[Closed] 2017/2018 Ford Kuga - anyone got one

Not gone one but a mate has got the 1.6 diesel as his company car. Dunno the spec, but it had all the toys, so quite hugh up the range I guess.

He likes it and has never mentioned any issues.

4 of us went to Wales in it with bikes on the roof and 3 days worth of kit. It was perfectly comfortable and coped well.

I’ve driven lots of them, very popular Motability car. Obviously not had any long-term experience, but they’re pretty quick, very comfy, and they have features common to most Fords like the QuickClear heated screen, a pretty good auto ‘box, etc. I’d be perfectly happy with one. You’re right about them compared to the Qashqai and the X-Trail, although the Qashqai does come with a heated screen as an option, and it has a very nifty reversing camera...

It might be worth checking out the Hyundai Tucson as well, about the same size, nothing too flashy about the interior, but quite a nice place to be. The Mazda CX-5 is also worth looking at, lovely styling, and a really lovely interior and great to drive.

We have had a 14 reg from new so basically the same as what you are looking at. Ours is the 2lt Titanium 4x4.

It's been a great car for us and very practical with two under 5's and a Labrador. The auto part works well and the parking sensors are far more accurate than the ones on our old BMW. Fuel economy tends to hover around 40 mpg and it's a pretty relaxed mile muncher with plenty  of room for your feet when using cruise control.

Bad points are that it's getting a bit outdated compared to some of the competition and the engine can be quite noisy. It all depends what you compare it to but it's pretty unrefined compared to our new Discovery Sport. Speaking of which, when the Kuga was on PCP it didn't cost much less than the Disco per month. We preferred it to the Nissan's when we got it but having tested a BMW X1 recently I'd have one of them over a new Kuga. I'd want to test drive a Seat Ateca before committing too.

Overall, and having looked at the face lifted one you are considering, we have enjoyed owning ours but won't consider another of the current model.

Thanks all, the problem (if you can call it that) is that when buying used at say 10-12 months old,  the kuga is at least 2-3k cheaper than a like for like (age,mileage, engine, spec)  bmw x1, or  vw tiguan, cx5 etc.

Compared to the seat ateca, the price difference starts to get smaller , only 1-2k difference, but I think I prefer the look of the ford.

actually having just said that x1 are 2-3 k more ,I've just found a handful nearby for about 1k more.

Probably worth a look at those.

I have use of one for work and can't say it's anything better than OK. It's got a smaller engine than what you're looking at but even so, it goes through diesel quicker than a drunk goes through cheap cider.

It's reliable and robust enough but nothing wildly exciting.

Overall, I find it to be absolutely average.

It’s reliable and robust enough but nothing wildly exciting.

Overall, I find it to be absolutely average.

are any cars of this ilk particularly exciting? I think this is half the problem I'm having, I see all these sort of cars as about as interesting as buying a new washing machine, so I'm struggling to get excited about any of them. But the wife wants an suv so.....

With ref to that ^^ our 2008 Kuga is still going strong and - this is either a good or bad thing - is kind of irreplaceable.   We got ours as a family vehicle when we were expecting our first, a little but rushed into the 4wd 2.0TDI via a staff dealer launch deal.

Its been through the mill of two babies/kids, the attrition of school runs and supermarket car parks finally submitting to a DMF/gearbox failure this year.  Yet, in the main it’s reliable, has a tow hook for the bike trailer and gets us everywhere with the 4WD on All Seasons - useful for the odd muddy field at a Bike or Trialthon event.  Because of its age we don’t worry about scratches or nannying the car too much, and it has the Peugeot group TDCI which allegedly could run for years.

Its coming up to 75k miles and although it gets motorway runs 1-2 times a month I do wonder if one of those £300 aftermarket DPF’s looms on the horizon.

All in all I’d really like Mrs K to have “her” own new car - and her 40th is coming up - but this one is of such a use it doesn’t make financial sense - especially after the gearbox replacement - to buy something shiny we’d worry about scratching.   She has done the woman thing of saying “I don’t really care about cars TBH” yet...

Not sure about the new one’s but these have a relatively hard dashboard plastic.  Yeah its does look a bit “Ford 2008” but the only wear and tear was on the drivers seat where the seam came apart from all the in/out.  This was fixed with some Cloth Glue in about 3 minutes.

Its a Ford with Peugeot mechanicals - relatively cheap to fix, costs us nothing monthly and is as useful as you’d expect a suburban city living Haldex 4x4 to be, carrying 4 people, thier bikes and a boot full of sandwiches and camping chairs around the place - as above, reliable robust and not very exciting...

yeah, the above is pretty much how ours will be used, we'll hopefully keep it for 10 years + like we have done with the car it will replace.

The majority of the online reviews are not especially complementary (notable exceptions is the review from autocar - which say its quite good)compared to its rivals, They dont say its terrible, but they say its not as good as the competition. I have looked at a few kuga's and the others (qashqai ,x trail etc) ,and  I dont really relate to the reviews, it seems to me to be much better than the reviews make out - wondering if I am missing something.

