First crash : /

Conanius · 2 Apr 2006 at 14:37

burns said:
You must be mistaken, this is a forum, no one does that!

just got a few random quotes from whatcar and evo about the puma for those who want to base their opinions on those of others....

What Car - http://www.whatcar.com/car-review-full.aspx?RT=135#Road

Ride & handling
No other small coupe we can think of is as much fun to drive as a Puma. Ford took what was available in the Fiesta and sharpened it all up to make a car with almost kart-like steering, tremendous roadholding and strong brakes. The only downside is a firmer and noisier ride.

Evo - http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/usedcars_roadtest/archive/?id=27993&x=158&y=7

We have few bad things to say about the new Ford Fiesta – other than it killed off one of the best-handling small cars on the road....

these are about the standard 1.7i VCT Puma, not the Racing version

Conanius · 2 Apr 2006 at 14:45

Vertigo1 said:
ISTR Top Gear (the old version) voting it their car of the year.

I have a mental image of Tiff caning it round a track with Clarkson and someone else in the back.

I think I remember that actually.... twas a while back tho !

Conanius · 2 Apr 2006 at 15:09

great advice said:
I can agree with you there, ive driven a Racing Puma and a Cooper S and have to say the Cooper S is in a different league. Although id look gayer than a meatball driving a Cooper i have to say its an excellent car for the cash.

Not driven the 182 myself but i know everyone rates it, you dont get many folk raving about Puma's in the same way Got a neighbour with a Clio Williams and id say thats a lot more fun handling wise than a Puma too, id also say its safe to assume the 182 handles a lot better than the williams.

got to be honest, the 182 was fantastic.. but imo it might be just too good, It never challenged me.. if you know what I mean? it was 'so' perfect, that corners just didnt exist !!!

Conanius · 2 Apr 2006 at 17:56

great advice said:
You obviously wasnt hitting the corners fast enough its a FWD hot hatch, no matter how well it handles its not a 4WD/RWD jobbie with lots of power and posh traction control. No matter how good the handling is your gunna get a limit when it comes to corners - on any car. You just have to find the limit in order for it to challange you.

Having a racing background you should be able to make most cars a challange tbh all you gotta do is find its limit - thats when it starts to be fun

my point is, on public roads... its not a place to find it.. esp with the dealer in the passenger seat

twas bad enough bombing down the backroads at 100

Conanius · 2 Apr 2006 at 18:24

Scottland said:
How do you rate the handling, amongst other things compared to the Celica 140, and Fabia vRS - out of interest?

the fabia vrs test drive in honesty isnt a fair one, dealer kept commenting about my speed every time I pushed it as it was a brand new 5 miles on the clock car... seemed to handle ok though.. just seemed very stiff... but still with lots of roll

the celica 140 was good fun, but a bit.. lardy? the t sport sorted that out tho

Conanius · 2 Apr 2006 at 20:22

Scottland said:
Cheers for that, I've test driven the Celica and Fabia, and much prefered the Celica. Hadn't considered the Puma before, and given what you've test driven in the past maybe I should take a peek at one.

Have fun when you get yours, dont forget to lavish us with lots of pics

hehe will do, looking at your name I guess you arent local to chelt, else id take you for a spin round the local lanes

Try and get one of the 1.7 ones tho, 1.4's and 1.6's arent as good