(first posted 9/8/2017) Put yourself in Ford of Europe’s shoes in 1993-4. You had been so beaten up for the disappointing Mk4 Ford Escort that even a major facelift in 1992 and the first Ford Mondeo could not, on its own, rebuild the reputation. Yes, it was a good car to drive, but the that appeal was hidden behind a bushel of some uninspiring and predictable styling. The smaller Fiesta was starting to look like yesterday’s answer against the newer VW Polo and Renault Clio. Ford had a plan, albeit one that brought a complication.
The Escort was be to swept aside, in 1998, by the first Ford Focus. This was the car that Ford’s engineers had determined would be the best in class, not just the best Ford in the class, and which was styled in Ford’s then favoured New Edge philosophy. That style was going to be such a major break from Ford’s previous that a warm up act was needed , and the space in the market for a pure city car offered it. Ford took the 1995 Fiesta Mk IV (above) and trimmed 8 inches from the overall length, although the 96 inch wheelbase was left untouched, and built on that platform.
The new car was styled by Brit Chris Svensson, who had styled something very similar at the Royal College of Art in 1992, and was previewed in the Ghia Saetta in early 1996. Power came from the existing 1.3 litre four cylinder OHV Fiesta engine, the lineage of which was traceable to the 1950s. Chassis engineering and tuning was led by Richard Parry-Jones and reached the levels Ford of Europe were by then setting themselves.
The interior was clearly styled to attract a younger clientele than the Fiesta. You might have learnt on your Mum’s Fiesta but you didn’t want to be seen driving it. Strong shapes, broad sweeps of painted metal on the doors, simple no moving parts vents, an integrated radio/cassette player and two compact gloveboxes in front of the passenger. The intended market was clear – perhaps best defined as “those younger people at whom the Fiat 500 is now aimed”, although the car did not have the personalisation options Fiat (and others) now offer
Ford kept the car and its range very straightforward – there was only ever one engine and trim levels were all managed by clearly identifiable add on equipment. Power steering was initially an option, as was air conditioning and features such as electric windows and central locking. Anti-lock brakes also followed in 1997 and in 2002 the engine was changed to the later Endura-E, with a stiffer cylinder block.
The Ka had an issue, it always seemed. How do you ask for it at the dealer. The “Ka”, as in “cat”, the “K-A” or the “Kar”? Ford were inconsistent in their use just to help….
Over the years, the Ka changed little. Painted bumpers came for some versions, as did differing wheel trims (the feature car has some aftermarket trims) and interior finishes and the final versions had painted contrasting bumpers.
There were two variants we should also note – the Sportka 1.6 litre variant with a mild body kit and typical sports makeover. This had 95 bhp and a 0-60 time of 9.7 seconds, so was no sluggard. Maybe not a MINI Cooper but still an appealing package. A smarter interior, a range of special colours and sharpened handling helped the appeal too, as did a series of sharp details such as the reversing light disguised as a central exhaust. This ran from 2003 to 2006.
The other was the StreetKa – a folding top version of the SportKa which was built by Pininfarina for Ford. The hood was manually operated and there were just two seats. The specification was generous, with air conditioning, CD, remote door locking, electric windows and mirrors, and a removable hard top was also available. This car was sold as sub-MX-5 roadster, against the MGF and unashamedly at a female audience. The SportKa was aimed at the boys. Some old habits die hard.
Production of all versions ended by 2008. The Ka name continued in a new model, built on the platform of the Fiat 500 by Fiat in Poland, and sold in the same part of the market.
This was replaced in 2015 by the Ka+, once again a Ford product and sold worldwide (Asia, Europe, South America) under both the Ka+ and Figo names, and is built in Brazil and in India, where Europe’s cars are sourced.
But the original 1996 car is the one that made the impact. For a remodel of a 1995 car, itself a remodel of a 1989 car, and with an engine from the 1950s, to survive to 2008 was quite an achievement. One that few other than Ford would perhaps push as a fashion accessory.
