MOTORING
All Grip Ford Kuga
ord has facelifted the Kuga for 2017 . My test car was the new sporty STLine trim .
FThis has lowered sports suspension and loses any exterior chrome , swapping it for black on the grille , window surrounds and roof rails . You also get 18in dark machinefinished alloys . Inside , sports seats , steering wheel , gear knob and the aluminum pedals complete the spicedup look .
It does look sporty , it also looks quite tall . To be precise , it ’ s the topspec 2.0litre diesel with 178bhp . It comes only with fourwheel drive , a choice of either a sixspeed manual
2017 Hyundai i30
yundai have designed and developed their new i30 which is a midrange 5
Hdoor hatchback in Europe . They have done this simply for the European market and maybe to try and compete with the major European manufactures . They can compete or even do better than Volkswagen with their 3 year unlimited mileage warranty ; when it comes to the car itself , well I am not so sure .
I drove the i30 SE Nav model , which was had a high specification , Satellite Navigation , Dab Radio a host of safety features which included Autonomous Emergency Braking , which tells by alarms if you are getting to close to another vehicle and will apply the brakes if the car thinks you are going to have a collision I personally didn ’ t actually try it .
The i30 comes with a variety of petrol and diesel engines , my test car came with the 120 BHP 3 cylinders turbocharged 1.0 litre petrol engine , which attached to a manual sixspeed gearbox felt quite sprightly for the size of car it was pulling . It takes 11 seconds to get 60mph but on the flip side it sips petrol and I was able to easily achieve 55 miles per gallon .
Under the skin is new rigid chassis that
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gearbox or a sixspeed dualclutch automatic . Mine was fitted with the automatic gearbox , although with paddles on the steering wheel to change gear if you wanted .
I found that Drive mode or Sport mode was plenty and worked well . Sport mode made the Kuga that bit more eager and Drive was perfect for a relaxing cruise
The whole setup is on the money in terms of efficiency : 134g / km of CO2 emissions and a claimed fuel economy of 54.3mpg are , give or take , However , keep checking the performance figures and you ’ ll discover that
Hyundai claims offers a compliant ride and more involved handling over the previous i30 model . It feels quite taught around the city and softens up on the motorway . The steering is quite vague and really didn ’ t do a lot to inspire the driving experience .
On the motorway where the road is smooth and straight the i30 is amazingly quiet and comfortable . I felt it was not as happy on our broken potholed roads ; this is probably as it was developed on the smooth European roads . by Ian Beasant , BUSINESSFIRSTMAGAZINE motoring correspondent
the dash from 062mph in the Ford is 10.0sec which is not that impressive compared similar vehicles in this sector of the market .
The engine is a little bit noisy on startup , once on the move it works really well with gearbox . The Kuga is quite a large vehicle when you look at it , when you drive it feels agile and the suspension keeps body roll to a minimum , the steering has worked on as it ’ s nice and sharp .
The allwheel drive system is a great idea and the Kuga does offer excellent grip levels .
There are other general updates to all 2017 Kuga ’ s . These include a front and rear cosmetic refresh , with the new trapezoidal grille also , and new head and tail lights . You also get Ford ’ s updated Sync3 infotainment system , an electronic parking brake and gesture control for the poweropening tailgate . There ' s more safety kit available , too , with enhanced optional automatic emergency city braking that works at speeds up to 31mph .
The interior is well laid out offering plenty of room for passengers , storage and luggage . The elevated driving position feels a little to straight up for a sports model but does offer excellent allround vison .
At nearly £ 32,000 , I would really have expected the interior to be of better quality and more modern .
The interior is fine , it does all you would expect from a five door family hatchback , The quality of the materials is okay but nothing to shout about although the i30 does feel well put together . The front seats are comfortable and the cabin is spacious enough to carry the driver and four passengers ; the boot is generous . It really is not a bad car at all it is just so similar to lots of other 5 door family hatchbacks .