2015 Ford Kuga first drive review

Blue oval hopes some small tweaks will lead to bigger sales of its compact SUV.

Stephen Ottley

03:2609 December 2014

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2015 Ford Kuga first drive review

Ford is hoping third time's a charm for its Kuga.

The compact SUV segment is one of the toughest new car segments in Australia. If a car company wants to succeed it needs to get everything right.

The first Ford Kuga – which arrived in 2012 – was at the end of its model life but arrived to relieve the aging Escape. When it did, the Kuga was too thirsty and too expensive to really be a sales hit but it paved the way for the arrival of the second generation model.

When that Kuga arrived just a year later it was meant to herald a new era for Ford in the compact SUV market; the first globally developed product for this class. After the struggles of the Escape and Kuga against newer rivals this was meant to make Ford a major player in the market.

But the Kuga is only eighth on the compact SUV sales chart for 2014, according to the VFacts data up to the end of November, behind the likes of the Mazda CX-5, Toyota RAV4, Subaru Forester and Nissan X-Trail; underlining the strength of the competition in this market.

So Ford has released an updated version of the Kuga for 2015 which tries to address the small problems that are potentially holding the car's sales back.

The blue oval has expanded the model line-up by offering an automatic transmission on the entry-level front-wheel drive Ambiente model.

That means there are now six variants to choose from with the Ambiente available in front- and all-wheel drive and the higher specification Trend and Titanium models available in all-wheel drive only.

The Ambiente gets two different specifications of the same 1.5-litre four-cylinder EcoBoost turbo petrol engine (which replaces a 1.6-litre EcoBoost). The front-wheel drive models have 110kW and 240Nm while the all-wheel drive gets 134kW and 240Nm (the same outputs as the old engine).

Pricing for the range kicks off at $27,490 (plus on-road costs) for the Ambiente two-wheel drive with a manual transmission while the new automatic variant starts at $28,990 (plus on-roads). But for a limited time the company is offering drive-away pricing of $28,990 and $29,990 respectively.

The Trend and Titanium models get a new 2.0-litre four-cylinder EcoBoost turbo petrol engine that produces 178kW and 345Nm and is paired exclusively with a six-speed automatic transmission. Both model grades also get an upgraded 2.0-litre turbo diesel engine which is good for 132kW and 400Nm (up from 120kW/340Nm) which gets an exclusive dual-clutch six-speed automatic.

The introduction of the 2.0-litre EcoBoost means a $250 price increase but there has been a $750 price cut for the diesel models.

The other big change is the option of a reversing camera on the Ambiente and Trend models, having previously only be available on the Titanium. Ford is still finalising the pricing of the camera option but has estimated the cost will be between $500 and $1000.

However, it must be pointed out that the Mazda CX-5 offers a rear camera standard across its range and the Toyota RAV4 has a camera on GXL (from $32,690) and Cruiser (from $47,290) grades, so Ford is still behind the competition in this department.

Ford hasn't changed anything else under the skin of the Kuga, but that's not such a bad thing. The Kuga's previously well weighted and responsive steering remains as does it well controlled, if occasionally hard edged, ride.

But obviously the big news is the new engines. Unfortunately our test drive didn't allow us to sample the upgraded diesel but Drive got behind the wheel of the Ambiente two-wheel drive, automatic and Trend EcoBoost.

With the same power output as the old model the Ambiente, unsurprisingly, doesn't feel all that different. The small engine doesn't endow the Kuga base model with punchy performance, but there is adequate power and torque for urban commuting.

The six-speed automatic does a good job of getting what is available from the engine, swapping cogs smoothly during our test drive. But fuel economy is still far from class leading with the Ambiente two-wheel drive auto using 7.2-litres per 100km.

The 2.0-litre EcoBoost offers up better performance but it doesn't feel as powerful as its 178kW/345Nm figures suggest. It certainly feels more responsive than the old 1.6-litre EcoBoost though, which is a plus.

The cost of the bigger, more powerful engine is an increase in fuel consumption from 8.0-litres per 100km to 8.8L.

Overall the latest iteration of Kuga is certainly an improvement on the old model but the changes aren't enough to make it a class-leader.