RE: Ford Puma 1.7 | Spotted

[Deep Thought]

AlexGSi2000 said:

Is £2,995 considered cheap these days?
I was anticipating <£1k - doesn't feel so long ago when you could pick these up for £500.

I've personally never liked them, didn't look like a "blokes" car in my view - only thing I thought they were good for was for taking the engine and fitting into the MK5 Zetec-S - which I incidentally owned.

As far as I'm aware they were the same chassis?

Edited by AlexGSi2000 on Wednesday 26th June 11:32

It is considered cheap yes.

The ones you have memory of at £500 would have been cars needing rear wheel arches and almost certainly sills, then the associated bodywork to make the car mint which would cost £,£££s.

[biggbn]

AlexGSi2000 said:

Is £2,995 considered cheap these days?
I was anticipating <£1k - doesn't feel so long ago when you could pick these up for £500.

I've personally never liked them, didn't look like a "blokes" car in my view - only thing I thought they were good for was for taking the engine and fitting into the MK5 Zetec-S - which I incidentally owned.

As far as I'm aware they were the same chassis?

Edited by AlexGSi2000 on Wednesday 26th June 11:32

What's a 'blokes car'?

[cerb4.5lee]

biggbn said:

What's a 'blokes car'?

A Pontiac Firebird Trans Am...

[Deep Thought]

I remember this on Top Gear. Tiff Niddell throwing one about round a track with Clarkson hanging on in the passenger seat and Quentin Wilson bouncing about in the back

[biggbn]

cerb4.5lee said:

biggbn said:

What's a 'blokes car'?

A Pontiac Firebird Trans Am...

YeeHaa!!

[otolith]

biggbn said:

AlexGSi2000 said:

Is £2,995 considered cheap these days?
I was anticipating <£1k - doesn't feel so long ago when you could pick these up for £500.

I've personally never liked them, didn't look like a "blokes" car in my view - only thing I thought they were good for was for taking the engine and fitting into the MK5 Zetec-S - which I incidentally owned.

As far as I'm aware they were the same chassis?

Edited by AlexGSi2000 on Wednesday 26th June 11:32

What's a 'blokes car'?

A Fiesta, apparently.

[Turbobanana]

paulyv said:

Turbobanana said:

I have a 16 year old who turns 17 in September. He's keen to learn to drive a "proper" car (read: manual) before everything goes all EV and self-drive. He probably won't undertake too many long journeys while at sixth form. This car is 25 miles from me. It's probably as safe, in the real world, as a more modern hatchback. It's easily fixed, has enough driver aids to feel modern(ish) and is stylish. Running costs will be sensible.

I wonder...

Any Puma is the perfect car for this use but hunt one out with TWO airbags. The passenger one had to be specced and is rather rare.

Edited by paulyv on Wednesday 26th June 17:50

The number of airbags won't be a deal breaker. Some cars have none at all, and I'd certainly not put any faith in a 25 year old system based on electronics and explosives to deploy correctly in the event of an accident.

[lifeboat22]

Deep Thought said:

Charlie Croker mk2 said:

There is a rare one owner 1.4 on eBay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/126543712704

I think the point of the article was, you dont have to spend a fortune to buy a road ready Puma with the much preferred 1.7 litre Yamaha engine and in the iconic silver.

I would absolutely guarantee if you bought that non runner 1.4 on ebay, the end car would end up costing way more than the £2995 asking price of this one AND it would be the relatively unloved 1.4 variant in red.

They are all Yamaha engines, but yes, the 1.7 is the one to have

[Deep Thought]

lifeboat22 said:

Deep Thought said:

Charlie Croker mk2 said:

There is a rare one owner 1.4 on eBay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/126543712704

I think the point of the article was, you dont have to spend a fortune to buy a road ready Puma with the much preferred 1.7 litre Yamaha engine and in the iconic silver.

I would absolutely guarantee if you bought that non runner 1.4 on ebay, the end car would end up costing way more than the £2995 asking price of this one AND it would be the relatively unloved 1.4 variant in red.

They are all Yamaha engines, but yes, the 1.7 is the one to have

I thought the 1.4 was a regular Fiesta engine?

From Post #4 in the below link

"I am an early retired Ford Engineer, one of the numerous 'fathers' of our cats; having been working in the Cologne PVT (Plant Vehicle Team) as technical Purchase Representative for Scorpio, Puma, and Fiesta / Fusion.

The birth of the Puma (SE146) was caused by a contract with Yamaha for the 1.7l engine, originally planned for another project which was ceased. After that Ford had to decide to either swallow the penalty for a broken contract or to use the engines (80 per day).
Consequently Ford looked for a cheap way to construct a vehicle being compatible to the character of that engine.

After production start in September 1997, Ford (completely surprised) recognised the market demand for that car - thanks a lot to Ford's Marketing Department - but had not enough engines to satisfy the market.

So they decided to make use of the ready-to-build-in 1.4l Fiesta engine (which led to the nasty nickname 'secretary's Ferrari'; the 1.25l was considered as being too weak. The 1.4l engine was replaced by the 1.6l one which was built in parallel to the 1.7l till the official production stop before plant shutdown 2001."


https://www.projectpuma.com/threads/what-did-yamah...

[AlexGSi2000]

biggbn said:

What's a 'blokes car'?

Not a Puma - always thought it looked odd seeing a bloke driving one, same with the Fiat 500

[petrolhead888]

This is such a coincidence and perfect timing and completely backs up what I have been thinking for a while!
I have a few classics and have been thinking about getting a Puma 1.7 for a while now as have seen the prices lately start to creep for nice ones.

Back when they were a few years old, I had a few as company cars working in the motor trade, and they were such a great cars to drive; I remember four wheels drifting one with 4 of us in just like the Top Gear episode; I can confirm that you can do this!

