This past December, I drove the Ford Puma 1.0T ST-Line Vignale all the way from Pretoria to Cape Town and back, and was impressed with how well the crossover performed while also maintaining a reasonable fuel consumption.
Starting from my home in Centurion on the outskirts of Pretoria, the journey to Cape Town would be roughly 1,470km long, provided I stuck to the N1 the whole way, but I actually ended up taking a slightly different route.
An economical trip
I had planned the trip well in advance, and would be making the descent to the coast with a group of friends while spending a night in the Karoo.
To test out just how economical the Ford actually is, I made sure to stop at a petrol station, fill the 42-litre tank up to the brim, and check the tyre pressure before picking up my friends in Bryanston, Sandton.
As a reference, the company states that the Puma has a combined fuel consumption of 5.3l/100km, which can afford a driving range of up to 793km.
My friends and I left Sandton at 06h00 and got off to an easy start, as the cooler morning temperatures meant there was no need for the aircon and the traffic had yet to pick up.
It’s also important to clarify that two of my friends were travelling using their own car, while a third was riding with me, meaning that there were at least two adults, two large suitcases, and a backpack adding to the Puma’s weight at all times.
The first leg of the journey took us all the way to Bloemfontein – a distance of 415km – and the Ford could have easily kept going if we wanted to.
However, we’d be leaving the N1 at this point to make our way over to our overnight halt, which was a remote chalet located not far from Strydenburg in the Northern Cape.
As for the drive itself, the best figure I achieved with the Puma was 5.7l/100km, but this figure later climbed to an average of 6.2l/100km later in the day when the air conditioning was on full blast and overtaking trucks became far more frequent.
I made the trip in the crossover’s default Normal driving mode, as I figured this would be the most accurate representation of what a typical owner can expect.
Eco mode would arguably have made more sense for this run, but I didn’t want the more sluggish throttle response to affect my ability to overtake. Likewise, Sport mode was a very tempting prospect when we ran into several trucks in convoy, but I avoided this mode so as not to dilute our fuel stat up till that point.
It’s a good thing that I avoided Sport mode, too, as we actually came worryingly close emptying the tank before we reached a station in Hopetown with only 36km left on tap.
In other words, the Puma made it all the way from Bryanston, Gauteng to Hopetown, Northern Cape on a single tank – a journey of 670km – with 36km to spare.
Had the weather been less hot with less trucks on the road, this figure would likely have been even higher, and while the crossover’s fuel stat was noticeably higher that Ford’s official numbers, I was nonetheless very impressed with how well it performed.
Cruise control certainly helped in this endeavour, though the sheer number of slow moving vehicles on the nation’s highways means its fairly difficult to maintain a consistent speed these days.
The second day was much the same as before, leaving Strydenburg and following the sat-nav all the way to Cape Town, taking the N12 before rejoining the N1 near Three Sisters and following the tarmac all the way to our final destination.
After Hopetown, the next fill-up came in Beaufort West, which added another 373km to the meter.
From here, it was a straight shot all the way to the Mother City, with the trip taking another five hours and 462km.
Even after dropping off my friend in Rondebosch and making it all the way to Constantia, the Puma still had over 200km of range on the display, which is remarkable given that the crossover’s tank size isn’t much bigger than a B-segment hatchback like the VW Polo’s.
In total, the two-day expedition from Gauteng all the way down to Cape Town was just over 1,500km and used around 93 litres of petrol thanks to the Puma’s frugal performance.
Join the discussion