Ford Puma ST Review 2024

If you need the space and practicality of a family SUV but still want something that’s fast and fun to drive, then yes, the Ford Puma ST most certainly is right for you. It’s not the most powerful sporty SUV out there, and it’s not as fast as some as a result. However, it’ll be plenty brisk enough to have you grinning from ear to ear on every journey, and despite the performance deficit, it’s still more enjoyable and more engaging to drive than any rival. It’s a sight cheaper to buy, too.

The Ford Puma ST is offered with a choice of two powertrains: a turbocharged 1.0-litre petrol mild hybrid with 170PS and an automatic gearbox, or a more powerful 1.5 turbo petrol with 200PS and a six-speed manual gearbox.

Now, we love the latter. The frenetic character of the engine in terms of both the performance it gives and the noise it makes suits the ST’s up-and-at-’em nature perfectly. The manual gearbox is a pleasure to use and lends the car an extra layer of interaction. We haven’t yet tried the less powerful model, so we don’t know what it feels like to drive, but we fear that with less power, less pace and the loss of that gearshift, it might well lose something when it comes to driving involvement. It’s barely any cheaper to buy or run, either.

The Ford Puma ST is something of a rarity; virtually every manufacturer offers a small SUV of some variety, but not too many make a sporty one. Those that do tend to pack them with as much power as possible, much more than the Puma’s still very considerable 200PS. Those options include the Hyundai Kona N, the Volkswagen T-Roc R, the Audi SQ2 and the BMW X1 M35i, and they’re all way more expensive than the Ford. So, if you’re looking for something fast and fun, but still affordable, the Ford Puma ST has few peers.

This is an area in which the Ford Puma ST impresses you. Sure, the interior isn’t particularly colourful, but it is pleasant, with some squishy, high-grade materials to be found in important places – like on top of the dashboard and doors – and a leather finish for the steering wheel and gear lever. What’s more, there are a few other carefully chosen trims and textures dotted around to mix things up a bit and keep things interesting.

It is true that as you probe lower down and further back in the cabin, the quality of the materials used does drop off a bit. However, that’s also true of the vast majority of the Ford Puma ST’s small SUV rivals, so it’s utterly forgivable here, especially given the Puma’s competitive price point.

All versions of the Ford Puma ST get the same SYNC3 infotainment system, and the good news is that it’s cracking. It combines a clear and attractive 12.3-inch digital driver’s display with an 8.0-inch central touchscreen, and it works brilliantly thanks to logical menus, large on-screen icons and slick graphics. It also supports all the functionality you expect, including navigation, DAB radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. You also get wireless phone charging, as well as a couple of USB ports and a ten-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system as standard, giving crystal-clear sound.

This is definitely an area of strength for the Ford Puma ST, which is important given that most Pumas will be used as family cars. There’s lots of space up front and very competitive space in the back as well. Six-foot adults will fit with relative ease, although you won’t want to squeeze three people across the rear bench on a regular basis. If you’re carrying children, there’ll be space to spare. It’s not class-leading back there for roominess, but it is competitive.

Special praise must be reserved for the Ford Puma ST’s boot. With 456 litres of space, it’s not only one of the biggest load areas in the class, but it also has the measure of many cars from the class above. And it’s not just big, it’s clever, too. Lift up the boot floor, and you’ll find what Ford calls the ‘Megabox’, which is an 80-litre storage space that’s lined with waterproof plastic and has a drain plug in the bottom. That means you can fill it with ice and use it as a drinks cooler, or use it to store muddy wellies safe in the knowledge that you can hose it out later.

With the false floor in place, you also get a stepless load area when you drop the 60/40 split-folding rear seats. What’s more, the backrests lie flat and level, which makes the space even more usable.

For the vast majority of its existence, the Puma ST was available with a single powertrain, the same one found in its hot hatch sibling, the Fiesta ST. The 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, teamed with a six-speed manual gearbox, punts out an identical 200PS, but torque has been increased slightly from 290Nm to 320Nm to account for the Puma’s bulkier bodywork.

As such, the Puma ST matches the Fiesta’s 0-62mph sprint time of 6.7 seconds, and if speed limits weren’t an issue, it would keep going all the way up to a top speed of 137mph. More important than the numbers, though, is the way it feels, and the car feels every bit as fizzy and as eager as you'd hope, building speed quickly and consistently.

