The Ford Puma ST provides the most fun it’s possible to have in a crossover.
Fast Fords hold a special place in many people’s hearts, whether you lust over the Blue Oval’s iconic performance cars like the Escort RS Cosworth, or the more recent offerings from Ford’s ST division. It’s seemingly very rare for the company’s engineers to have an off day.
To some, creating the Puma ST will have been a step too far for the performance division, but it shouldn’t be surprising when you consider the number of hot small SUVs on the market nowadays. The Hyundai Kona N is probably the Puma ST’s most direct rival, but it must also compete with the Volkswagen T-Roc R, Audi SQ2 and Cupra Formentor from the Volkswagen Group, plus the smattering of hot hatchbacks still around. Pity then that’s it’s no closer to an Australian introduction as our test in the UK reveals it’s a great hot crossover.
All Pumas share most of their underpinnings with the Ford Fiesta, and the hottest Puma borrows heavily from the brilliant Fiesta ST hot hatchback. That includes the 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine featured in the Puma ST from launch, which is paired with a six-speed manual transmission that sends drive to the front wheels.
While the Puma ST uses the same 1.5-litre three-pot turbo petrol engine as the Fiesta ST, there is one subtle change to the two model’s powertrains: the Puma’s exhaust note is tuned to be slightly less lairy than its supermini relative’s. That’s a nod to the fact that the Puma is fundamentally designed to work as a more practical family car.
The crucial difference between the supermini and SUV here is the rear torsion bar. In order to compensate for a higher centre of gravity, the Puma’s arrangement is 40 per cent stiffer than the Fiesta’s.
So do the ST upgrades work in the crossover bodystyle? In a word, yes. The Puma ST is an absolute hoot, and is easily the most fun it’s possible to have in a crossover. In terms of agility, body control and adjustability, the hot Puma is miles ahead of anything else in this class, or indeed the previously mentioned alternatives from Volkswagen and Audi.
The low-speed ride is bumpy – the extra height seems to give the impression that the Puma ST bobbles around even more than its Fiesta sibling – but on a typical British B-road, this feeling fades into the background and the chassis really comes into its own. Whether you choose to make the most of the impressive grip from the standard-fit Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres, or flow along at six or seven tenths, the Puma remains a genuinely satisfying, exciting car to thread along a great road.
If there’s one small flaw with the car’s handling, it comes from the steering. It’s wonderfully precise, but it feels very sharp – almost too sharp for a car such as this. While that quick rack is perfectly matched to the Fiesta, the Puma’s extra height and mass mean that it borders on the nervous here. It’s something that the driver eventually syncs with, but we think that a slightly slower response would work better here.
The snappy manual gearbox helps to make the most of the power available, and the pedals are well positioned for heel-and-toe downshifts. Those uprated brake discs feel reassuring under foot, and have enough bite to bring things back into check.
To most people, the Puma ST will look almost indistinguishable from a regular Puma. It uses similar bumper designs to the existing ST-Line trim, but selective use of black paint and different mesh patterns for the grille give the ST a tougher look. A front splitter supposedly adds 80 per cent more downforce than the standard car, while Ford says that the big rear wing and diffuser also have a positive effect at the back.
Some of the other subtle visual tweaks include red ST badges, large 19-inch alloys, red brake calipers and a double-barrel exhaust poking out of the back bumper.
Inside, the ST adds some figure-hugging Ford Performance sports seats, a flat-bottomed steering wheel with ST badging, some new pedals and gearknob. Wireless charging for smartphone devices, parking sensors all round, and a 12.3-inch digital driver’s display are all standard, too.
The options list of the Puma ST is pretty small, with buyers able to add the Performance Pack we mentioned earlier, a contrasting black finish for the roof, rear spoiler, door mirrors and window trim, or a panoramic sunroof if they so wish too, plus a smattering of other little bits.
The Puma ST features an eight-inch touchscreen – the same display you’ll find in the regular Puma and Fiesta supermini. During our twin test between the Puma ST and Hyundai’s Kona N we found that the Ford’s system was tricker to use. Not only is the screen smaller, or as clear as the Kona N’s, the shortcut buttons are on a pop-up menu on-screen, rather than being separate. This requires you to make at least two presses of the screen to make a selection where you’d simply hit one of the Kona’s physical buttons to get to the option you want.
For a car of its size, the Ford Puma delivers a surprising amount of boot space, and that hasn’t been compromised for the ST. There’s a decent amount of passenger room too, but the magnificent sports seats do limit legroom for rear passengers.
The Ford Puma ST is the best-handling compact SUV on the market, and by some margin. It’s not quite as thrilling to drive the Fiesta ST it has spawned from but if it could only be an SUV we can have in Australia going forward, the Puma ST is simply the best of its type.