Modern Puma equivalent.

Us Puma owners share a passion for a forgotten gem,not only are they quick,nice ride, they are super economical indeed the only downsides are rip-off road tax and rust.
Having enjoyed(and we are still enjoying)ten years of Puma ownership I,ve got round to thinking and this is where I would value your input,what is the modern equivalent given a budget of ten grand?
My thought are this,
Fiesta ST(05-08 model) I drove one and did,nt think it was as nice to drive as my FP will be thirstier I would have thought.
Mini Cooper, more thirsty than FP poor ride,not as quick and can run up big repair bills.
Cooper S,certainly quick but all of the above applies.
Suzuki Swift Sport,Hmmm quite close.
Fiesta Zetec S(later model)Quite a big car,my mates missus replaced her Puma with a new one she wasn,t keen not quick enough,she recently bought a new ST and is now thoroughly happy,bone hard ride though,out of my budget.
SportKa,had one and if ever a car was crying out for the FP engine and gearbox that was it,could have been sooo good.
Fiat 500 Abarth looks good on paper but gets quite poor reviews,nice interior though.
Please bear in mind the above are only my opinions and your suggestions and input would be greatly appreciated,I haven,t found the answer yet and find myself scouring the classifieds for a nice Puma to stick in the garage for when this ones knackered :grin:
MOT tomorrow as well

People will probably think I've lost my marbles, but I'd say this:



Similar power, size, naturally aspirated, known to be a great drivers car. Ok, it isn't a coupe - but try finding another small coupe these days.

Or perhaps one of these

Twingo looks cute Neil...but its a Renault :grin:
Suzuki,s have a good rep and there bikes are quite good

Hi Martin
I don't think there is a replacement for the Puma as all the others are hot hatches rather than coupes and lack the brilliant styling. I suppose as fashions come around we may have another raft of small coupes.
Barry

artie said:

Twingo looks cute Neil...but its a Renault :grin:

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There was nowt wrong with my Clio 182 - one of the best, most fun cars I've owned.

Not a fan of French cars myself but they do seem to make awesome track cars as the Clio 182.
Barry

Neil said:

artie said:

Twingo looks cute Neil...but its a Renault :grin:

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There was nowt wrong with my Clio 182 - one of the best, most fun cars I've owned.

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Only kidding Neil my mate has a 182 and it is an awesome bit of kit and the latest Megane Coupe is just gorgeous,too expensive at the mo though.
Your right Barry its back to hot hatches these days

ooo, this again

I don't think a propper replasement has been made yet.. althoug plenty of cars might either look good, or have a good ride, werry few cars at all, if any carry the same apeeal as the puma does, lets face it, it is a quick, sharo handeling car, that is feirly economical to use, easy and cheep to maintain, and has a semi timeless design, i recon it looks as good today as it did back when it first came out, i belive it would even fitt in in some of the decades that preceded it...

werry few cars at all do this, atleast werry few afordable cars.... what comes to mind......

wel I might sugest a the New, or New ish MX-5 it looks good, and is relatively cheep, comparatively fast, and a good handler, althoug not quite as practical....

the Toyota GT86, not to fasst, but propperly funn, probably not to cheep to maintain, but defenetly good looks, and stil quite practical.

the Volvo C30. exelent looks, verry god handeling, easy and cheep to maintain, and depending on what engien you pick verry fast don't like the look of the C30? the S40 is the ecsact same car, but in the form of a sedan elegant, comfy, quiet....

there is always TVR, but they don't realy have a reputation for beeing reliable, or chep to maintain, do they?

no, I belive that this debate wil probably newer die, until Ford makes a New Puma, wich will sadly probably never hapen...


I'm sorry if these car's are not whitin Your Budget, but when looking for a replasement, in my mind, the replacement has to bring something extra, something that makes leaving the puma behind Worth it, if you know what I meen.

When it comes to driving feel the Renault Clio GT, not RS, came closest my Puma. Once had one for a test for two weeks. Damping characteristics were quite close, cornering speed as well. When straight line driving the Puma was better though caused by the high damping coefficient of the Clio.

Edit: with close I mean less than 5% different.

Hi Sjoerd
They all might come close but the Puma's still a really pretty coupe which handles fantastic and is cheap to run. Let's face it, there is still no rival or successor.
Barry

Well being slightly biast owning a Twingo 133 cup. There is nothing wrong with owning on running them I have had 60,000 miles of happy driving. In a lot of ways you do get the same enjoyment out of a Twingo as you do get in a puma but dare I say I would have the twingo any day and being a proper cup there is less than 150 on our roads.

