Ford Kuga: brilliant SUV with 2.5T engine. Great looks, refined drive, but mpg a minus point

Ford Kuga integrated traffic info and satnav

The following day of the Mazda Blenheim Triathlon, my wife and co director, Alison, had her final presentation for her KLC School of Design interior decoration certification course.

It had meant a late night and early morning helping Alison get all her boards together. The amount of detail work Alison put in was phenomenal.

Anyway, it resulted in time being tight, and Alison had to be in by 10am for the start of college and the beginning of all the student presentations. I knew the way up to Chelsea Harbour but plumbed it into the sat nav system anyway.

It was a good idea. There was silence as Alison re-drafted her presentation (Mk3 I think it was!) in the Ford Kuga on the way up. It was a perfect environment: air con to keep the temperature down; leather seats to provide that stress-free executive-thinking environment; quiet engine; refined ride.

And all the while the sat-nav got on with guiding us. Then, as the traffic built up, the sat-nav constantly recalculated our route providing an EST all the time.

We made it, with two minutes to spare