KrAzy KAr! UPDATED (Ford Ka 3-dr)

Member Name: yahtonie

Product:	Ford Ka 3-dr
Date:	11/09/03 (7572 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good handeling, Cool looks, very economical

Disadvantages: Small back windscreen, parking a problem, Not enough extras for the price

And so, there I was one morning. I stood in front of my 15 year old Peugeot 205 and and made my final decision. Battery was dead, even though it had been on recharge all night, and it looked like it had given up the ghost. My days of a Peugeot owner were well and truely over, and so Commarades, to my next car!

My friend had just got himself a brand new black Ka and after riding around in it, I had made my mind up. I wanted a Ka. So I took myself down to my local Ford dealer (big mistake) to have a look at what they had. They only had one used Ka left in stock which I quickly snapped up. Now, forgive me, but in the eagerness of my youth I didn't haggle for the car and left there 4449 pounds in debt. A week later after the car had its MOT and service I went to collect and I can tell you that Ive never been so excited in all my life! It was such a great feeling to own a car that worked properly.

My car in particular was a 1998 S reg basic model in bright red with the black bumpers. Now the colour was a bit iffy at first but now its grown on me and I love it! When I say basic, I mean BASIC. Power assisted steering (not totally power steering), No ABS, no body coloured bumpers, No CD player, no leather seats, no metalic paint, no air condition, so for 4449, it safe to say that I was totally ripped of. And finacing the car through Fords didn't help either (another review I believe is worthy of this) as i was paying £123.90 a month for 4 years. With a APR of 25%!!!!!!

Anyway, back to the car. And so I collected my new pride and joy. The first time I drove it, it seemed so weird! The indicators felt like they where too high up on the steering column, the clutch felt to light, the seat felt unbelievably high up compared to my old car. The layout of the dash felt and look excellent with the speedometer in the centre, the fuel gauge on the right, the warning lights just above this and the mile counter just below. It seem to be a simple but v





ery effective design with everything in a ideal place for the driver.

Next to the steering coloumn is the radio, back windscreen heater button, fog light button and hazard light button. What I love about this design is that the radio is very high up which means that you dont have to look down to see what you are doing when your driving. You only have to move your left hand across a little way as it's virtually level with the steering wheel. On the passenger side is the glove box. Now, i have the older model car which glove box is slightly smaller than the newer models due to the shape of the lid. In defense of this box, its not that small. At the moment I have 5 CD cases, numberous pens, a tube of glue, a tube of mirror ahesive, a pack of tissues (pocket sized), scrap pieces of paper (which old directions on them, must clear then out sometime...) and a small flat paper booklet of last years insurance. Now thats a lot of stuff. The good thing about it is that unlike the other open boxes, the stuff in this doesn't fly around the car when taking a corner, or does it run the risk of getting nicked as its covered up.

On the stereo in this car the basic hardware is very good. It has extremely good bass and treble levels for standard equipment. Now my car originally came with a tape/radio player. I upgraded it to a cd player by buying a original Ford cd player off of ebay. This only cost me 120 pounds compared to the £350 that Fords wanted. If you do however want to get a different make of player you need to get a face to go round the players face. This is because the Ford players are specifically designed for the Ka's and curves around with the dash. The standard equipment consists of two speakers in the doors or the Ka but not in the back, but sound quality is so good that you dont need them in the back.

The front seats are comfortable up to a point, but I have bad posture anyway so Ive only myself to blam
e, bu
t my
mate
finds
them
comfty.
Even though the seating postion is high tall people dont have any trouble with head to roof contact. My friend who is over 6ft found it an ideal drive postion (im a short arse so I cant comment on this!). Leg room is very surprising in the Ka's as well. The front seats do move quite far back and forward. Even the aforementioned friend had to move the seat forward so that he could reach the pedels. In the back the seats arn't that cramp. Although they are narrow they can fit a tall person in the back. And to clear up this matter, two tall people can stay comfortable in the back for long journeys as Ive tried and tested this theory!

On to the boot! Now granted this is small but when I first saw it I was surprised that its is bigger than I imagined. I can fit about 10 full carrier bags in there. However there is no boot light in my car. (poor me).

The Ka's all come with an electronic immobiliser which when the keys are removed from the ignition locks the engine as well as the steering wheel. This shows up as a flashing red light on the clock on the dash which also acts as an deterant to theifs. Other models come with alarms if you want. Safety wise the Ka has side impact bars but doesn't fair well in the pedestrian Euro NCAP. If you want the specs of the NCAP tests you can find them on the Ford site.

