Ford Puma ST review

Let’s not beat around the bush, the Puma ST is significantly cheaper than almost every other similarly sized Sports SUV, including the BMW X2 M35i, Cupra Formentor, Mini Countryman John Cooper Works and Volkswagen T-Roc R. Even if you tick the options boxes for Ford’s Mean Green metallic paint and the must-have Performance Pack, you’ll still be getting a car that’s at least a few thousand pounds cheaper than the competition. 

And although the Puma ST sits in a relatively high 36%  benefit in kind bracket, that's still 1% below the aforementioned rivals, and the ST's significantly lower purchase price guarantees much lower monthly company car tax payments.

It’s also immensely well equipped, coming as standard with 19in alloy wheels, wireless charging, a heated windscreen, heated sports seats and a flat-bottomed leather steering wheel.

Ford ranked 18th out of 31 brands in the 2020 What Car? Reliability Survey – one place above Seat and two places above Volkswagen. Mini did significantly better, finishing in 4th place. 

Like the standard Puma, the ST comes with all the modern preventative safety aids you’d expect, including automatic emergency braking (with pedestrian detection), lane-keeping assistance and tyre pressure monitoring. Blind spot assistance and a couple of other safety aids come as part of the driver assistance pack.

Euro NCAP awarded the standard Puma five stars (out of five) for safety, although a closer look at the scores reveals that the T-Roc is fractionally better at protecting child and adult occupants in a crash. Meanwhile, to keep would-be thieves at bay, the ST comes with a Thatcham category one alarm and immobiliser.

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