who knows what about Ford Pumas?

[ZippyVR6 0]

My brothers Missus is looking at one, just looking for any known faults.

 

thankyouplees

[Andy665 0]

Surprisingly for a modern car you need to check for rust, they are pretty vulnerable around wheelarches, sills etc. The 1.7 is by far and away the best bet, 1.6's and 1.4's are pretty dire in a sporty coupe, best by a country mile, but pretty hardcore is the Racing, IMHO the best handling fwd car ever, even more intense than the Integra Type R, so good I've had two - running costs on the Racing can be frightening though. Good forum to check out is http://www.pumapeople.co.uk

[ZippyVR6 0]

Monster! many thanks. Ive just signed up. the buying guide is pretty good.

 

Yip it is a 1.7.

[Andy665 0]

The 1.7 was a superb little engine - only 123 bhp but very revvy, shame it didn't appear in other Fords but apparently it cost an arm and a leg to build - Yamaha seemed to stitch Ford up pretty well

[ZippyVR6 0]

Oh right, so is the engine a yamaha?

[Andy665 0]

Yamaha designed yes, apparently the licensing costs for each one produced made it too expensive to drop into any other Ford. Revs very freely but pretty weak torque wise, hardly a hardship with the great gearbox. Chassis balance was pretty spot on too

[ZippyVR6 0]

Cool. Cheers for that.

[Supercharged 2]

As above rust is a problem but obviously easy to spot...

 

Servicing is nice and cheap as it's basically a fiesta, the only downside of this is so is the dash!

 

Racing Puma - simply awesome, really good all round performer with a tuned version of the 1.7, a little harsh for a daily driver but cornering is amazing... They should have made a 'Racing Corrado' as this is what we all seem to be aspiring to!

 

If she can stretch the budget and fancies a bit of fun then go for the FRP, they are now getting to the 7k mark and I reckon they will hold the value well.

[ZippyVR6 0]

It is a step up from a Dihatsu Charade, so will feel like lightspeed as it is. :lol:

[Taggart 0]

Who knows what about Ford Pumas?

 

I think Tom has intricate knowledge of such ghey cars.

[Musicman 0]

All I know about them is that Ford bought the name from the Brazilian company who produced a tasty looking VW-based sports coupé in the 60s and 70s.

 

http://wj2d.100megsdns.com/home.html

[VR6 0]

Who knows what about Ford Pumas?

 

I think Tom has intricate knowledge of such ghey cars.

 

Cough

 

Mondeo-boy

 

/Cough

 

 

 

 

 

(I've never owned a Ford, let alone a Puma so please ignore Graeme's drunk ramblings :lol:

[Andy665 0]

Its a shame the Puma was considered to be a girls car, in terms of handling, grip, steering feel etc its well ahead of a Corrado (if both in standard form)

[Phil K 0]

Used to see a nice Racing Puma around in Farnham - in fact I nearly hit it once when they decided they had more right than me to squeeze through a tight spot on a country road!

 

Lovely looking car though with the pulled arches etc - shame the engine wasn't cosworth derived...

[herisites 0]

Puma's a very good cars imo, like said though it is a shame they have been given a feminine reputation as most girls that buy them dont really appreciate them. I had a ford fiesta zetec-s before my vr which are basically the puma with a 1.6 and fiesta body and it was a wicked little car, handles fantastically. A lot of fiesta owners would put the puma engine in their cars, even though it only had about 10-15bhp more and cost a shed load to convert but the puma engine is by far the better, very revvy and solid with good tuning capabilities. The FRP's are gorgeous, there are quite a few guys on the zetec-s owners club who have sepped up to these as they are quick but mostly very very good handling.

 

Like said above rust is an issue with fords, even at a new age they can still rust due to some panels being 'overbaked' to look for this have a good look around the car (specifically in the boot behind the lining and underneath) and look for panels with a light shade of brown, this is a sign of overbaking and means they are very prone to rust, ford actually called back a lot of fiestas/pumas with this problem.

 

Other than rust they are a good car and very cheap to run due to most parts being the same as the fiesta so services will be cheap etc.