It feels like the story has come full circle, and the car that currently wears the Ka badge is as addled and bleak as the Fiesta that the original Ka was based on.
+1
+2. I never understood why For decided to dull the original concept, which had a following the later model never captured. Had Ford remained true to the original, it would have had a car which could have given the Fiat 500 (really the only car in its segment) some stiff competition. Stupid.
I meant “Ford” of course.
Conversely, the Fiesta is now more popular than ever (best selling car in Europe this year, and that’s with the outgoing 9-year old model). The 08 model finally gave it the looks that fitted the already supreme handling.
I always hated the Ka. The first time I saw one I split my sides laughing, it looked so silly. Like a cartoon car, designed to look like Homer Simpson. It was the black plastic that did it. The front end looked like it had beard stubble. From the back it had that “saggy nappy ” look. Eventually they made them with painted bumpers, which looked a million times better, but it was too late by then.The Fiesta on which it was based had a brilliant chassis, and a range of engine options – why would you want a car with less room, grotesque styling, and an asthmatic motor, based on the same floorplan ? I remember seeing an early one in a dealers, and peeked through the mean little rear quarter window, and it reminded me of a 1950’s Austin A30 – a truly dreadful car.
To put this in perspective, I was a Ford fanboy in the 60’s, and became dis-enchanted with Ford in the 70’s as they became more German and less British.
Looks like a car you “put on” (like a pair of pants) rather than “slide into.”
And I Thought Datsun F10 Is The Ugliest Car In The World(Next To Our Paykan).
An interesting car that I have never really thought about – we certainly never saw them Stateside.
I can’t say that I love the styling. These took the jellybean to pretty much the edge of the envelope. Still, I have some admiration for a company that can stretch new life out of old components, so there’s that.
Interesting design. It is unfortunate they continued the late 80s/early 90s design trend of matte black bumper covers on base models.
A friend of mine drove a Ka (I think it was a 2010 model). His father bought it but hardly ever drove it, so it was used almost daily by my friend and ocasionally by his brother. The amount of mistreatement this car has had over the course of its life is incredible. But it keeps going and will soon be replaced by a new Fiesta hatchback.
During 2008 in Argentina we had the original KA restyled, imported form Brazil. We never received the one based on the Fiat 500. Ford unified its offerings in South America with the KA+. I think the restyling brought down a few notches the original design and made it more conventional. It allowed the KA for a more extended lifespan and to reach for the elderly consumer. The Ka was expensive when compared with the Uno, or the Clio, and Ford has a very good image with the oldest folks (thanks Falcon)
P.S.: we pronounce it like “cat” with a silent t
I saw one in a dealer in 1998 and thought it looked interesting. Unfortunately our rental was a final year UK Escort and not a Focus as I’d hoped. I always pronounced it Kah as in the Bostonian “I pahked the cah in Havahd yahd”.
Under the skin changes to the Ka happened quite regularly, I accompanied my BIL on a trip to write up a damaged Ka and was present while he explained to the repairer why he couldnt use a year earlier car as repair parts for the frontal damage on the one he pulled apart, the cars looked the same to me (both were present) but going by the Ford parts schematics yeah nar VIN code structural parts ordering applied, Cool little cars with a injected Anglia engine and I’m told that stuff will retrofit but they are getting fewer on our roads.
The thing is with these, they drove so well. Really well – almost like an original Mini Cooper, despite the ancient, wheezy OHV 1.3 ‘Kent’.
Think go-kart handing, and fairly zippy, at least in city traffic – which was surely their point.
I was down in Dunedin last week, a major student town in New Zealand. I was really struck by how many of these are still going down there so clearly they make good student transport. Cheap wheels.
There were a couple of very funny TV ads for the SportKa back in the day; they can be viewed on YouTube. Gotta love the ads, no matter what you think of the “Cah.”
Was this the car where the sunroof beheaded the cat?
Yes, that’s one of them. The other had the car dealing with a bird in the act of dropping a load on its hood (oops… bonnet). Just checked, both are on You Tube.
