2.5 Dtc 225 Phev St-Line X Auto 5dr

A confused mess of highs and lows

Where to start (or end) - Firstly, I could not get over the eco of this car. It was superb. Got up to 50 miles on charge alone and when the (noisy & irritating) engine took over, Around 50-58MPG. Outstanding. The digital speedometer etc display is also great and flashes between modes with style. The drive switch/knob is great too. Smooth and easy. Snow mode was particularly good, actually helped in a non AWD car. Ride quality was good, comfortable on any roads slow or fast.

But this is where the good news begins to fade. The sync system looks very dated, its ok if apple play is plugged in (albeit, a small screen and very basic HD) does the job but is underwhelming and positioned in a way where you always have to look down. When the CVT engine kicks in it drones and holds the revs for far too long. This is all a hybrid system so it holds the revs for a reason but doesn’t help the noise or speed expectation! Getting to required speed is underwhelming and you might have to plant your foot down hard to get meagre satisfactory results. Fuel tank was oddly small, supposedly for the larger phev battery, range was low on fuel alone (drive through France, a lot of fill ups even with good MPG).

Paintwork was flimsy. I had nasty scratches from little more than leaves passing a tree. Bird poop would scar it, even if I removed the same day. I had a guy come out to professionally buff the car and he mentioned that the Fords paintwork just don’t meet other standards and is generally on the poorer side. It made me very nervous leaving the car anywhere apart from home!

The brakes were horrific, borderline dangerous. They never seemed particularly alert, very spongy from day one (even when brakes were fixed, see below). It’s all to do with autobrake regen – I have driven other PHEV / Full hybrids before and the brakes felt nothing like this. A few times, it was certainly more dramatic than it needed to be with slamming on the brakes as normal braking would delay in a second or two. Hardly ideal or reassuring for normal driving.

The cherry on the icing for me was the dreaded, never-ending drivetrain issues. I also had very high squeaks coming from the brakes when cold, I also heard this on other PHEV kuga’s in parking lots. This got “fixed” by new brake pads, however, the dreaded squeak came back albeit less. I also, got advised there was a sound muffler issue but not sure if that was just the drivetrain (branch attempting cover up, calming the situation). The car lived at Rayleigh Essex Fords for weeks and weeks. A terrible branch, falling over themselves with delays and miscommunication.

I eventually went through a rejection of vehicle with Fords credit and got my deposit back which was quite large. Bought a Hyundai Tuscon (full hybrid, not plug in) and exceeds the Kuga in nearly every category…minus economy, the Kuga PHEV wins easily but it was a car riddled with headaches. It became unliveable with and incredibly stressful.

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