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Having read a few reviews including the one in here and on parkers' website it appears they were very good cars and still quite sought after. This begs the question why Ford stopped making them ? They still look pretty cool, decent engines and handling so what went wrong ?
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I never quite worked out why, if the chassis was so good, they never put a bigger engine in it.
Even the Racing version only had 152bhp. Obviously that's sufficient, but it's not exactly setting the world alight.
Was it just a case of the engine bay not being big enough for anything more?
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Probably down to two things. The Power to weight ratio on the the Racing would have been near ideal and near the limit for fwd. The minimal wheels would have struggled to cope with any more, guess they wouldn't have been able to fit bigger ones due to bodyshell limitations. My SiL has a 1.7. It feels quick enough, excellent free reving engine and superb grip, lnked to perfectly weighted steering (almost as good as a BM's !) superb gearchange tons of grip, it would have benefited from rwd - it would have been even better ! I saw it likened to a 4 wheel motorbike somewhere...Oh and excellently balanced brakes (as a sheep found out on a quiet country road one evening.)
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Demand for low-cost niche cars often peaks around 2 and 3rd years. Despite the Puma being a very fine car, the market moves on to whatever is fashion and there are probably few repeat sales.
Ford probably thought they would not recover the costs of a mid-life revamp.
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The limited run proves good for current owners though. Solid residules. SiL is reluctant to change it - she loves it...
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Wasn't there a mention, somewhere in the motoring press, that Ford were actually loosing money on the sales of Pumas (cost more to produce than the selling price).
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I have a Puma and I have heard numerous stories such as the Street Ka is a Puma replacement and Ford are designing a new puma. For some more Puma info have a look at www.pumapeople.com.
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I have a Puma and I have heard numerous stories such as the Street Ka is a Puma replacement
That doesn't sound right. The Puma was based on the Fiesta floorpan, so the Streetka is a fair bit smaller car.
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My Mum has a Puma and it is a really great car to drive. Not adding anything with that statement.
I thought that the reason Puma production was halted was the emissions of the Yamaha based 1.7 engine weren't going to meet future requirements and development costs were too high for a low volume car. This doesn't explain why they couldn't have continued with the 1.6 and 1.4 tho'
Think I may have contradicted my own answer here!
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I think the answer is all to do with economics and Ford' future.
Ford have been a mess financially: investing in side affairs like Kwikfit, and loss makers like Volvo and Jaguar. They slowed investment in new key cars - see how late the new Fiesta was - about 3 years.. and lost loadsof money. In the US they have that Ford 4x4x disaster which burst tyres and rolled.
In those circumstances when money is tight you concentrate on your key markets and a Puma is NOT a key market. I doubt if it sold 50,000 in a year and most parts were special to it (like the engine, body etc.
So they stopped it and concentrated on new models which might make them some money...
(at my age a Puma looks nice but getting in and out is just plain silly...:-(
madf
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Production of the Puma ended when the revised Fiesta was launched. The old Fiesta and Puma shared the same chassis and other running gear. I asked at the last Motoroshow why the Streetka wasn't fitted with the Puma range of engines esp the 1.7 and the bottom line was cost.
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