Came here to make certain these were posted. They are both hilarious.
They are still all over the place overhere, cheap transportation, great first cars or winter beaters.
I saw lots of them on trips to France in the ’90s, Italy in 1999, and Germany in 2007. I thought they were sort of cute, miniature things. But then I’m used to what we have in the U.S.
These were sold here in Australia but didn’t make much of an impact. During the 1990s, we had the Festiva and it was very popular with young people (what North Americans called the Aspire was also called Festiva here). Well, at least I recall it was popular. Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen one on the road for ages!
Certainly though, everyone knew what a Festiva was. Then they were gone in 2000 and the Ka slotted into the Ford lineup in 1999. We finally got the Fiesta in 2004, so the Ka served as a kind of placeholder. But it was too expensive, had no five-door option and people found the styling challenging. I’ve seen a couple around and I’m sure some people loved the styling but I’ll bet if you walked up to 20 people on the street and asked them if they knew what a Festiva was, they would. Ask them if they can picture a Ford Ka, they’d have no clue.
On a related note, the Fiesta is a slow seller compared to rivals like the Yaris and Mazda2, but it sells a helluva lot more than the Ka ever did and has a pretty comprehensive range. Ford Australia just struggles to sell anything other than Rangers and Mustangs, which is unfortunate.
Not common nowadays. This one’s owned by a friend of my daughter, so I see it from time to time. She’s had it over ten years – but then as an artist and costume designer, what else would she drive?
The Festiva did sell well because it was conventionally quite good looking and very cheap, but they’re not seen any more as they were built in Korea during Kias learning phase and they wore away quickly. No loss – they were floppy turds to drive. Ironically enough, the quirky Ka was a dynamic delight in every way. A weird, presumably cost-driven decision to use 1955’s highest tech as the motor gave it only about 45kw (55hp), this pushing 850kg (1900lb)+. Even for me it was too slow.
Australians, known for taking any shortcut possible in pronunciation (and then obviating the shortcut by lengthening the vowels) pronounce “car” as “ka” anyway, so the name seemed to lack imagination here.
Yep, cheap and cheerful to replace the Festiva. I can’t remember if they had an automatic version, but I don’t think so, which would have kept a lot of potential sales away.
I think there was a new engine in the last year or two but I think they were off the Aussie market by then. I wonder how much cheaper the old pushrod Kent engine was than a newer one that would have made the car much better. Not that most of the target market would have noticed or appreciated the difference.
Great piece, Roger – thoroughly enjoyable. I remember seeing a few articles on the “Ka” (that name! I would pronounce it with a “soft” a, as in “kar”), and liked what little I read about it. I actually like the styling of the early models – they seem to have both simplicity / honesty about them, as well as a stronger identity that I thought was lacking in other small cars like the Geo Metro (Suzuki Cultus?).
What’s also fun for me in reading an article from an author from a country different than mine is the context clues: what you call a “hood”, I’d probably call the “top”.
Also, about the Mark I Fiesta and it being perceived as an older person’s car, this is interesting to me. I was in diapers when the first Fiestas came out (in Europe), but to me, they always seemed to be well-styled, almost *sporty* looking, little hatchbacks.
I remember the first time I saw a photo of the Ka in USA Today; the styling was so different they felt the need to write an article on it! I instantly loved it. Dare I say it was cheeky? I always remember period reviews from the U.K. that praised the driving dynamics they possessed. If I recall correctly, the old school engine produced peak torque at low rpm, so it was very well suited for city driving, if lacking for refinement.
Regarding the StreetKa, the article photo is actually the prototype. Production versions lacked the fixed side glass, had the regular interior, and other smaller detail changes. It was launched rather famously with the help of Kylie Minogue. That may have actually had a negative effect, as the car rather quickly gained somewhat of a particular reputation as a result of the connection.
Makes the Fiat 500 Abarth ad seem subtle!
Mmmmmmm-Kylie Minogue! What was I going to say?
Of course, the whole pronunciation thing wasn’t really an issue in Scotland, where we say the letter ‘r’ in car.
