Test drive Ford Kuga since 2012 crossover
Diesel Ford Kuga Diesel Test in the capital of the Finnish rally
Kolesa.ru went to test the next modification of Ford Kuga, but in the end they found themselves at the Finnish stage of the WRC world championship. It’s not that Kuga became so fast, but - a dozen Kuga with Moscow numbers completed their program: without losses, they got from Pulkovo to the heart of the rally Finland of Juvyskul, and vice versa. Since childhood, I wanted to get to Neste Rally Finland. A real gravel rally with the best of the best, who just dust and scatter gravel into the faces, torso and lenses of fans and just satisfied drunken onlookers, gathered in the hope of seeing a beautiful accident and better roof. Better yet, a roof of 10 revolutions. When I had the opportunity to find myself in Juviskyul, I cooled to the rally races. Mainly because all automakers left the WRC except Ford and Citroen. And instead of a serious tournament of large corporations, the World Cup became just a rally where two auto giants compete with small teams and their enthusiastic pilots. However, next year the technical regulation will change and, perhaps, will open the path to WRC to other factory teams.
Gravel is the element of Ford. This was proved by Yari-Matti Latvala, who confidently won everyone, including stars such as Peter Solberg and Sebastien Lyob. And this was confirmed by Kuga, on which for some reason the bad road seemed smoother than good.
Let the Finnish primers to ours still grow and grow (or rather, to beat and beat, to erode and erode), but after the grader and wake up gravel the local paths were also not a gift. And completely to the place of the pendants of the crossover was an excellent energy intensity. The wheels and shock absorbers had to not be easy, but passengers could only guess about this: Kuga was almost not shaking, vibrations were not felt, the trajectory was observed implicitly.
There were much more questions on the asphalt. Fords made the steering wheel very sharp, and the reaction of the chassis to the turn of almost lightning fast. At the same time, on the test machine the change in the electrical power mode was not reflected in any way. And despite all the severity with short maneuvers and single restructuring, sports stability and did not smell.
But we drove 1,000 km on the new Kuga modification not for the sake of suspension, but because of the motor and gearboxes, which first appeared under the hood of the crossover.
The tested 136-horsepower 2.0-player TDCI was taken as the basis of the new power unit Ford. Engineers reduced the compression degree (16.0: 1 instead of 17.6: 1), increased by 20% of the combustion chamber, increased pressure in the injection system (2,000 bar instead of 1,650), replaced electromagnetic nozzles (now they cost 8 holes instead of 6) and put it up) and put A more compact turbocharger with variable geometry. Compared to the predecessor, the maximum speed increased from 180 to 195 km/h, the acceleration time from 0 to 100 km/h decreased from 10.7 to 9.6 seconds, and acceleration from 50 to 100 km/h in the fourth gear is already not 9.4, but 8.1 seconds.
The appetite of the 163-horsepower (the 140-horsepower was not possible to try in the case) of the motor turned out to be noticeably higher than the indicator, which is called in Ford. The test copy in an extremely leisurely suburban cycle consumed 7.5 liters per 100 km, while in the technical characteristics, consumption 6.0 liters in the mixed cycle is indicated!
However, it is very difficult to lead a quick and powerful car on public Finnish roads. Many intercity tracks have a limit of 80 km/h, or even up to 60 km/h and you are removed by a hidden camera, and 95% of the local population will not allow itself to be excess of speed. Actually, because the cameras themselves honestly cost shortly after the warning, and fines in Suomi are much higher than ours. Kuga is not fast and not powerful, but the moment car; It abruptly tears from a place and quickly develops the minimum 60 km/h to calmly squeeze into the stream of the Finnish highway. The dynamics does not suffer from the number of passengers and the size (and weight) of the road bags in 360-liter 1 trunk.
The new Ford engine refreshes in memory, not far, but it would seem that past times when the cars had turboyam. Now several different superchargers or other tricks are often used to avoid this phenomenon. But Kuga, before accelerating from about 1,300-1,400 revolutions per minute, withstands an unnecessary pause. Although acceleration is significantly more confident than on the 136-horsepower modification of diesel.
And not the last role in dynamic growth was played by a transmission. Ford chose a new two-sized 6-speed PowerShift automatic transmission as a diesel engine with two clutches. Like the Volkswagen DSG, it has a sports mode and a manual switching mechanism. At the same time, for the usual overtaking on the highway, it was absolutely not necessary to go into a sports algorithm; The gearbox is very quickly and reduced in a timely manner, and in corners it specially holds the transmission and does not increase. The machine is very active when braking: the box itself connects lower speeds now and then, slightly pulling the car and trying to predict exactly what speed the driver will need. If the driver did not slow down until a complete stop, but decided to sharply start, he will appreciate the quick checkpoint.
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Liked:
- diesel with a machine gun: low fuel consumption, excellent thrust and no need to switch the gears every 10 seconds. The correct combination, damn it! I also liked the sensitivity of the steering and the energy intensity of pendants.
Did not like:
- Noise insulation still has where to improve. The cabin has little space for small items (for example, mobile). Suspension rigidity; The energy intensity is good, but most of the life of Kuga will spend on asphalt; to feel every purebink on which I would not like ...
Price
Diesel Kuga are already available for order from official Ford dealers. Recommended retail prices start from 1,163,000 rubles.
1 - the luggage of the trunk was measured according to the ISO 3832 standard - to the top of the back.
Competitors Ford Kuga in the domestic market:
Nissan Qashqai
Skoda Yeti
Author: Alexander Korobchenko
A source: Wheel magazine [August 2010]
