Considering a Ford Kuga ST-Line....

StevieP · 7 Oct 2025 at 19:19

Very early days but I'm fancying a car change and quite like the look of the Ford Kuga 2.5 PHEV ST-Line.

I've not had a Ford for years but my wife has the Puma and absolutely loves it!

90% of my use is essentially short journeys to a from work, town kids school etc and so I assume (never having owned a PHEV) that the vast majority of my driving will be done on pure electric and therefore save on fuel costs(?)

I know people who have had Kuga's in the past and have said they were great but wondered what people's experience was on here??

jpaul · 7 Oct 2025 at 21:44

what is the warranty like on the battery range/capacity if you are buying second hand;
however if you are buying as the weather is getting colder maybe a test drive will illustrate what to expect too ( GOM's in 330e, neighbour had, are a bit optimistic)

e: https://www.kugaownersclub.co.uk/threads/phev-battery-capacity-including-brrrrr-wintertime.20992/ 20miles

tom_e · Wednesday at 07:17

Considered the full EV Puma? If you're generally only ever going to be pootling around on short journeys the range should be fine and you can charge from a 3 pin socket. Some decent deals to be had on them currently.

vectisitch · Wednesday at 18:41

We have a 2020 first edition puma. Love it. Our friend has a kuga and it's very similar to drive. Don't get one with a wet belt though.

Nasher · Wednesday at 19:09

It's a Fiesta but not as good in every way.

jpaul · Wednesday at 20:57

if used, have you conisdered rav4 phev, mftr with more experience at phev's /cvt's , and seems to have bigger battery/autonomy.

Armageus · Wednesday at 21:02

Nasher said:
It's a Fiesta but not as good in every way.

Nope the Kuga isn't a Fiesta in any way - it's the same platform as the MK4 Focus

StevieP · Wednesday at 22:19

First of all thanks for the replies!

To address a couple of questions - @tom_e as I say my wife has the Puma (which is a lovely car - but not big enough for lugging the family around, especially for holidays in the UK - and also the reason I don't want to go full EV just yet)
@vectisitch - sorry but no idea what a wet belt is??
@jpaul the RAV4 looks nice and I'll take a look

I think I'm going to have a test drive in a PHEV Kuga this weekend with any luck - can you choose to drive exclusively on the electric power or is it like a mild hybrid where the the combustion engine kicks in at a certain speed/revs??

Mysterae_ · Wednesday at 23:11

From someone I know, they said to avoid and Kugas (and probably any car really) built around the covid period as they were either designed via Zoom or rushed out to turn a profit. They also mentioned that they've had more recalls than Arnold Schwarzenegger and a lot due to the battery system is one way or another.

RedMogg · Wednesday at 23:43

We had the 2.5 hybrid S-Max (not a Plug-in). Kit was great, but the CVT gearbox was truly awful. Lost count of the times I put my foot down and had to wait what felt like 7-10 business days for the response...

Yaayuh! · Thursday at 06:08

Nasher said:
It's a Fiesta but not as good in every way.

Oh come on man.

Nasher · Thursday at 08:11

Armageus said:
Nope the Kuga isn't a Fiesta in any way - it's the same platform as the MK4 Focus

Ok it's a focus but made less good then

vectisitch · Thursday at 20:07

StevieP said:
First of all thanks for the replies!

To address a couple of questions - @tom_e as I say my wife has the Puma (which is a lovely car - but not big enough for lugging the family around, especially for holidays in the UK - and also the reason I don't want to go full EV just yet)
@vectisitch - sorry but no idea what a wet belt is??
@jpaul the RAV4 looks nice and I'll take a look

I think I'm going to have a test drive in a PHEV Kuga this weekend with any luck - can you choose to drive exclusively on the electric power or is it like a mild hybrid where the the combustion engine kicks in at a certain speed/revs??

Google ford wetbelt. It's a timing belt that's inside the engine running in oil. They are failing everywhere and ford won't help.

