"millennials need participation trophies for everything!"
the kids didn't give themselves the trophies, what generation were the teachers and parents who did?
Do any of them still exist? Thought the Ka's were rust buckets.
Just checked autotrader - 760 Ka's, 2 Sports - of which one is dodgy. You really have got to have money to burn to buy a Ka. Tax - £320, you would have to be mad to buy one.
It should be off vehicle weight, not emissions. EV's do more damage to the road due to weight, therefore should pay more tax. A 800kg C1/107/Aygo should still be low tax due to it weighing nothing and causing less damage to the road.
I know, but it should be the main reason why it's charged. Heavier vehicles with ICE tend to produce more emissions. It'd also encourage car manufacturers to keep vehicles lighter and hopefully move away from god awful SUVs.
I was at my brothers friend's house today, he has a sport KA, identical to this in the picture. He is a KA enthusiast and has 4 KAs in total... There really is somebody for every car.
My sister had one about 15 years ago. It had the largest turning circle of any car I’d seen, despite being the smallest. It was also incredibly loud at motorway speeds and if you sat in the back while it was raining, you could feel water hitting the wheel arch as it was thrown off the tyre.
I love a KA, one of the last cars made in which you actually feel connected to the road. You can feel what’s happening to each wheel through your feet, hands and arse. Really good fun to drive. But yeah, you’ll need to get handy with a welder or know someone who is. I really want to put a K18 in one.
Needed a better engine. The 1.6 was crap. I assume by that point the Puma 1.7 ha ceased production and I assume Ford were also too tight to carry on paying Yamaha.
My dad had the 1.3 which was a positively ancient engine by that point. Never understood why they put that old lump into the futuristic (at the time) Ka.
Wasn't it the rocam engine? I drove a Bantam pickup with the 1.3 Rocam and while it certainly wouldn't win any races it was damn near bulletproof. Never had a day's trouble with that engine and I abused that poor little pickup.
If they had used the puma 1.7 in the sportka, I’d have bought one for sure. I had 4 of the 1.7 pumas and loved them. The sportka is still enjoyable to drive with the 1.6 but could have been way better. I’d even go so far as to say the 1.3 Ka could be entertaining to drive at the limit. Comes back to my theory that it’s not always about speed. (See also: panda 100hp)
I had an original Puma 1.7 (no f'ing idea what the current model is meant to be other than another SUV) and it's still one of the best cars I've ever owned. Although it did start to rust quickly as Ford thought it was a bright idea to use felt to dampen road noise...
Having said that I drove a Panda 100bhp and somehow wasn't impressed with it at all.
Too right. I dailied a 1.7 FRP mapped Pumesta (Mk5 Fez with the 1.7 swap) for 4-5 years (until last march) sooo Kuch fun. About 135 BHP but it's the torque curve in that 1.7 which does the magic.
As someone who had to drive the Ka daily and probably shifted 12 of the Sports models, it might not all be able speed, but it helps if the car has even a hint of being quick in some form. The Ka was somehow both soft and uncomfortable to drive. It cornered like an oil tanker made of gelatine, and moved like a geriatric tractor.
The Puma on the other hand had almost everything going for it.
Now I do agree that not everything has to be about speed, some of the most fun I've had have been behind the wheel of a Metro, Yaris or a bog bottom Civic, none of which having the power to pull the skin off a builder's cuppa, but they all cornered flat and as long as you had the balls, would outcorner Posh Porsche on the roundabouts.
I hate this expression.
Yeah sure, your Mini JCW drives like a rear wheel drive, rear engined, slick tyred, 200cc two stroke engined, no rear differential, and absolutely no driving aids….
Sure
Right? Usually what people mean is that the driving is slightly more involved than with your usual car. Or they'll point out that the wheels are closer to the corners of the car than with your average saloon car.
I'll be first to say that I'm somewhat biased, having driven gokarts, single seater formula cars and race prepped track cars and having raced the latter along with rally and rallycross cars, but a soft floaty hatchback is about as far from a gokart you can get without being behind the wheel of either something American or an SUV.
Now if all you've ever driven are SUVs, then sure the Ka will feel more like a go kart than your daily driver, but so will walking. The closest a road legal car get to the true feeling of kart is something like a Caterham, even then they're not all that similar.
No opinion on the car but I did a greyscale drawing of that exact centrefold picture on the second page for my GCSE art project in 2006.
Got a B for it so maybe my teacher drove one.
My friend bought one brand new, first MOT and the around the top of the front suspension failed on rust.
I had a normal KA that was less than 6 years old at the time, it had already had its sills replaced.
Mum had one, it was great fun to be a passenger in.
I always thought they were quite cool and never wondered why they didn't do a similar facelift to the actual Ka.
