Due to past experience, I would recommend driving a 163 befor you take the plunge.
Several years ago, I ordered a new company car. At around that time (2011), I had driven a few rental 2.0 TDCI Mondeos in 140BHP guise and they all went very well. When it came to ordering mine, they had just introduced another engine option in the Mondeo Titanium, in addition to the 140, they had a 163. Must be even better I thought and so I ticked that box.
I hadn’t got more than 2 miles away from the dealer on collection day and my heart sank as I realised just how wrong as was. The car was absolutely gutless. So much so, I was back and to to the dealer for what must have been almost 12 months, certain that there was a major problem with it. It took them almost 12 months to (allegedly) to find another one that I could compare back to back and low and behold, that was just the same.
It was all a play on numbers, If I remember correctly, the 163 had exactly the same fuel consumption figures as the 140 yet had a higher “max” power output. Max being the key word. At a time where most Turbo-Diesels would scrabble for grip in 1st from around 1200RPM, this thing felt like you were trying to pull away in second.
After a quick glance at a published torque curve plot of Another Moneed with the same engine, measured on a dyno and published by a reputable tuning company showed exactly why the car was as gutless as it was. I had never, and have still never seen a turbo-diesel engine produce such a progressive torque curve below 2500RPM. Oddly enough, whilst they were able to offer a custom remap to increase maximum torque and power, they were unable to do very much at all with the abysmal low-down response, despite the engine being rumoured to be exactly the same as the 140 but with a different map.
Since to the best of my knowledge, it was the same engine as a 140, I asked several times for the supplying local dealer to remap it as a 140, but they insisted that they couldn’t. No surprise there.
Fortunately, we had a new employee join the company shortly after, and so I offloaded it on to him and ordered a new Passat Sport
, and have been a VW fan ever since !
Obviously, we’re 9 years down the road now, and I’m not sure if the OP mentioned whether they were looking at new or used. I really have no idea if the 163PS 2.0 Turbo Diesel that they are fitting to the Kuga is even the same engine as the one I had in my Mondeo, but in any case, it prompted me to post as the combination of the number 163 and the name Ford still gives me nightmares !
Given the changes in emissions regulations since then, even if it is the same engine, then I would imagine that the engine map would be significantly different anyway, but I would still strongly recommend driving the exact same model, with the exact same engine before making a decision,
Hope this helps !
Ic.