Car rhymes with bar, or yaar for the piratey. Ka rhymes with Ma, or bah…or maybe, for the upper classes, gap yaah ?
I pronounce it like “car” minus the “r.” The name matches the shape: a car, with the back part sliced off.
I do like the look of it… I think this is what the Brits call “cheap ‘n’ cheerful.”
I wonder if that was the whole idea behind the name: it’s almost a complete ‘car’, but not quite, and they had to use a ‘k’ since ‘Ca’ might be a little too obvious, as well as the possibility of pronouncing the ‘c’ as an ‘s’.
FWIW, ‘Ka’ sounds an awful lot like someone from a New England area state saying ‘car’. Too bad it was never imported into the US; they could have used that in their marketing.
I can see that playing like a “Who’s on First” scenario: “What’s that?” “It’s a Ka.” “I know it’s a car, but what kind is it?” “It’s a Ford Ka!” “But what kind of Ford car?” “A Ka!” Etc. Then at the end of the ad we’d see that they had pahked the Ka in Hahvahd Yahd.
Ford used the slogan “Get into the Ka” so I think it’s fairly clear they were thinging ‘Ka’ pronounced as ‘car’. Of course, having come up with something so strikingly original looking the follow-up could really only go three ways: something totally different but equally striking; an all new model that looked like a revamp; or something the same sort of size in whatever the current corporal style was.
The old ones still seem very common, but the ‘new’ 2008 model never really made much of an impact, indeed I didn’t even realise it had been replaced. And doesn’t four doors miss the point anyway?
If you have to ask what to call it
Do you really want to be seen in it??
Those of us who spent time in New England would have no trouble with “cah,” as that’s how they pronounce it anyway ! I imagine that’s what Ford was hoping. Apparently they didn’t research the matter too deeply ?
I like the roadster. I just Googled “Ford SportKa” for a further look — and found hundreds of closed cars and not a single convertible. What’s up with that ?
I’m a four-door kind of guy, so I’d have loved a sedan based on the same loop-de-doo lines — the vital thing being the wheels out at the corners. Too bad you can’t get them all the way to the front, with transverse-engine FWD . . .
The roadster is *StreetKa*
As for a four door, there was a hatch concept done, although I find it less convincing:
I never had any love for the Ka. The styling was cartoonish and those black plastic bumpers made it look cheap. Its been a while since ive seen one, as they had serious rust problems. Id prefer an old Fiesta over the Ka.
It’s a landmark design. It is still fresh and very intelligently economical plus a truly fun car to drive. If you don’t like the looks there are 457 other cars to choose. Ford were at the top of their game with this, the Puma and Mk1 Focus.
The Streetkar convertible looks like a smaller Audi TT roadster.
Surprised at the lack of love here. I would have owned one if they sold it here.
When I was in middle school around 2005 there used to be one of these in the West Hollywood area of LA. I don’t recall if it had CA or foreign plates but it lived on the same street for at least a year. Cute car, I definitely see it as the progenitor the the Focus that debuted a few years after.
The Luigi Colani re-style always cracks me up
These are getting rarer by the day in the U.K. They rust appallingly here and normally you can hear the clattering tappets a mile away.
If there’s something bad in the 90’s was the car styling. It seems all the automakers hired cartoon designers from WB to drawing cars… Ka is kinda “cute”, but I still can’t understand why the whole Ford’s executives approved it:
The car that practically killed a market segment! (Or at least convinced Ford to give it up for good.)
I drove twice this car as rentals in Gran Canaria. I hated the style but when I drove them, I disliked them even more. It is the most underpowered car I had ever driven. On 5th gear you couldn’t climb the mild elevations of the GC-1 motorway, and reducing to 4th meant that you got deaf in the process. I had never this issue with other crappy rentals there such as Renault Clio 1.2 or even Fiat Pandas.
An inexpensive car that looks inexpensive, simple and apparently durable. Always a great concept.