 

HTH

 

Rob.

[davidwort 0]

...Servicing is nice and cheap as it's basically a fiesta, the only downside of this is so is the dash!

 

A lot of positive comments on the handling, but IMO the interiors are just total rubbish even with the best leather trim, considering the age of the cars they are very poor inside but typical of 1990's low end fords. If you appreciate the handling that much then fine, perhaps you can overlook it, but the only car I've ever been able to do this on is an Integrale :wink:

[dinkus 10]

All I know about them is that Ford bought the name from the Brazilian company who produced a tasty looking VW-based sports coupé in the 60s and 70s.

 

http://wj2d.100megsdns.com/home.html

 

 

Oooh very tasty! I'd much rather have one of them!

 

Edit: A DKW one with the Aston stylee grille and familiar (can't think from what) stylee back please!

[herisites 0]

A lot of positive comments on the handling, but IMO the interiors are just total rubbish even with the best leather trim, considering the age of the cars they are very poor inside but typical of 1990's low end fords. If you appreciate the handling that much then fine, perhaps you can overlook it, but the only car I've ever been able to do this on is an Integrale :wink:

 

Yeah but the car is being bought for a woman so the interior to her will be lovely :lol: Only other downside with the puma is visability, you cant see jack out the back window when reversing due to its weird shape :lol:

 

I just nicked these links off the zsoc. They show where some of the 'overbaking' is shown. So they may help you if you want to avoid rust, iirc they only had this problem one a certain batch/year of fords and if you discovered the problem ford would buy your car back off you lol.

 

http://www.cruiseculture.net/images/ecoat/DSC01134.JPG

http://www.cruiseculture.net/images/ecoat/DSC01135.JPG

http://www.cruiseculture.net/images/ecoat/DSC01136.JPG

http://www.cruiseculture.net/images/ecoat/DSC01137.JPG

http://www.cruiseculture.net/images/ecoat/DSC01138.JPG

http://www.cruiseculture.net/images/ecoat/DSC01139.JPG

 

It may not be such an issue with pumas but i thought i woud post it up just in case, dont want the car to rust after a while of owning it!!

 

Rob.

[Andy665 0]

There are now a couple of good Puma specialists in the UK, Pumabuild in Birmingham and Pumaspeed up in Leeds.

 

They both have websites:

 

http://www.pumabuild.co.uk

http://www.pumaspeed.co.uk

 

I used to use Pumabuild and was always very happy with their work.

 

Also found that Pumaspeed can offer a full RS style bodykit for the Fiesta - I actually think it looks superb

[dinkus 10]

It doesn't actually look too bad considering it's a Fester.

[Neil VR6 0]

We just bought a 1.7 Puma in blue and it's a cracking little car. The gearbox is sweet and precise and the engine loves to rev and feels a lot more muscular than its 123bhp would lead you to believe. It's got this amazing virtually flat torque curve from 2K RPM. The steering is really precise and the handling it totally fool proof which makes it easy to drive "progressively".

 

Ours pulls to the left though which is a bit wierd. It's had 4 wheel laser alignment and still does it. I phoned up Pumaspeed and apparently they have an appetite for suspension bushes so it could be that.

 

The interior is just a Fiesta's interior with a few painted silver bits and and an alloy gear knob. It's hardly the last word in quality! Still our 45K miler doesn't squeak and unlike 99% of Corrado's; it's got air con! (and Ford's excellent quick clear windscreen)

[Ice White Socks 0]

...Servicing is nice and cheap as it's basically a fiesta, the only downside of this is so is the dash!

 

A lot of positive comments on the handling, but IMO the interiors are just total rubbish even with the best leather trim,

:

 

Thats not actually the case- I have been looking into getting a Puma for a while now to replace my current 2nd car, a 206. There is a special edition Millenium Puma which come with full black Recaro leather- it looks awsome :) the down side is that ALL Puma Millenium's are bright yellow which may not be to everybody's taste.

 

If you lool at the car review websites, there are very few people who have anything bad to say; I'm actually really looking forward to getting one :-P