Report 5

I had an interesting conversation with a lady at the post office this month, as she asked what the car was. She explained that she has always owned Ford cars, as her now departed husband worked there, and she gets a discount. I told her that it was a Kuga, and she asked why it doesn’t say that on the car. It took me a moment to check all around the car to realise that it doesn’t say Kuga anywhere on it, but does say Vignale three times. Normally there’s a Kuga nameplate on the rear tailgate, but that badge has been replaced by a Vignale one. I explained that Vignale is the name given to the top-of-the-range edition of the Kuga, and that it is named after an Italian coachbuilder. Quick as a flash she replied saying “I thought that was Ghia”. I agreed with her that she was right, but advised that the Ghia name had been retired by Ford around ten years ago, and that Vignale was brought in as an even more upmarket replacement. Her closing remark as she got into her Fiesta was, “I don’t know why they can’t leave things alone”. The forthright exchange amused me, as she barely let me get a word in edgeways.

But my experience reinforces how important branding is, and how Ford may have failed in making sure that my car is instantly recognisable. While anyone with a slight interest in cars would no doubt be able to identify it as a Kuga, it’s the people that don’t know that need educating, and if there’s nothing on the car to say Kuga, then that’s maybe a problem. In this instance, Ford has given preference to the flagship Vignale name, with three badges saying so, but it might have been better to have left the tailgate one alone and still saying Kuga, like it does on the lesser versions. There would still be the pair of door mounted badges to announce that it’s the most luxurious version, after all.

Despite having had them fitted to virtually every Ford that I’ve run in recent years, the door edge protectors still delight me. The ingenious piece of plastic that covers the protruding paintwork of the door edge, saves it from being scraped up against a wall or another car. Most cars I’ve owned in the past have had the paint knocked off the vulnerable edges, and so it’s a good way of guarding against this. It comes included within the Safety and Driver Assistance pack and is worth its weight in gold. A friend asked why I would pay out to protect someone else’s car in a car park, but I see it as a way of avoiding the embarrassment of dinging someone else’s car, plus also saving the painted edges of my own doors, too. A win-win situation.

Date arrived 1st December 2020
Mileage 1,418
Economy (WLTP combined) 47.9-49.6
Economy (On test) 41.8mpg