THE CAT'S WHISKERS?

THERE’S A LOT RIDING ON FORD’S FELINE-ESQUE SMALL SUV

- TIM ROBSON

FORD PUMA ST-LINE

Price as tested: $36,140 (driveaway)

This month: 996km @ 7.4L/100km

AS A BLOKE whose formative automotive years were littered with numerous subscriptions to increasingly obscure English car mags (Cars and Car Conversions, anyone?), the Ford Puma does not, to me, signify small urban crossover.

The evocative name speaks to a small, slightly ungainly but halfdecent little coupe of the late 1990s that – for one ill-fated limited edition known as the Racing Puma, at least – even came with Alcon brakes and a slightly spicy 1.7-litre four-potter, destined to be flung at hedges in the English countryside by people willing to pay a $5000 or so premium over the Subaru WRX of the same era. So, not many.

This, then, is not the Puma of old – yet the two share some similarities. For one, both can name the Fiesta as kin, and both are driven through the front end.