Armageus · Thursday at 20:12

vectisitch said:
Google ford wetbelt. It's a timing belt that's inside the engine running in oil. They are failing everywhere and ford won't help.

And not relevant to the PHEV models which are chain driven

StevieP · Thursday at 20:28

RedMogg said:
We had the 2.5 hybrid S-Max (not a Plug-in). Kit was great, but the CVT gearbox was truly awful. Lost count of the times I put my foot down and had to wait what felt like 7-10 business days for the response...

This is a concern - the auto gearbox in my Superb isn't great and I was hoping the Ford gearbox would be more responsive!

The smoothest gearbox I've encountered, and it's not even close, was in a Suzuki Swace (Toyota Corolla)

Nasher · Thursday at 20:32

StevieP said:
This is a concern - the auto gearbox in my Superb isn't great and I was hoping the Ford gearbox would be more responsive!

The smoothest gearbox I've encountered, and it's not even close, was in a Suzuki Swace (Toyota Corolla)

Yea a modern CVT. It just feels like one gear (kind of is really). All Toyotas are like that.

Journey · Friday at 19:58

StevieP said:
This is a concern - the auto gearbox in my Superb isn't great and I was hoping the Ford gearbox would be more responsive!

The smoothest gearbox I've encountered, and it's not even close, was in a Suzuki Swace (Toyota Corolla)

Have you looked at something like a used Ioniq 5 similar in size, no gear box to worry about, and nice in general?

I will say the Kuga we rented for 2 weeks was flawless, and did a great job moving us about on holiday, the only annoyance was the weak engine on the model we had, so it was it was somewhat sluggish in the big hills.

StevieP · Sunday at 09:07

Journey said:
Have you looked at something like a used Ioniq 5 similar in size, no gear box to worry about, and nice in general?

I will say the Kuga we rented for 2 weeks was flawless, and did a great job moving us about on holiday, the only annoyance was the weak engine on the model we had, so it was it was somewhat sluggish in the big hills.

I don't think I'm ready to go full EV - don't get me wrong they are great cars but I think I'm leaning towards a hybrid first - although it appears even that side doesn't come without it difficulties!

I've measured the distance from the back of my garage where the plug socket is to where the car will be parked and it appears I'm either gonna need a 15m cable or get an EV charging point installed - and the cable that comes with the car is only about 6m long!

On the power side, I had a test drive in a 2.5 litre PHEV Kuga yesterday and was very pleasantly surprised with the results - lovely car that goes really well on either electric or the petrol engine!

lordrobs · Sunday at 09:44

I was considering a Kuga when I had to swap company car. In the end I thought that going from the lowest to highest advisory fuel rate might raise some questions so I didn't look into them too much further.

As you say they can be driven on full EV mode. Some (Sportage for example) still need the engine to generate heat so in the winter you get to choose between running in EV mode or having the heating on which is ridiculous really!

They are a company car favourite so plenty pop up at 2 or 3 years old and look to be pretty decent value.

Journey · Sunday at 17:04

StevieP said:
I don't think I'm ready to go full EV - don't get me wrong they are great cars but I think I'm leaning towards a hybrid first - although it appears even that side doesn't come without it difficulties!

I've measured the distance from the back of my garage where the plug socket is to where the car will be parked and it appears I'm either gonna need a 15m cable or get an EV charging point installed - and the cable that comes with the car is only about 6m long!

On the power side, I had a test drive in a 2.5 litre PHEV Kuga yesterday and was very pleasantly surprised with the results - lovely car that goes really well on either electric or the petrol engine!

Furry muff, still worth a 30 minute test drive just to get your toes wet IMO.

Assume the Kuga comes with a type 2 cable, hence it being 6m long? If you are going to use a 3-pin then make sure you have good quality sockets and cables to the right spec, avoid an extension if possible, or just down rate to 6A to be sure to be sure. Charge point will pay for itself in the first year/18 months if you do lots of short trips that would normally be inefficient in any sort of pure ICE vehicle.

What electricity tariff are you moving to once you've got a PHEV?