Ford launches new Puma ST Edition
The old Fiesta ST Edition was something to write home about - can Ford really repeat the trick with its crossover?
You’ll remember the Ford Fiesta ST Edition, of course. It sought to improve on the already brilliant supermini with new chassis hardware alone, and succeeded wildly. No faster in a straight line was it, but it cornered even more enthusiastically - and on the basis that everyone bought a Fiesta ST to enthusiastically knock off corners, it made for a hot hatch of the highest order. Back in 2020, Dan P even said it was better than the then-new Toyota GR Yaris. And he was right.
Naturally, it being exceptionally good was not a good enough reason to save it from the chop (no surprise there when selling a bajillion was also not considered an adequate reason), so the ST Edition died alongside the rest of the Fiesta lineup. Ford’s flimsy excuse at the time, in a nutshell, was that everyone was buying the Puma anyway, so we could all have one of those, regardless of its tedious appearance and higher asking price.
Faced with precious little choice in the conventional small car segment - and with virtually no competition elsewhere in Ford’s dreary lineup (Mustang excepted, obviously) - British consumers have duly kept the Puma at or near the top of the nation’s best-selling cars, and made it by far the manufacturer’s most popular car. Presumably as a result, Ford has now decided to roll out an Edition variant in much the same guise as its (spiritual) predecessor.
Thus you get a new Handling Pack that features coilovers supplied by KW Automotive alongside dampers that use ‘sophisticated valve technology’ - a nod, presumably, to the dual-valved passive solution that also featured in the Fiesta. At any rate, the Puma’s ride height is lowered by 10mm, and its maker promises ‘superior response and enhanced capability on road and track’.
Hard to imagine many people willing to be caught dead on circuit with the school-run special - but lengthy previous experience of the Fiesta (which shared its undersides with the Puma) suggests that the Edition will perform as advertised. Elsewhere you get illuminated scuff plates and a sports steering wheel, not to mention the Azura Blue paint and contrasting black roof that made the supermini version standout.
Sadly, what you don’t get is the old 200hp 1.5-litre three-pot, which was lobbed on the scrapheap some time ago for being too lavish with its emissions. The manual transmission has long since departed, too, the pairing replaced by a mild-hybridised 170hp variant of the 1.0-litre Ecoboost mated to a seven-speed Powershift auto, which is said to be capable of 0-60mph in 7.4 seconds. A shadow of its former self then in straight line terms then - but perhaps that was always beside the point as far as the Edition was concerned. Expect confirmation of price and UK spec in due course.
Soft spot for the 200 bhp puma ST, looks great, just couldn't get the missus out of her mini.
Soft spot for the 200 bhp puma ST, looks great, just couldn't get the missus out of her mini.
t edition.You'd think it would just be cheaper to have kept the Fiesta's platform instead.
Indeed, I always find it amusing that these jacked up crossovers are then ... er .. let down again for the 'sporty' versions
On the back of the mis step with the Ford Capri i cant see droves of people rushing to their local dealer for one. lets hope they get it right with the electric replacement for the Fiesta....
First of all, two of the three pictures are of the Puma Gen-E Black Edition, not even the car they’re writing about.
Second, it’s not a powertrain car, which is a shame – it’s a chassis car. Read some actual reviews, or better still drive one. It’s great fun around corners. Carwow had it down as more enjoyable than the Polo GTI, which is a damning indictment of the latter.
Ford still go to great lengths to make their cars fun to drive, even the SUVs, and have done ever since the Mondeo in 1993.
But I honestly don’t know why they bother, given the ill-informed harping they get from the mass of so-called car people who think an SUV must be terrible to drive or a car is only any good if it’s packing 250hp+.
A truly hateful car that somehow the buying public seem to keep buying in large volumes in the UK.
This looks like a lazy effort to broaden the appeal to the hot hatch crowd, whom have mostly now gone elsewhere
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