Ford Kuga long-term test: report 3

The car Ford Kuga 2.0 Ecoblue mHEV Titanium | Run by Max Edleston, junior photographer

Why it’s here The plug-in hybrid version of the latest Kuga has impressed us already, but how will this mild hybrid diesel variant fare as transport for someone who frequently covers a lot of miles?

Needs to Function as a mobile office, be reliable and sure-footed across any terrain, be comfortable for long trips

Mileage 6506 List price £29,815 Target Price £27,746 Price as tested £30,545 Test economy 54.1mpg Official economy 56.5mpg

16 April 2021 – Motorway marvel

As one of What Car?’s roving photographers, I spend more time on the UK motorway network than most, and I’m finding my Ford Kuga to be a perfect companion for those long trips. For starters, the road noise is kept to a minimum, making a welcome change from the Mitsubishi L200 pick-up truck I had previously.

The Kuga also has more in the way of driver assistance technology, and it’s all just a button press away. The key feature in my car is adaptive cruise control, which I’ll admit to being sceptical about at first because I was not sure how well it would work with my car’s manual gearbox. I’m pleased to report that it’s a very capable system and is easy to activate on the move. It allows me to choose the distance I want to keep from the car in front then increases and decreases my speed accordingly.

It does, however, occasionally falter and misread that distance around town – where any number of objects can be misinterpreted as a vehicle – leading to the car slowing down without any reason. On the motorway there’s no such trouble, and it’s certainly helped to relieve some of the stress associated with a long journey.

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