It’s not just the power that makes it special. The short, sharp-shifting action of the six-speed manual gearbox makes it an absolute joy to operate and adds a further level of engagement, while the pin-sharp pedal response also adds to the feeling of immediacy. It may not be the fastest car of its type, but it's as enjoyable as anything else when rushing towards the horizon.

In late 2023, a little while after the Fiesta had been discontinued so that Ford could concentrate on production of the Puma, an additional version of the ST was released. It has a tuned-up version of the same 1.0-litre, three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine found lower down in the Puma range, teamed with mild-hybrid assistance and a Powershift twin-clutch automatic gearbox.

This powertrain has a steady-state power output of 160PS, which can be temporarily hiked to 170PS for short periods by an overboost function. When overboost and the mild-hybrid assistance are both in full effect, torque is hiked from 200Nm to 248Nm. It has a 0-62mph time of 7.4 seconds and a top speed of 130mph, but we haven’t had a chance to drive it yet, so we can’t tell you how effective it is. Fingers crossed it still feels as frenetic as an ST should.

You want a bit of noise in a sporty car like the ST, provided it comes from the right source, and at the right time. Happily, the Ford obliges. The 1.5-litre engine stays smooth and subdued when you’re just pootling along, but when the revs rise, it gives off a pleasant burble that adds to your excitement levels even further.

Wind noise isn’t at all bad given the Puma’s slightly-taller-than-normal stance, and although the chunky tyres do generate a bit of road noise, it isn’t offensive at any speed.

The Puma has actually been tested by safety experts Euro NCAP twice. In the first test in 2019, it achieved the full five-star rating, but because it’s one of the biggest-selling models around, it was retested in 2022 under the safety body’s more recent, more stringent standards. This time it received only a four-star rating, largely because the car has neither a central airbag nor an eCall emergency response system.

What it does have, however, is automatic emergency braking, lane-keep assist and lane-departure warning, along with a post-collision braking system that locks the anchors on after a smash to minimise the risk of further collisions.

You also have the option of adding a Driver Assistance Pack at extra cost (it’s quite reasonably priced), and this adds active park assist and a rear-view camera, along with adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go function in traffic.

Ford didn’t exactly cover itself in glory in the latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index, being named as the seventh most unreliable manufacturer in the study. The Puma itself didn’t come in for criticism, with most of it being aimed at the bigger Kuga, but the 2017 to 2023 version of the Fiesta hatchback was also named and shamed for its disappointing reliability, and worryingly, the Puma shares its mechanical parts with that very car.

Buy the Ford Puma ST manual with the bigger engine, and your car will sit in group 22 for insurance, while the mild-hybrid version is in group 21. Since the most affordable insurance group is group 1 and the most expensive is group 50, that means you can expect middling premiums for the Puma ST, which is fair enough given its power. 

To be fair, that looks pretty good compared with rivals such as the Hyundai i20 N, which has similar power but sits in group 27. It looks even better compared with the Suzuki Swift Sport, which has considerably less power but inexplicably manages to sit in groups 28 to 35.

You’ll pay the standard flat rate of £180 per year to tax your Puma ST, or £170 for mild-hybrid versions (which qualify for a £10 annual discount for alternative-fuel cars). All versions of the ST cost less than the £40,000 threshold for premium cars, meaning you escape the £390 surcharge between years two and six of the car’s life.

As the sportiest version of the Puma, the ST looks the part with a racy bodykit, 19-inch alloy wheels, LED lighting all round and rear privacy glass. Meanwhile, convenience features include power folding door mirrors with puddle lamps, a Quickclear heated windscreen, keyless entry and start, climate control, sports seats, part-leather-effect upholstery, heated front seats and steering wheel, automatic lights and wipers, front and rear parking sensors, and manual cruise control.

Pay the extra it costs to add the Driver Assistance Pack, and the manual cruise control is swapped for adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go function in traffic, plus the pack also gives you active park assist and a rear-view camera.

You can also opt to add the Performance Pack, which adds a mechanical limited-slip differential, launch control and a shift indicator.

Other optional extras available include a panoramic roof, a powered tailgate, metallic paint  and a detachable towbar, but that’s about it.