The Ka was cheap to own, easy to service and good to drive. I ran one for 3 years as a commuter and then passed to my daughter who eventually wrote it off. They were quite tough, but rusted in random places and some jobs (Headlight bulbs anyone) were a real pain. For 2 people a lot of fun, but why we Brits can’t get the kind of sensible Japanese mini boxes that they do so well anymore says a lot about this market.
I drove a 2007 Ka in Mexico City (Brazilian model, 1600 / 95 hp motor) for seven years. It was Ford’s cheapest model at that time, comparable in price to the Renaut Clio; Nissan Sentra B13 and the Chevy C2. Its the only car I have truly loved. Brilliant handling, peppy motor, direct steering and responsive brakes. A delight to drive. I had no rust problems (Mexican weather) but insoluble overheating problems in the 7th year forced me to change to an Indian made Ford Fiesta Ikon (gen 5 Fiesta) another excellent car but it felt sluggish compared to the Ka.
A minor point is that the engine in the original Ka was not the old Kent four, but a relative: the 1.3-liter Valencia that had previously been offered in the Mk4 Escort.
This had an extremely roundabout lineage. For the Mk1 Fiesta, Ford had developed a scaled-down version of the existing Kent block, de-bored to 74mm with only three main bearings and wedge combustion chambers rather than the Heron head/crossflow layout of the later Kent engines. There were two versions of the Valencia, one 957cc and the other 1,117cc. These continued after the regular Kent was replaced by the CVH engine, which in Europe was offered in 1.3- and 1.6-liter versions. For the Mk4 Escort in 1986, Ford ran into engine production capacity issues with the 1.3-liter CVH, so they contrived to fill the gap by expanding the Valencia back to 1.3 liters, now with a new five-bearing crank, but still pushrod OHV with the wedge combustion chambers of the three-bearing engines.
The telltale in this regard are the bore and stroke: The old Kent 1300 was oversquare, 80.97mm x 62.99mm, while the 1.3-liter Valencia was 74mm x 75.5mm, sharing the bore (more precisely 73.96mm, but usually rounded to 74.00mm) of the 957 and 1,117cc engines, but with a much longer stroke.
It is true that the five-bearing Valencia was still theoretically part of the Kent family, and some aspects of the block architecture dated back to the old Anglia engine designed in the ’50s, but by 1986, the relationship was fairly distant.
Although designed to be a cheaper version of the Zetec-SE by Ford of Brazil, recall seeing somewhere that the block on the Zetec Rocam engine used in the SportKa was based on the overall Kent to Endura-E engine family and if true could be viewed as yet another engine that is technically part of the kent family.
Claims to the contrary aside saying the following could not fit into the Ka, though a pretty common engine swap have seen in the past would be the installation of the 1.7-litre Sigma used in the Puma. On the other hand there were Turbo kits made for the SportKa that were capable of matching a typical 123 hp Puma engine.
Quite fond of the Ghia Ford Touring Ka concept as it together with the Latin American updated Ka models could have occupied the space left by the Fiesta growing into the 5th and 6th generation models.
Another concept would be the VW Lupo 3L like 1996 Ford Ka Step-1, which was slated to match the Lupo 3L’s fuel economy. Thanks to a combination of reduced weight at 610kg, improved aerodynamics, low rolling resistance, 5-speed gearbox with low friction tyres and a 1315cc (?) 3-cylinder turbo diesel engine of 62hp.
CC effect, sort of?
Was in Barnes and Noble thursday and saw a new foreign car magazine, and already I have forgotten the title (British Classics, I think). Anyway, the debut issue is devoted entirely to the many generations of the Fiesta and its various offshoots.
I owned an 1980 Fiesta and almost bought a 2017 model but found it just a bit too small. Yet I can’t help wondering if the U.S. had gotten the 3 door body style if its wider doors would have made a difference.
Bit surprised that nobody mentioned the most interesting thing about the Ka design. There was not a straight line outside or inside. Everything was curved which is why it looks so warm and cuddly. Ford missed a chance to build upon this design and develop a unique car.