looking at cars for my mam and keep stumbling across these, drove a few 1.7s and really like them, what to look out for? how much to tax? what engine have these got? was a/c an option? as you can tell dont know much about them but you can pick up a low miler for peanuts really and they still look pretty newish, good idea or not?

 

what reg?

i have a 51 plate 1.7 zetec SE (yamaha engine). chack the airbag light isnt lit all the time, and the door shut lights can come on as the switches break. rust around rear arches is common, mine has bubbles etc
usual things like make sure suspension isnt leaking, oil leaks from the cam cover gasket are common, they do come with air con as an option, tax on mine is Ł180 a year, will do 33mpg with reasonable driving.

handle well, brakes arnt amazing but work ok, good looking etc.

seats are fairly comfy, ride is a bit hard, and can get a bit noisy inside at around 80mph on the motorway etc.

all round a good fun car to drive, its our second one aswell, had an R reg one before.

just check service history, cam belts are every 100k miles or 10 years.

 

looking at x reg as these look to be the last of the 1.4s?, around 40-50k miles, what would it be if airbag light is on? would a child seat go in the back?

 

1.4 lumps seem to be trouble mate, bottom ends go and hard to spot on a test drive as it starts with loosing/burning oil then comes the dredded rattle low down. think the 1.7 are better along with the 1.6's.

Got a very clean 1.7 X plate in black needing a new engine due to overheating after a water leak if you are intestested lol!!

 

i have a child seat in the back of mine lol

i think the air bag light can be an issue, there is a guy on here that knows a lot about them, pumadal or something?

maybe worth asking him.

 

cheers, what sort of miles do the bottom ends give problems? should be ok up to 80k surely? are 1.4s yamaha lumps?

 

phil pm.

 

Bottom ends generally play up if poorly maintained, a well maintained high mileage one may be in a better state than a poorly maintained 40k miler so service history is a must!

 

Good cars the little pumas. A friend of mine has a 51 reg 1.6 16v n it flys. It handles really well too.

 

well maintained cars are fine for starship miles.

problem being a lot of pumas were girls cars when new, especially the lower powered ones and we all know womans reputation for looking after cars being very poor. you know, typical dumb bird who drives round for months with oil light on because she doesnt know what it means or never tops up oil as she doesnt understand anything other than putting petrol in it.

all zetec SE engines were partly designed by yamaha.

 

think these r definately worth looking at, will have to be a 1.4 for tax, insurance etc, need to sell dads honda accord first then get looking, thanks for replies

 

they arnt bad cars,1700 has a reasonable turn of speed,the ride is a bit harsh,i find the visibility poor tbh.......

shame ford didn't carry on with developing them,because they are a nice car and get lots of looks without the jealously..... ; )

 

because when the fiesta mk6 came out, the puma lost its source of floorpans and the ford plant at the time didnt have the space to keep manufacturing custom floorpans for the puma.

the plant already had KA floor pans like that so it was a choice between the big seller KA and puma.

also the puma tooling was fairly worn so in need of repair/replacement so in effect ford would have had to commit to another 3 years of production.

shame really. bet they could have still sold them easily enough.

the puma has been the only mainstream ford model with a waiting list continuosly throughout its production run. Probably could have got another 3 years out of it.

but KA was a bigger profit turner due to sheer volume sales.

 

I've been doing a lot of reading on a couple of Puma forums recently, seriously considering a 1.7 as a cheap daily runner/part time track toy in all honesty.

Remember being allowed a solo test drive in a 1.7 demo back in 2001ish and took it for a 30min blast down some twisty back roads and thought it was absolutely fantastic.


Cheers,
Grant