, but there are large cup holders, cavernous door pockets and a central cubby that’s so deep you’d swear you were about to grab the propshaft small additional children may even be accommodated here.

The Focus roots show through as soon as you get behind the wheel. The electric steering is quick and meaty and consistently weighted, if too springily eager to self-center for my liking; the gear-change is light and punchy; the throttle response very eager as the torque swells from 1500rpm to 4000rpm; the chassis quite soft and the ride impressively absorbent. Ford’s attention to NVH really shines through, with a notice-able lack of wind noise and an impressive hush to driving at motorway speeds. It’s a nice, quiet, comfort-able place to be.

What’s really impressive, however, is the Kuga’s four-wheel drive system and the way it gels with electronic safety nets and Ford’s torque vectoring tech, the latter gadget using electrickery to channel torque across an axle to the wheel with most grip. It’s Ford’s own brand new four-wheel drive system and works brilliantly, although its dynamic finesse is, if anything, downplayed here thanks to the chassis’ soft, more comfort-oriented settings.

You can approach corners at what feel like ludicrously unsuitable speeds, chuck the Kuga in, plant your foot flat to the floor and it just sticks like Velcro. You go in faster. It does it again. The Kuga’s like a Hollywood villain standing there shouting: ‘That all you got? Hit me again… again… again!’

Ford says the system can analyze 40 inputs every 16 milliseconds, but what you feel is the front types nib-bling at their grip threshold, pushing the car to the edge of under-steer and then something subtly and super-rapidly snuffing it out and turning it all into something more neutral and workable. And if it works well in a soft, tall off-roader, imagine what wonders it might be able to conjure in, say, a next-gen Focus

RS. Tantalizing, isn’t it?

After a day enjoying the Kuga’s many positives, I’m still left feeling slightly underwhelmed.

After a day enjoying the Kuga’s many positives, I’m still left feeling slightly underwhelmed. It’s a very good car, one that will soak up family duties with ease, transport you in comfort and with frugality and make a damn good effort at putting a smile on your face on a good road. But it will also do all of the above without ever dazzling you with its brilliance; you may find yourself noticing that the cheaper Kia Sportage looks better, for instance, or stealing glances at those far pricier Range Rover Evoques with their sharper handling, their snappier dress sense.

Think of the Kuga as a functional friend rather than a loveable companion but if you liked the old model, you’ll definitely like the new one. Wonder if the same can be said for those American Escape owners.