Ford puma st powershift

WE LOVE THE Ford Puma ST. It was one of the first great sports SUVs that wasn’t a two-tonne-plus monster with a long line of zeros in its price. Instead, it was a compact, agile, joyous thing that was well priced and very practical for a car of its size.

And what’s this? A new version with an automatic gearbox? Intriguing. But hang on: it also has a different engine with less power.

While the manual Puma ST borrows the 197bhp 1.5-litre petrol engine from the sadly departed Fiesta ST hot hatch, this ‘Powershift’ version has a 168bhp mild hybrid 1.0-litre unit. It comes with a seven-speed automatic ’box, and the 0-62mph time slows from 6.7sec to 7.4sec. This is noticeable enough to make the Puma feel pretty pedestrian by sports SUV standards. And the noise the engine makes is more high-performance blender than high-performance SUV. It’s still a moderately peppy and flexible engine, but you can’t help but feel a bit let down if you know how good the alternative is.

The gearbox shifts reasonably smoothly and quickly – you can do this manually via small steering wheel-mounted paddles – but the slick six-speed manual in the other version offers far more driver engagement. Still, unlike the manual version, the Powershift comes with adaptive cruise control that can keep you a set distance from the car in front and bring you to a complete stop if necessary.