Ford Kuga (2013-2016) interior
Where the old Kuga felt its age the most was in the interior – the design was fussy and overwhelmed by too many buttons. Ford has addressed this with a new eight-inch touchscreen that caters for most of the car’s systems.
Style
Many of the materials you interact with have been updated to feel more upmarket and the new steering wheel, borrowed from the Focus, can be optionally heated for £125 for cold winter mornings and accompanying freezing fingers. That said, the Kuga’s interior design looks miles behind the one in the latest Peugeot 3008 – we wish Ford has just injected the Kuga with a bit more pizazz.
It’s practical but unexciting
- Used
- £11,745
Infotainment
Standard on the mid-range Titanium model is the latest Ford infotainment system, called Sync 3. It has much of the functionality of your smartphone, meaning you can pinch and swipe through menus and choose from large, colourful icons. It can also be operated by voice commands that, according to Ford, are more conversational than ever before – light-hearted chats are, thankfully, out of the question but uttering the words ‘I need to park’ should have the sat-nav scrabbling for the location of a suitable spot.
All this sounds great, but in real use the system is laggy – like engaging in banter with your grandma – and the graphics aren’t anything spectacular, either. It’s completely eclipsed by the touchscreen in the Seat Ateca while the Mazda CX-5, despite using an older system, has a rotary dial controller (like BMW’s iDrive and Audi’s MMI) so, mercifully, you don’t have to talk at all to operate it easily on the move.
- Used
- £11,745