2020 Ford Puma (crossover)

New Ford Puma: the UK’s best-selling car of 2023 gets an update

Ford refreshes its popular Fiesta-based crossover with a new face and more tech

Instead Ford has poured effort into updating the Puma’s interior, here with a new “sports car-style” cockpit that brings a lot of screen real estate. There’s a new steering wheel, a customisable 12.8in digital instrument display for the driver (bigger), and a further high-def 12in centre touchscreen (also bigger) that controls everything including the maps, infotainment and climate and seat heating.

The ‘SYNC 4’ connectivity is apparently twice as fast as SYNC 3, and the new 5G Puma gets voice recognition and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto functionality too.

Alexa’s built in, of course, while there’s a tonne of driver assist including adaptive cruise control, lane centring, a 360-degree surround-view camera, plus ‘predictive speed’ and ‘reverse brake’ assistance. That’s a lot of help.

The range is also helped by a mild hybrid setup, powered by variations of Ford’s 1.0-litre EcoBoost petrol three-pot in either 123bhp or 153bhp guises.

 
New Ford Puma: the UK’s best-selling car of 2023 gets an update

Ford refreshes its popular Fiesta-based crossover with a new face and more tech

Perhaps buoyed by its sales success, Ford has made its best-selling car even happier than before. Welcome to the excitable new Ford Puma. Look how happy it is!

Should be, too, considering Ford shifted 49,951 versions of its Fiesta-based crossover in the UK in 2023 alone. And it’s started 2024 strongly too, second only to the Kia Sportage in the sales charts. A suite of targeted updates should ensure it retakes top spot soon enough.

Chief among which is that new face. There’s a new headlight design across the entire range (with the option of matrix LED items), while the Titanium, ST-Line and ST-Line X trims get a redesigned front bumper arrangement.

There are similarly small tweaks across the lower side trims and lower part of the rear bumper, but there’s nothing that radically changes how it looks. Which is good, because it looks… good.

 
Facelifted Ford Puma debuts with new high-tech interior

It might be new to South Africa, but the Ford Puma has been around for more than four years in Europe.

First revealed in mid-2019, the compact “boutique” crossover has been given a mid life makeover.

There are a few subtle changes on the outside, including new headlights, optionally available with Matrix LED technology with Predictive Dynamic Bending Light.

But the big changes occur on the inside where we see a fresh dashboard design. The air vents have been moved to the upper dashboard, above a much larger touchscreen that now incorporates Ford’s Sync 4 software with wireless Android Auto and CarPlay.

The touchscreen’s size has grown from eight to 12 inches and now also boasts 5G connectivity and built-in Alexa, which you can ask questions such as “What’s on my calendar today?” or “How’s my commute home?”

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X