Driving ability. Now I find the Ka excellent to drive apart from a few problems. First its great round corners which is all thanks to the wheels being on the four corners of the car. Having a wide wheel base on such a small car also helps.
Gear change on the Ka is very smooth and light. Even with my 5 year old Ka the gears are smooth.
Braking is very good on my car, of course this depends on the driver and wear of the brakes, but the servo on my car works brilliantly as I can feel it working when I brake. Handeling is excellent, you can really throw the car
around.
<b
r>
But
there are
some bad
points to
it. Steering is pretty heavy when at very slow speeds like when getting out of a parking space (this is due to my lack of power steering). Although gear change is smooth the clutch is slightly stiff, but maybe that is because of its age? Acceleration is ok, but if you do want to get off the mark fast you do new to give it some revs. For a 1.3 litre engine on such a small car it doesn't feel like there's much power. You really have to floor it to over take someone. I find over taking easier on motorways where the fifth gear helps. On motorways is where I find the power.

However, saying this, the Ka is nippy around town as well. Newer Ka's have a different engine than the old Endure engines which means that they are much more fuel efficient and have more power.

Now the only problem I have with the Ka is its parking abilities. Because the Ka has such a small back window reverse parking is slightly difficult. The bumpers on the car also make reverse parking more difficult as they do stick out a bit further than the back of the car. Also, as the car curves so much I find it difficult to judge distances of the edge of the vehicle. This means that Im over compensating when parking and leave miles of sides around the car.

In conclusion the Ka is a great little car which can hold its own both in and out of town. Although it does have a few problems these are not too bad for a car for 6 grand brand new (although there are always some deals going on at Fords so they are usually cheaper). The other vehicles in the Ka range (above the basic) have alot more features than the Ka I have, like electric windows, central locking, hight ajustable seats, alloys, etc, etc... All Ka's have great fuel economy and low maintance cost due to having widely available spare parts.

On my Ka. Well Ive had it since November so that makes it 10 months. It has just
started to play up wi
th the oil/oil
temp light/batt
ery lights comi
ng on and power
loss which Im taking to Fords to get sorted. Its not a real major problem which I guess is just specific to my car (it is 5 years old). But dont let it put you off.



20/09/2003
Ah, the joys of a inexperienced driver... On Tuesday (16th) some how I manged to have a minor altercation with a large bus. Now, needless to say, I came off worst and the bus driver didn't even notice what had happened (he drove off). However, I need a new front wing, a new passenger door and the rear wing needs wacking out with a hammer. Only one thing i can say about that - B******S!
Oh, and another thing. Never go to fords with a repair as they will rip you off left, right and centre. They wanted 1500 to sort it out where as my local accident specialist wants 660 for the same job, now work that one out.

UPDATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 26/12/2003
Previously in this review I commented on a problem that my Ka suffered from. This intailed the car stalling in gear when I clutched down while braking. Now, I believed that this was a one off fault with just my particular car but having become a member of a online Ka club (www.streetka.org or www.ka-forum.co.uk) I discovered that this actually is a design fault with the earlier models of the Ka. It turns out that the Idle Control Valve has a problem with it. This can either be solved by getting this part cleaned (in the minor cases) or a new piece of wiring loom is need to prevent the staling in gear/speeding up of the car while braking etc...

Aparently this is easy to sort, however I've not gotten mine sorted yet as Im trying to find out how much this will cost (Im a student working part time and I can't afford expensive repaires). I would suggest to people who have this problem and want to get it fixed is to contact their local Ford dealers and tell them that it is a 'Technical B
ulletin Issue' with the
Idel Control Value.

If, like me, you find that they claim that there was no such
bulletin, keep on pestering them to check ALL previous records on the Ka, right back to the launch year. You must also remeber that it was NOT a recall issue, only a notice issued to the people who brought the Ka's of a particular year when the issue came to light. Saying this, when you finally get Ford to admit that there is a problem suggest that they pay for part of the cost of the work that they carry out on your Ka even if your car is second or third hand as frankly it's a pretty serious problem especially when your car cuts out on you when you're in fast moving traffic or trying to get off a roundabout.

P.S. On the site www.ka-forum.co.uk there is a topic that ive set up called 'Idle control valve problem' which some very kind person has actually posted the official bulletin issue which you can print out and show to Fords if they get shirty with you.

ANOTHER UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 14/01/2004

Ive fixed my car! And who would of thought that all it takes is a can of WD40 and a spanner!! Basically all you ned to do is tak of the Idel control valve (see Hayes manual) and clean out the part with WD40 but not water, then put it back on!!! Its that simple and didn't cost a penny!

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