One of my best memories was a trip up to Scotland in one and revelling in the handling and thinking Richard Parry-Jones and the team were utter geniuses. To this day, one of the best driver cars I have driven and have had Elises, etc.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I spotted a beautiful low mileage 49k, Red 1.7 with a Puma Private number.

£4500

An MOT history check showed no history of rust and he sent over a video showing immaculate floorplans etc

Been kept in a dry garage all its life owned by an old lady at first then was owned by a well known Puma specialist as his own personal car.

No A/C or electric mirrors or heated screen but i`d rather have a better car than those things.

Hmmm, I had a budget of £4000 but didn't want to pay that so offered £3800 including plate and he accepted.

So here we have "Uma" the Puma!, she is immaculate and I am really happy.

The clutch is a little high so just bought a new one with Slave cylinder to do and I have painted underneath red to keep it as nice as it is, shes a keeper!

Edited by petrolhead888 on Thursday 27th June 11:23

[petrolhead888]

AlexGSi2000 said:

Not a Puma - always thought it looked odd seeing a bloke driving one, same with the Fiat 500

All I can say is I have a Porsche Boxster S as well and a Peugeot 205 GTi 1.9 , and your seriously missing out!

[s m]

Back in the late 90s, one of these was on my shortlist for my first ever new car - wanted something fun and economical with great handling.

Narrowed it down to the French twins ( 106Gti and Saxo VTS ) and one of these. Having had quite a few Fords and digesting all the handling reviews I was expecting to like the Puma the most - they all got excellent handling reviews and all similar weight and power

When it came down to it though, I ended up with the VTS. For me , the 106 and Saxo just seemed that bit more fun and incisive through the bends ( although the 106 test drive was seriously curtailed by the most anxious and cautious salesman ever ).

They all rust for England now and have flaws. I remember a girl at work’s succumbed to the early Nicasil issue but one of the Puma specialists sorted that out quite cheaply.

Nice to see the odd one still going

There is a Racing version stored in a garage locally - very low mileage but shame it’s not used

[AlexGSi2000]

petrolhead888 said:

All I can say is I have a Porsche Boxster S as well and a Peugeot 205 GTi 1.9 , and your seriously missing out!

I used to have a MK5 Fiesta of the same vintage, which I don't think are a million miles apart in terms of the chassis - granted I did make some changes to the suspension and do completely agree in terms of the handling, very fun cars.
For 18 year old me at the time, the Zetec-S bumpers / bodykit looked much better than the Puma.
Few of the guys I knew at the time transplanted the 1.7 from the puma, there were even a few with FRP engines / inlets.
I went down the route of cams & exhaust, which saw me to around 130bhp.

I think looking back - I class them as the younger drivers cars, great for 17-25 year olds. I guess I felt as I get older the HP output / size of the car should increase somewhat.

Edited by AlexGSi2000 on Thursday 27th June 12:09

[cerb4.5lee]

s m said:

Back in the late 90s, one of these was on my shortlist for my first ever new car - wanted something fun and economical with great handling.

Narrowed it down to the French twins ( 106Gti and Saxo VTS ) and one of these. Having had quite a few Fords and digesting all the handling reviews I was expecting to like the Puma the most - they all got excellent handling reviews and all similar weight and power

When it came down to it though, I ended up with the VTS. For me , the 106 and Saxo just seemed that bit more fun and incisive through the bends ( although the 106 test drive was seriously curtailed by the most anxious and cautious salesman ever ).

They all rust for England now and have flaws. I remember a girl at work’s succumbed to the early Nicasil issue but one of the Puma specialists sorted that out quite cheaply.

Nice to see the odd one still going

There is a Racing version stored in a garage locally - very low mileage but shame it’s not used

That was similar to me and I'd never had a brand new car either, but I was seriously interested in buying a new Puma back then though.

Those VTS's were quick, and I quite often got into a bit of fun with them in my XR4x4 years back.

[nismo48]

Remember the early advert by Ford with clever movie trickery and the 'King of Cool' behind the wheel.
Great little cars to drive and good bang for buck these days if you can grab a nice one.

[MikeMi-4]

My sister-in-law had a Puma 1.7 in Purple back in 2001. I was the one who encouraged her to get it despite her not being convinced. I ended up saying to her at the time "if it's good enough for Steve McQueen....." (from the Puma advert back in the day). I drove it a couple of times and couldn't believe just how good the suspension and gearchange was for a mass-built car. Brilliant cars!

[C5_Steve]

MikeMi-4 said:

My sister-in-law had a Puma 1.7 in Purple back in 2001. I was the one who encouraged her to get it despite her not being convinced. I ended up saying to her at the time "if it's good enough for Steve McQueen....." (from the Puma advert back in the day). I drove it a couple of times and couldn't believe just how good the suspension and gearchange was for a mass-built car. Brilliant cars!

Was it this colour (Thistle), or do you mean the blue they came in?



Because Thistle was an incredibly rare colour, I don't think it was actually ever offered in the UK! Such a great colour.

[s m]

cerb4.5lee said:

That was similar to me and I'd never had a brand new car either, but I was seriously interested in buying a new Puma back then though.

Those VTS's were quick, and I quite often got into a bit of fun with them in my XR4x4 years back.

Yep, 106/VTS some margin quicker than the Puma as well …. even on less rubber

[sinisterpenguin]

66HFM said:

Turbobanana said:

Did they ever have 4 spoke wheels? They certainly had 5:

Spot on Turbobanana, I ran out of fingers to count them with.

Definitely a much better alloy than the later multi-spokes, IMHO

Sadly also has the rubbish mk1 brakes that go with the early wheels. Almost stacked mine into the back of a parked car back in the day!!