We got our first look at the Ford Kuga in concept form at September's Frankfurt Motor Show and it looks like the production model won't be straying very far, stylewise. The Kuga should land in European Ford dealerships in spring 2008 powered by a variety of engines, including Ford's latest 2.0L turbodiesel. With the Escape bearing much more of a resemblance to Ford's truck lineup, if the team in Dearborn really wants the Mercury Mariner to be more upscale they would bring this design over as its replacement. Hell, just make this the new Escape and forget about Mercury. The Kuga will probably debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March alongside the Fiesta/Verve.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Wolharig badeendje @ Nov 23rd 2007 4:09PM
eeehhh... nice to meet you?
LOLWUT @ Nov 23rd 2007 4:13PM
If this was brought over here, people WILL buy it, replace the Escape, or Merc, the EDGE is proof people will buy something that looks good, rides nice, and has decent power.
Kowell @ Nov 23rd 2007 4:13PM
That is one VERY sweet Ford design. Please use it to replace the Escape and/or the Edge.
iQuack @ Nov 23rd 2007 4:14PM
Ford's best vehicles for today's world are for everybody but U.S. buyers. Too bad that Ford is still a truck company and little more here.
The Focus is OK, but old, and the Fusion is a Mazda 6 variant nobody needs if there's a nearby Mazda dealer.
The 500/Taurus is a good car, but an ugly klutz.
No reason to visit a U.S. Ford dealer unless you're truck-hunting. Lame!
SleeplessinSeattle @ Nov 23rd 2007 11:45PM
I don't know man, I don't know of any company (at the moment, I'm looking fwd. to the Camaro and Challenger too, but they're not out yet), that offers a V8 powered, rear driver with only two doors and a pretty rad looking exterior, enough descent interior options, and an insane sounding exhaust note, for under $30K bucks. This is a cool car - sure, it's not as sophisticated as an AWD Subaru or a new a G37 - but its cheaper, and actually a little cooler from a styling/character stand point - I mean, the Mustang appeals to a much wider swath of people, car people and non-car people alike, than say, an AWD Evo or WRX, and perhaps even a 350Z too. It's bad-ass, and deserves credit as being not only a great car, for a Ford - but one of the coolest cars out there for the price.
KnightRider @ Nov 23rd 2007 4:15PM
Nice.
But I am pretty sure we will be told that this is not coming to US!
Grant @ Nov 23rd 2007 4:19PM
Forget what thought or method of design it's coming from, this car just looks good. And it's a shame we won't see it here any time soon.
aman @ Nov 23rd 2007 4:27PM
Kuga, nice to meet you, now id like you to meet your new make-up artist, the SLEDGEHAMMER. just my opinion, but that thing is hideous
Judy Zik @ Nov 23rd 2007 4:27PM
Blah Blah Blah bring it to the US and I will buy a thousand personally oh and Ford sucks. Did I miss anything. Same posts over and over.
Seriously. Get a life folks. I am so sick of reading the same crap. Ford has said they are going to go global with the next Focus and Fusion and they are working on bringing other products over. So they are going to bring a lot of these products over here it just takes time. A company that is struggling for it's survival can't afford to just dump all it's current products and get the modifications and certifications done to bring a whole new line over from Europe overnight.
The reality of the situation is when they do you will all probably be bitching that they are not roomy enough or the engines are not powerful enough since the rest of the world tends to go for smaller more efficient cars. Personally I would love to test drive one of these with a diesel engine.
KnightRider @ Nov 23rd 2007 5:44PM
Is there a sane explanation why they cant bring euro spec Mondeo here? It outsells BMW thr; we are stuck with taurus/five hundred (drives like a hovercraft -ive driven it for 200 miles).
I am not saying they should bring all vehicles over right now, but when they do design new ones, design with US market in mind as well. I don't have any bias towards imports - they sell a lot of common models right? then why cant ford? esp when people want fuel efficient vehicles.
Personally I like the looks of this, lets see how it compares with VW Tiguan.
spacegravity4me @ Nov 23rd 2007 6:52PM
Get bent!
zamafir @ Nov 23rd 2007 7:14PM
@KnightRider, I'm with you, the Tiguan is getting much better reviews then I expected, and it's standard engine and 6 speed options combined with a competent chassis will mean a fun drive. Hopefully Ford will bring this over with a diesel mil as VW has confirmed for the Tiguan so american buyers have more then one choice - at least those looking for a small suv with diesel.
Judy Zik @ Nov 24th 2007 12:19PM
1)The Fusion is the North American equivlent to the Mondeo not the Taurus/500.
2) The Fusion is currently in production in a plant in Mexico as is tools and dies paid for etc. It will cost major $$$ to retool that plant to build a completely different model which is why they only do that every so many years. I would doubt that the European Modeo factory has the capacity to supply North America as well.
3) For all the bitching around here the Fusion has been a big sucess for Ford and is competitive in it's segment. So why would Ford spend money fixing something that isn't broken when there are other products that are not selling that desperately need attention. Best possible outcome is likely that after spending all that money they end up with a vehicle that sells as well or a bit better than the Fusion. Hardly an outcome worth the investment.
4) Both the Fusion and Focus are due for a major platform change in a couple of years. At which time they have told us the global platform (euro Focus and Mondeo) would be adopted. So they are on there way.
Like it or not Ford is making the right buisness decision. Leveraging the most profit out of the investment it has in the existing and sucessful Fusion while preparing to switch to the Mondeo platform with the next platform change.
That said the Focus is not doing as well. I would expect to see it switched over first.
-blank- @ Nov 23rd 2007 4:43PM
Now that's actually nice looking.
I'm liking the name and the look. If for some reason I couldn't pick up a CX-7 or RDX (stupid alphabet, numeral soup) - I'd take one of these pending the inside quality.
Landy @ Nov 24th 2007 1:59AM
Inside Quality is exactly the same as new Eu-Focus or C-Max. 100 times better than the US Focus! No hard plastics inside - the whole instrument panel is softtouch!
Marvelous @ Nov 23rd 2007 4:45PM
Totally agree Judy Zik, stop the F*ucking whining already.
Bryan @ Nov 23rd 2007 4:47PM
Pretty nice. I actually like the current Escape. I don't like the price though. 29k loaded! Whaaa? We probably will not see this because the design will merge into one global design. However, I find that somewhat untrue as Ford will not stray far from a traditional F150 look. Then again, the 97 was very untraditional. Oh well, we will see eventually one day!
Tool @ Nov 23rd 2007 5:11PM
Could someone tell me why the geniuses in Dearborn don't bring this great looking SUV over here pronto?
goat @ Nov 23rd 2007 5:28PM
It's not the only reason, but egregious government regulations do place and undue burden on auto manufacturers who would like to have the flexibility to bring in niche models from overseas.
There are a lot of European models which would be available here in modest numbers, but, due to all the regulations, are unavailable. It seems to me that if it's safe/clean/etc., enough to sell in EU countries, that ought to be good enough to sell in the U.S., at least up to a certain limit (say 20,000 per model per year).
antrow @ Nov 23rd 2007 5:21PM
The current Edge in my opinion looks and feels like a 10 year old truck. I think the Kuga would be a welcome replacement to a old looking, noisy and unrefined vehicle. Why can Ford come up with cool new designed cars for Europe but nothing (in my opinion) that is remotely interesting here in the states?
I leave Volvo out of that statement as I do find the new C30 and XC70 nice designs.