You'll just have to test-drive both and see which you prefer. I haven't tried a Kuga (but liked the 2.0 diesel C-Max), but although the Qashqai was comfortable and practical, it was no fun to drive - and this was the 1.6 petrol with 163 bhp. The suspension was on the wallowy side but the main thing that put both SWMBO and me off was the vagueness of the steering. It seemed only marginally connected to the movement of the wheels.

But thousands have bought Qashqais so there must be plenty who disagree with me.

I bought a new Kuga in December - 2.0TDCi 180 AWD. It's a great car, certainly has enough power and I'm averaging just over 42mpg, which given the size of the car and that I'm not the most frugal driver in the world, I don't think is too bad. Can't comment on the Powershift gearbox in the Kuga, mine is a manual, but we had a CMAX Powershift until 12 months ago - it was fantastic, very smooth and responsive, only 2mpg less than the manual version we had before that one.

Best advice is to test drive it - our dealer let me have a 24 hour test drive before buying and by using Ford Options we got a sizeable discount on the list price of the car.

The Ford Sync system works well, my car has the Sony audio & sat nav which is proving to be very good. Would I buy another one? Yes, though I would still be tempted to go back to a Galaxy, which is what I downsized from, as I do occasionally miss the boot space!