Model tested 1.0 mHEV 155PS ST-Line Price £26,640 Kerbweight 1280kg 85% of kerbweight 1088kg Noseweight 75kg Towing limit 1100kg
TOW CAR TEST
THE MOTORING WORLD is changing very fast. As recently as 2020, the Ford Fiesta was Britain’s best-selling new car. Now it’s no longer being made, a victim of rising costs and the move from fossil fuels to electricity.
You may no longer be able to buy a new Fiesta, but the Ford Puma is about as close as you can get. It shares many parts with the Fiesta, and it’s now the smallest new car that Ford sells. Despite its size and low weight, you can tow with one.
I spent a week with the Puma to get to know more about this lightweight tow car.
TUESDAY
The Ford Puma arrives bright and early. It’s a sunny day, so Ford’s delivery driver is happy to return by walking to the train station. And as there was nowhere to park other than across my driveway, I have the perfect excuse to go out for a spin.
It soon becomes obvious why the Puma is so popular with keen drivers: the Ford is so much fun to drive. The steering is precise, the gearshift slick and the engine wonderfully lively considering its 1.0-litre capacity. You don’t have to travel quickly to enjoy it, because the Puma engages the driver even when you’re driving slowly.
There’s none of the rubbery numbness to the controls that afflicts so many cars.
The downside is the firm ride. You feel the bumps more than you would in a Škoda Kamiq, for example.
WEDNESDAY
Time to tow. The Puma is a very light car; with a kerbweight of only 1280kg, it has an 85% match figure of 1088kg, just within the 1100kg maximum towing figure.
It’s a suitable match for our Bailey Discovery D4-4, but only so long as the caravan is fully unloaded and weighs in at the MiRO of 1059kg. Loading to the caravan’s MTPLM of 1206kg would be going beyond the towing limit. (For advice on caravan weights, see www.practicalcaravan.com/advice/caravan-genius-weights-and-measures.)
The Puma’s rear-view camera is a big plus as I’m hitching up on my own. As well as the usual lines showing where the car is heading, there’s also one showing where the towball will end up. This is so handy, you wonder why more manufacturers aren’t doing the same.
As soon as I leave the caravan storage facility, the extra weight of the Bailey is obvious. It takes some effort to build speed, and plenty of revs. Ford’s 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine has 174lb ft of torque, slightly less than the 184lb ft of the equi
