Ford Kuga launched in Australia - but it's the old Kuga

The old Ford Kuga is the new Ford Kuga in Australia

In what seems an odd move, the current Ford Kuga has been launched in Australia, just weeks from the debut of the 2012 Kuga in Geneva.

You can’t have failed to notice that the 2012 Ford Kuga is just round the corner – and due to debut at Geneva in March – and we’ve already seen most of what the new Kuga has to offer with the debut of the new Ford Escape at Los Angeles last November.

But despite the world readying itself to put in an order for a new Kuga, our Antipodean cousins are only now getting the chance to buy a Kuga, but its not the all new Ford Kuga, rather the Kuga we’ve had for the last four years.

Australians will now be able to buy just one version of the current Kuga with the petrol lump – which we assume is the five-pot 2.5 litre turbo we get in the UK – and they’ll only be able to have their new/old Kuga in Titanium and Trend trim.

Not only that, but Ford has restricted supplies to Australia to just 200 Kugas a month and the starting price is $39,000AUS, which makes the old Kuga in Oz around 20 per cent more than the new Maxda CX-5 in Oz (Mazda are big in Oz).

There must be logic to this move to sell the old Kuga in Australia at uncompetitive prices, but we’re struggling to see it.