Kuga Performance

[Brian Kirk]

Dear Sir

 

I am writing to you for assistance, to recover the costs I am out of pocket for returning a Ford Kuga SR17AMU purchased in March 2019, and exchanged it for a C Max this week.

I had hoped to return it under The Consumer Rights Act 2015 makes it an implied term of the contract I have with Macklin Motors that goods be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality.

As they are in breach of contract and I've owned the product for less than 6 months and a previous attempt at repair or replacement has also failed, I am within my statutory rights to ask for a refund of up to 100% of the original cost paid.

 

As pensioners we could not continue to run this car as I am just finished 12 weeks of chemotherapy this is another problem we did not need.

I therefore believe the Kuga is not as it was described to us, I was led to believe the car consumption would be better than it is achieving and it does not meet Ford Technical specification performance, therefore it is not satisfactory.

Sequence of Events

1:- We bought the Ford Kuga in March 2019 at this time we were not advised that it has such a low petrol consumption not even meeting ford’s own specification of 30PPG urban driving and 44MPG on motorways.

We noticed from the start that the petrol gauge went down quickly. We set the trip computers and never got more than 23/24 MPG mostly town driving but also a few trips on motorways. We used approximately £400 of fuel (receipts available) from March to July going 1702 miles.

2:-I was concerned about the money we were spending on fuel, but thought I was to late to return the car as it was over three months, I them took advice and was advised that I could return it within six months.

3:- I them contacted the sales team who told me to book it in for a fuel check

We booked it in and the driver who picked it up got higher MPG but it was a shorter journey and I do not know what speed he was doing on the motorway?

I was disappointed that your service team did not carry out a fuel consumption test or connected it to your computer as I requested.

On return of the car we were told it was a petrol guzzler and we should drive it on cruise control to get improved petrol consumption.

4:- I was advised by the services manager to carry out my own test which I did, issuing the pictures of the trip computer to to Macklin Motors

The first was a trip from South Queensferry to Craigmillar via town centre the result was 14.3 miles averaging 26.6 mpg

The second was from Craigmillar to South Queensferry via the bypass all duel carriageway and motorway driving between 60- 70 mph result was 24.2 miles averaging 28.7 mpg it never went over 30 mpg

All the above figures and my other records are all less than Ford technical specification for this car.

5:-I re- contacted the sales team advising of the following I am satisfied with everything else about this car but I do not think you can improve the performance of this car.

This car has a very poor fuel consumption and as we do trips to Devon I am not prepared to suffer the cost of the additional fuel, I do not wish to speed, but travel at reasonable speeds to get me to my destinations in a good time. We were never advised of this at the sales meeting when we bought it in March 2019 only of its performance just how great a car it was.

I am prepared to give you one last chance to sort this problem before I take further action. If you can improve the performance i would be happy but i do not think this is possible, so I would except and exchange to a similar ford with a better fuel consumption If it is a higher spec car I may be prepared to contribute a small sum towards it.

They then contacted me saying that they would look for suitable cars saying if it was a Kuga it would be a straight swap and a C Max would probably mean money back for me.

Next I knew they had a C max a year newer than the Kuga and they wanted me to pay £1000 we negotiated down to £500 I said why was I paying anything they said they had to have some profit.

The C max is satisfactory but slightly less in specification than the Kuga. I had asked for the same standard of specification.

 

Summary

 

This is a detailed list of events why I think the above Ford Kuga does meet its specification fuel performance.

 

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 it is the responsibility of Macklin Motors Dunfermilne to put the situation right.

I do not want a car that I have to drive at control speeds to get reasonable fuel consumption I do not want to speed but I wish on long journeys to arrive within a reasonable time period.

As I have just finished three months of chemotherapy this is the last thing I need at this time but I would be grateful if you could assist me in the return of the money I have lost

 

Ford Kuga £19355.00

C Max £ 16000.00

 

Difference £3355.00 plus my £500 for C max

 

Total £3855.00 outstanding

 

 

Brian Kirk

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guy Heaton]

If you want a more efficient car then perhaps a large SUV is not suitable?

Noone in the history of driving has ever got the official manufacturer mpg.

[pragmatix]

I know those roads you mention and given those journeys that consumption is what I would expect, my Cmax 1.5 tdci in similar journeys only does 32 mpg, 

[Luke4efc]

Usually I have a go at dealers by saying they try to wiggle out of things. However I think in this case there's no reason for them to have to refund you.

You've probably lost out on the £3000 or so difference in price because they will have took the Kuga and part-exed it for the C-Max rather than refunding. Either that or they've used the "fair use" condition and deducted some money. Sucks ik but the Kuga will have an extra owner than before and be worth a little less due to the depreciation. Remember you had it 6 months, it will have lost a fair amount in that time.

As others have said it's not really the dealerships fault that manufacturers don't post real world MPG figures. Tbh I think you would've been lucky for a 4wd, 2 tonne hunk of metal to ever get above 40MPG. The underpowered petrol engine doesn't help, a high torque diesel may have made things better.

[iantt]

27 minutes ago, Luke4efc said:

Usually I have a go at dealers by saying they try to wiggle out of things. However I think in this case there's no reason for them to have to refund you.

You've probably lost out on the £3000 or so difference in price because they will have took the Kuga and part-exed it for the C-Max rather than refunding. Either that or they've used the "fair use" condition and deducted some money. Sucks ik but the Kuga will have an extra owner than before and be worth a little less due to the depreciation. Remember you had it 6 months, it will have lost a fair amount in that time.

As others have said it's not really the dealerships fault that manufacturers don't post real world MPG figures. Tbh I think you would've been lucky for a 4wd, 2 tonne hunk of metal to ever get above 40MPG. The underpowered petrol engine doesn't help, a high torque diesel may have made things better.

And Shaped like a brick.