I'd agree that the Twingo Cup is about as close to a modern day puma as your going to get, small, cheap, and such a great car to drive, it loves to be revved hard!

Ive onle had a few short drives in one but I loved every second behind the wheel!

I can't comment on anything except the fiesta ST because the wife changed her first Puma for an 07 Fiesta ST, had it a year and got rid...for her current Puma Thunder.

The ST is quick admittedly but the general feel and build quality of the car just isn't up to the Puma standard.

Owned the swift sport great little car. The 1.6 renault wind is similar as it's basically a twingo sport in a coupe body

Neil said:

People will probably think I've lost my marbles, but I'd say this:

Similar power, size, naturally aspirated, known to be a great drivers car. Ok, it isn't a coupe - but try finding another small coupe these days.

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Good shout with the swift they're meant to handle really well and be a lot of fun to drive (even the standard none sport versions are meant to be good fun). Just not worth the price hike on the current Puma!

slayllian said:

Owned the swift sport great little car. The 1.6 renault wind is similar as it's basically a twingo sport in a coupe body

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The wind has a removable roof and is more a convertible. Also the 133 has bespoke suspension and wider track in a similar way to the racing puma.

Thanks for getting into the thread guys some interesting alternatives there and I apologise if I,m rerunning an old thread.
Never thought of a Twingo I must admit,I just find it annoying that having blue(Ford)blood in my veins they have never offered a proper alternative and I totally agree redexr the older type ST just doesn,t cut it.
The new Fiesta ZetecS petrol is 1litre about 125bhp however my mates brother bought one and he says it sounds like it has a key in the roof(like toy cars us oldies remember)
Good news though I took my FP for her MOT this morning,left her a couple of hours and when I went to pick her up the guy who does my MOT,s said it was a pleasure to do an MOT on a car like that and she flew through with no problems and nothing pending
As an aside I went past a local garage and saw a Thunder for sale for £1345 on the way home I called in...oh dear :-( arches full of filler, goosed,salesman came out I left,I,ve seen another one advertised on Ebay in the same town "no rust"the ad says,it wasn,t there this morning(probably been filled and painted as I write this)but I,ll go back and expect to be disapointed.
Looking like I don,t need an alternative after all :wink:

Cibbie said:

Neil said:

People will probably think I've lost my marbles, but I'd say this:

Similar power, size, naturally aspirated, known to be a great drivers car. Ok, it isn't a coupe - but try finding another small coupe these days.

Click to expand...

Good shout with the swift they're meant to handle really well and be a lot of fun to drive (even the standard none sport versions are meant to be good fun). Just not worth the price hike on the current Puma!

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I've just found a test of this Suzuki and it says it drinks too much: Highway, average speed 120km/h: 8.2l/100km.
Twingo RS:8.7l/100km

My puma: 7-7.5l/100km!

Plus the Puma doesn't look like an egg on wheels...

Thunderpuma said:

I've just found a test of this Suzuki and it says it drinks too much: Highway, average speed 120km/h: 8.2l/100km.
Twingo RS:8.7l/100km

My puma: 7-7.5l/100km!

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And therby is one of the big factors Puma,s are so bloomin economical,despite all the modern technology nowadays you just don,t seem to be able to have both its either one or the other...

Having just done the test drive rollercoaster, I can say with some confidence the swift sport is as close to the puma in driving terms as you will get.
Good body control a fine handling chassis and a willing NA engine, brakes not as good as an ST 150 equipped puma, gear change not as slick either.
Good cheap car with no boot space or a sense of occasion. Well equipped but just not special enough to sign on the dotted line.

The new ST fiesta should have been the replacement for our puma, but sadly I didn't click with it. I preferred our puma to it, whilst the new ST is a great drivers car on the track I couldn't live with it day to day.

We discounted Clio GT, DS3 sport, pug XY 208, SEAT Ibiza fr edition 1.4 act and the VW Polo Gt for an alfa mito 1.4 140 HP tct.

The ALFA was the only car that gave the feel good factor of the puma, the rest were too booring, slow. Expensive or too focused on performance to be a viable replacement for the wee Ford.

I was annoyed to have to admit the next car wouldn't have a blue oval, but having test driven all the current hot/warm hatch contenders I'm fairly confident we have made the right choice.

There's plenty of choice out there, nailing it down to one car as a spiritual succesor to the puma is a fairly subjective and emotive issue.