We have what it looks like the first photo of a production-ready Ford Kuga. Revealed as a production preview at this autumn’s Frankfurt Motor Show, the Kuga crossover is based on the Iosis X Concept and it keeps a lot of the preview’s features, which is a good thing. Scheduled to be produced at Ford’s plant in Saarlouis, Germany starting early next year, the first Kugas will hit European showrooms in 2008’s first half. Unfortunately, bad news for the US, no Kuga here.

So what do you say, why does Ford keep all these cool cars only for Europe? Drop a comment here.
Read More: "The Ford Kuga production version gets spied"

Officials at Ford stated that the upcoming Ford Kuga will be launched with only one engine, a 136hp 2.0L TDCi diesel mated with six-speed automatic transmission. The car will hit showrooms in May 2008 and towards the end of the year a 220 hp 2.5 liter five-cylinder engine will be available. Damian Oton, Ford’s medium cars brand manager said:

“The Ford Kuga will be a strong user-chooser product and we have made a conscious, strategic decision to have one body style, one engine and the one six-speed transmission.”

Is it good, is it bad? Who knows, but I think this could be a mistake for Ford, because it narrows the choices and could lose a lot of customers over this. However, they also stated that they expect to sell only about 6,000-8,000 vehicles in the first year. But, also considering that the Ford kuga will be available in the United States, we expect a more powerful petrol engine to be available.
Read More: "The Ford Kuga will come with only one engine"

Scheduled to be presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show next week, we have a sneak peak at the Ford Kuga concept. Based on the Iosis X Concept, introduced at last year’s Paris Motor Show, the Kuga follows Ford’s current ‘kinetic’ line-up. Set to debut next year the crossover will feature the established 2.0-litre, 136 PS Duratorq TDCi common-rail diesel engine, mated to a six-speed manual transmission. One thing I’m afraid is that Kuga will follow Opel Antara’s example, which after a brilliant concept car, followed a not-so-spectacular SUV, but we’ll wait and see. Meanwhile, see more pics after the jump.
Read More: "Ford Kuga concept crossover revealed"