Thanks all, the problem (if you can call it that) is that when buying used at say 10-12 months old,  the kuga is at least 2-3k cheaper than a like for like (age,mileage, engine, spec)  bmw x1, or  vw tiguan, cx5 etc.

I'm making a general statement here but the BMW/VW will hold on to their value better. Not such a concern if you run cars into the ground but if you change every 2-3 years it's worth looking into.

As I said above, it all depends what you are comparing it to. When we got ours we looked at the competition and decided we liked the Kuga best. Since then most of the direct competition has been replaced with all new models and plenty of new rivals have popped up so I imagine some have moved the game on. It's all quite small margins so you can't really go wrong with any of them.

After all the glowing reviews I had a good poke around in the Ateca. Can't say it blew me away and I thought the materials used felt flimsy compared to our Kuga, especially the seat fabric. If the Kuga comes up cheaper than the rivals it's well worth going for. It's a tool that does every job to a decent standard. Having said I wouldn't buy a new one I keep meaning to change ours but it's so competent I just haven't got round to it!

Went to look at an ateca this morning,similar price to the ford,but the ateca was slightly newer. Spec wise both had the essentials.

I prefer the interior of the seat,but the exterior of the ford

Suspect the ateca would depreciate less.

I guess I need to play the dealers off against each other and see which comes out best.

I have a 66 plate one, there’s a reason you see so many on the roads

Yep they may be a bit bland but they do what it’s says on the tin

Brother has the 180 ST Line and the BIL has the 180 Titanium X (with loads of extras). Both bought them at 12 months old.  No issues so far - had almost a year.

ST Line looks best, but Titanium X has all the toys.

I have looked at a few kuga’s and the others (qashqai ,x trail etc) ,and  I dont really relate to the reviews, it seems to me to be much better than the reviews make out – wondering if I am missing something.

Yeah, car magazines can only find glowing things to say about cars that they find exciting. An MX-5 is lots of fun, but a practical family car it ain’t! Getting in and out of one is something I find almost impossible to do these days, an SUV is a doddle.

I’ve driven several Kuga since the first post, and I used to drive them over significant distances, two to three hour runs at a time, and the only things I didn’t like so much were the styling, and the rather cluttered and difficult to use dash layout. On the newer models, the dash is simpler with a decent sized touchscreen, and the styling is a little less boxy than models from three to four years ago. One thing I particularly like, though, is the comfort, the seats are like armchairs, and the auto box is pretty good, not far off VAG’s DSG ‘box.       The Ecoboost engines are excellent as well, smooth and quiet with plenty of poke. The Renault Kadjar is roughly equivalent in size, based on the Qashqai platform, but it’s a much prettier car, and a very nice drive, good auto box, and decent poke from the bigger engine. Might be worth looking at as well.

I’ll reiterate, I used to get to drive lots of cars for significant distances, often over two hundred miles at a time, which gave me a good idea about what a car might be like to have as a daily driver. That didn’t include running costs, of course, or carrying lots of stuff, but it did give good insight into comfort and ergonomics, my own favourite being the Vauxhall Mokka, which just fits me perfectly, I couldn’t have designed a better driving position for me, but that’s why it’s so difficult to really make solid recommendations, ‘cos everyone has different needs comfort-wise and layout-wise.

went to look at an ateca today, it was nice enough, but I preferred the kuga.

The dash layout and satnav in the ateca was better, the seats were about the same, but the ateca felt pretty cheap in places. the door release handles are really cheap feeling/looking as are the pull handles on the door. There's no cladding on the door frames, so you just see bare painted metal when the door is closed - it reminded me of something cheap from the early 90's. The kuga felt much higher quality to me  - which is at odds with what the reviews reckon.

Cabin space in the ateca was very good,probably a little more spacious than the kuga,but not much in it.   seats were comfy (similar to kuga, boot space is good, but it has a standard rigid parcel shelf rather than one of those retractable covers that the kuga and most other suv's have.

Kuga is mostly higher spec'd for less money, eg kuga has panoramic opening glass roof, automatic parking etc etc. but then is a bit cheap in other areas - like the ateca had LED headlights, wheras the kuga only has standard halogens .

Overall - I think its a kuga for us.

Had a 2013 1.6 Petrol Turbo Titanium with an auto box. Probably one or two facelifts before the one that you are looking at. Liked it a lot for a combination of town use and then a few long (4000+ km) road trips. Took ours on a load of gravel roads and the beach a few times and it did well enough there. Small petrol tank and drank a lot of fuel - though that was with a SUP on the roof - meant 500km range, which got a bit worrying a few times. Comfy enough for our small family and OK when we had extra passengers. What I liked most was that the boot was massive - great for camping gear etc. Only sold it as we went for more of an old skool 4WD.

So that's that, we've bought a frozen white 2017 Kuga st line X 180hp diesel  4wd manual .

Looks nice, has a fair few gadgets , we'll see how it goes. Its intended to be our car for the next 10 years.

Well done Julians. I can vouch for the 10 years 😀