Ford Kuga 2013 review

The first Ford Kuga was a latecomer to Australia, having already been on sale in Europe for four years before it reached us early in 2012. Ford finally appears to be getting serious in this market segment, one of Australia’s fastest growing. This time around the all-new TF series Kuga has reached us only a matter of months into its life.

Value

Serious price pruning means the Ford Kuga comes to market starting at $27,990 for the Ambiente 1.6 litre front-wheel drive manual and tops out at $20,000 later for the $47,740 Titanium 2 litre diesel automatic all-wheel drive.

A Technology Pack at $2650 adds Active City Stop, adaptive cruise control, blind spot information system, lane keeping aid, lane departure warning, auto high beam driver impairment monitor, while prestige paint is $385 extra. Like all current model new Fords, the Kuga has capped price servicing for 105,000km or seven years, whichever comes first.

Design

Design of the all-new Ford Kuga first came to light as the Vertrek concept car. Not too far removed from that concept, it has styling with real eye appeal. Inside there’s emphasis on tactile quality with a soft instrument panel and upper door panels.

More interior space, particularly in the rear, is a feature when compared with the previous model. Rear seat backs also recline over a 10-degree range, allowing occupants to set seatbacks for individual comfort. As well, the new Kuga offers 46 litres more cargo space than before, while the rear seats fold flat in a single movement.

Engine and Transmission

New Kuga calls on one of two engines to power the range – a 1.6-litre EcoBoost petrol, or a 2.0- litre Duratorq turbo-diesel. There is either a six-speed manual transmission (Ambiente petrol front-wheel drive only), or a six-speed Ford PowerShift automatic.

We spent a week with a Kuga Trend automatic all-wheel drive priced at $36,240, plus on-roads. This was pushed up to $36,625 with the addition of premium paint. Further improving Kuga fuel economy are grille shutters which are activated at highway speeds to change the direction of airflow and further smooth out the front of the car. The new Ford 1.6-litre EcoBoost petrol engine is available in two states of tune – 110 kW / 240 Nm and 134 kW / 240 Nm – the latter powering our test vehicle.

Ford claims fuel consumption has been reduced by 25 per cent over the previous petrol Kuga, with 8.0l/100km on the combined urban / highway cycle. Typically we found our car using petrol in the low to mid sevens on the motorway, but this leapt to 12-13 l/100 in town traffic.

Safety

A long list of active and passive safety features is available across the board: seven airbags, including driver’s knee airbag, Dynamic Stability Control with ABS, Trailer Stability Function and Hill Launch Assist (manual only), Brake Assist and rear parking sensors.

Kuga is the first Ford vehicle in Australia to feature Emergency Assistance (EA) across the range. Ford’s interesting Sync system works in conjunction with the driver’s paired smart phone. On detecting airbag deployment or activation of the emergency fuel shut-off, Emergency Assist uses the on-board GPS locator and Bluetooth-paired device to make an emergency call, providing GPS co-ordinates to emergency services.

More than 30 per cent of the body structure made up of high and ultra-high strength steels, the car came up with a maximum five-star crash test rating by both EuroNCAP and the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).

Driving

Power in our review Kuga was put to the road via an all-wheel drive system that automatically assesses road conditions 20 times faster than it takes to blink an eye, readjusting the front-rear power split to give optimum handling and safety.

Dynamics and cornering control have been improved by the introduction of the enhanced Torque Vectoring Control system developed for the Focus RS. This applies a small amount of braking to the inside wheels through bends if you attack them too hard and keeps the vehicle on line.

Road and wind noise have been significantly reduced to help deliver one of the quietest cabins in the segment. Arms full of parcels and/or kids? No problem, the Kuga Titanium’s tailgate can be opened hands free by making a simple kicking motion under the rear bumper. Perform the action again and it closes.

The complete 2013 Ford Kuga range:

Ambiente 1.6-litre petrol FWD five-door wagon (manual)
Ambiente 1.6-litre petrol AWD five-door wagon (automatic)
Trend 1.6-litre petrol AWD five-door wagon (automatic)
Trend 2.0-litre turbo-diesel AWD five-door wagon (automatic)
Titanium 1.6-litre petrol AWD five-door wagon (automatic)
Titanium 2.0-litre turbo-diesel AWD five-door wagon (automatic)