• 13.0-inch touchscreen looks crisp and modern
• Sharp digital gauge cluster
• Button-heavy steering wheel

How is the quality and layout?

The Kuga’s interior feels very much like that of the Ford Focus, albeit with more headroom. The dashboard looks almost identical, including its move away from physical aircon controls. They now reside in the touchscreen, with the temperature adjustment always on screen. It’s still less-user friendly than what went before, though.

We’re not particularly fond of the Kuga’s steering wheel, either. It has no less than 15 buttons, which feels like too many. Some of the controls are uncomfortably small to press for fat fingers and would be better replaced by a clickable roller switch, for example.

Quality is disappointing for the class. The Kuga is better built than rivals from budget brands like SsangYong and MG, but most rivals beat it. We’ve already mentioned the shonky load cover, the rear seat back was badly trimmed on our test car, as well. The cabin has a lot of exposed scratchy plastic, too, which means it doesn’t feel particularly plush.

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Infotainment and tech

Ford’s freestanding 13.0-inch infotainment system looks like something of an afterthought in the way it’s tacked onto the dashboard, but it’s easily accessed if unfortunately not angled towards the driver. It’s sharp, responsive and a big improvement on the old 8.0-inch system.

It runs Ford’s Sync 4 infotainment software. This is the latest version, and looks far more modern than the old Sync 3 system while remaining simple to use – the icons are big and easy to target. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are also standard, so you can bypass the software entirely.

We think the Kuga’s 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster is good, too. It’s another high-resolution screen which makes the configurable dials look very sharp and classy. Even so, it’s not quite as configurable as rival systems in the Seat Ateca and Skoda Karoq.

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Comfort

• Lots of space front and rear
• ST-Line models have a firm ride
• No adaptive suspension available

We could never get ourselves entirely comfortable behind the Kuga’s wheel due to the high driving position we’ve already mentioned. Yes, it’s one of the main reasons many people buy an SUV, but the driver’s seat feels perched way above the instruments. Even our shortest, 5′ 4″ tester wished the seat went a little lower.

Base Titanium gets lumbar adjustment on its manual seats. 12-way electric adjustment with memory for the driver is standard on all other models, ST-Line X adding electric passenger adjustment, too. In our experience the seats do a decent job of fending off back pain on long journeys.

Tyre roar is kept in check and there isn’t much wind noise, either. However, both are acutely observed when running the plug-in hybrid Kuga in electric mode, as there’s no engine noise to drown out the hum. The engine itself isn’t too offensive, but the revs will rise and stay there when you accelerate hard.