Did Ford copy the Rogue?

[philipa_240sx]

Ford has released the Kuga compact SUV in Europe earlier this year (2008). Is it just me or did they just copy the design from the Rogue?




Images courtesy Ford UK

The Kuga is based off the European Ford Focus/North America Mazda 3 chassis. Apparently Ford has axed the idea of importing it to the US citing economic reasons. The Euro is much higher than the US dollar making it prohibitively expensive.

An interesting tidbit, Kuga is the Croatian word for 'plague'. And you thought car names are getting wierd!

[SimLex]

Wow ... it certainly does look very similar. Nice!!

[kerrton]

Yeah it looks quite similar....but it's tough to say since all of the manufacturers are creating crossover vehicles with that very "Rogue-ish" look. It's hard to say who had the idea first, but fun to check out the similarities.

[ahhbeebee]

Or is it just other forms of the popular Murano trickling over. Hehe, if you ask me, Nissan stole the design for the Rogue from the Murano

[BrianV]

Woh, it does look similar, and BETTER!!! Any more info on tihs?

[BrianV]

Another thought, this car with Escape Hybrid powertrain...

[roguetoad]

Saw one of those in the Tour de France today and wondered what it was.

I like how they cladded the rockers and wheel wells. Wish we had that for our gravel & dirt roads.

Notice how similar the rear quarter valence is!

[websfear]

Can't say I like the center console much.

Even the door pulls are similar.

Interior is kind of deceptive since both of the front seats are in the reclining position.

It probably will not make it to the US any time soon. By that time, there might not even be a Ford Motor Company.

[philipa_240sx]

For those interested in more info:

http://www.ford.co.uk/ns7/Kuga...-/-/-

Like I had posted earlier, Ford is not planing (yet) to introduce this vehicle in North America. Besides, the Escape is one of the most popular selling small SUV's in North America. Why would they need another?

The Kuga was first seen as the Iosis X Concept at the same 2006 Paris Auto Show the production version Nissan Qashqai debuted at. The production version Kuga was later unveiled at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto show... about the same time the Rogue went on sale in the US.

Speaking of similarities... I see a bit of RAV4 in the profile and Subaru in the tailights.

[XRogue]

Nah, it looks more like the RAV4 without the spare tire at the back.

[Orphanedcowboy]

These two would be nice:

Fuel efficiency (combined cycle): 44.1mpg

Wheels look eerily familiar, except they are 19":





Modified by Orphanedcowboy at 9:13 AM 7/10/2008

[philipa_240sx]

I had a seperate pop-up hatch glass in my Pathfinder. Although a nice feature, I doubt the complexity and added cost is worth it. The Rogue's hatch is small and easy to operate as it is.

Wait a minute... thats a split tailgate a-la Honda Element! No thanks. The tailgate gets in the way making it difficult to reach the rear of the cargo area. It gets even worse when you are parked on the street in front of another car. A hatch is more practical in many ways.

[Pescakl1]

Cousin Renault Koleos is like that, but I prefer the mitsu outlander for this: It is smaller and best of all, lower the height as it lowers the bumper itself.

To my opinion, the Kuga looks like a mix of Rogue and Tiguan.I like where they put the window buttons on it (I have to look for it everytime as it is out of my sight, always pushing the wrong one), but maybe the door handle is in the way now.Not easy to find a nice place for everything in modern cars.

Nice car anyway, lucky europeans (and they have diesel engines too).

[Etch]

Nice. Too bad they don't sell it in the U.S. It does look a little like a Rogue, but also has some Edge, Element styling too.

By the way, I saw a Murano today and it looked different from the older models. From the back and sides, it looks just like the Rogue, but bigger. The only real difference on the outside is the grille.

[kerrton]

Yeah that's what I thought about the new Murano too - I couldn't figure out why I'd pay an extra $15,000 CAD for the Murano for a marginal increase in size, but very similar styling and much worse fuel economy, although the interior is quite a bit different, more luxury but not worth $15k.

Looking at the pics of the Ford with the spilt rear hatch, which gives the abiilty to just open the top glass section I really wish the Rogue had this ability. I've really liked this on past vehicles, you can hang long objects out the window if you need to, and it is quicker to pop the top hatch rather than opening the whole gate. Oh well, you can't have it all - be happy with what you've got because there will always be something better coming alnog no matter what you buy!

[philipa_240sx]

Ford will be announcing some new product plans this coming thursday (July 24). There have been reports that Ford is now seriously looking at re-tooling it's plants in the wake of declines in truck and SUV production. Some of the re-tooling may be to produce some of it's smaller fuel efficient models from Europe including the Kuga crossover shown above.

Stay tuned.

[gi'me]

The profile says BMW X3, while the face looks like an Audi. I don't see much Nissan. Auto designers are all a bunch of plagiarists.

Whether you like the looks of of Chryslers and Cadillacs or not, at least you can say that the designers for these two manufacturers have distinctive style. Most others follow what the Germans are doing.

[jrmas]

To me it looks like a mix between the Rogue and the VW Tiguan

[philipa_240sx]

Ford announced some major restructuring including retooling 2 of it's truck plants to build cars based off Ford's new C1 platform.

The C1 platform underpins several Mazda, Ford, and Volvo vehicles including the current Mazda 3, Euro Ford Focus, the Volvo S40, and the Ford Kuga.

No word on exactly which vehicles will be produced at these plants.

[cdmuile]

In defense of all car companies mentioned: Design and physics 101, "Form follows function"!

[rider]

That's fresh! I like it!