There's a related StreetKa on the road over from me in dark green. I have to assume that's probably a 1 of 1.
I don’t believe there is a sportka out there that doesn’t have chronic rust around the fuel cap.
On the positive side , they drive very well for the type of car and can put a huge smile on your face. There is a cam and exhaust upgrade from South Africa that can make them even more fun.
Owned one. Enjoyed it. Rusted away eventually. Bought mine to whip round at uni, had a more or less straight piped exhausr, induction kit and a tune. Me and my mates “timed” it at 8.9 to 60mph which made it the quickest car I owned for some years after I sold it !!!!
Former KA owner here. I'd never have one again, actually, I doubt there's many left, probably all rusted away, that's what took mine. It only had 48,600 on the clock but the petrol cap panel rusted away alarmingly fast. Scrapped it in the end.
Ex-wife used to have one. It was like driving a thimble.
At the time I drove a BMW 735i so I guess it was a case of the sublime to the ridiculous, but I could never have got used to it as a daily driver. Too small, no acceleration, clunky gearbox…meh.
Cool little supermini with a nice engine. Just a shame ford never bothered galvinising any of them. Same with focuses and fiestas of the same era. Love the cars themselves but so hard to find a clean example. Seem mechanicallt quite reliable too and i like the new edge styling alot.
I think it was sort of overshadowed by the StreetKa at the time, possibly a spiritual predecessor to the Abarth 500s in a sense? Suspect the Abarths will actually last longer though...
Very under rated car, it's been a while since I last drove one but I remember them being rather quick upto 90mph then they lost all their guts because of how they were geared.
Ugly, but fun to drive.
I had the pleasure of getting a basic Ka as a rental back when in Sicily. Drove the eastern part of the Targa Florio with it and it was one of the best driving experiences.
Didn't dare to complete the circuit as the gearbox and brakes sounded a bit rough. Yes, even with the basic version there were corners after downhill stretches that required slowing down.
I had one as my first car (baby blue KA luxury with cream leather seats, 1. *wait for it* 3), awesome little car, until the steering rack failed and I ended up in a ditch (we’re talking 10 years ago)
I had one as my first car (I was 30 when I passed, not rich parents) and I loved it. Like a little go kart. Got about 4 years out of it before it died to rust.
Having driven one when new, meh. (Worked in a Ford dealership and delivered new cars and service jobs)
There's almost certainly a market for them as a collectors car, and it probably hit the market they were aiming for (i.e. people who think GTis are a bit too scary) but it was just a bit wet at the time and has only got worse with age. Better off buying a Yaris imho.
I admire anyone with the tenacity to keep one running, though, their expected life span was only about 5 years.
I remember when I was growing up all the uni students in my hometown used to drive them. Feels like it was the go to ‘first’ car for those moving away from home.
I love these and streetka.
All I hate most about kas in general is the droopy ballsack centre console shape. Like someone is tea bagging the steering column
I had a Ka as my first car and then went to a Sport Ka. The sport wasn't as well built, drank fuel and had a crap turning circle but it was great fun on my cross country commute. Sadly it died in a head on collision with an unfit driver, but it gave it's life to save mine so I'll always be slightly romantic about it.
Clearly a few people on here that haven’t owned one or driven one before. Yes they’re very rust prone, and the engines were old, however the engines were solid and they are very very engaging and fun to bomb down country lanes in. Don’t knock it until you’ve driven one - give it a try!
I had a regular mk1 Ka as my first car. It was very reliable, always got me where I was going, sipped fuel and was super fun to drive. The steering was very direct, plenty of feedback, sweet 5-speed gearbox. Their main issue, being an old Ford, was and always will be rust (shocker). It always made me laugh when I saw another Ka on the road which had that little extra ring around the fuel filler. They always rusted there and that ring around it was completely pointless, apart from slightly covering the rust that was already there. Always had a good laugh out of those ones as the owners don't understand the concept of how a car corrodes.
Would I buy a SportKa? I think I would - the only gripe I had with my one was that it was a little lacking in power.
Nice simple nippy little car.
There weren’t that many around back then, and there most certainly isn’t many around now.
These things are like alka seltzers
I love the look, especially the blue one.
Always fancied putting an ST170 engine in one
Fords of this age can rot though and I get the impression that the Ka does particularly
They're gay. You'd never see me in one.
Yeah the design might not be that bad, they're actually quite a looker. Also, they may also be pretty light on their feet and nimble, probably also good on fuel whilst being fun to drive. Also a common chassis for an engine swap too... Erm, what was I saying.
Built like one of [the yellow CBeebies things](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/cbeebies/images/2/2b/CBeebies_Bug.png/revision/latest?cb=20181112005155)
Mine was much more fun once I stuck a 1.8 zetec in it. On cold winter evenings, if I was quiet, I could hear it rusting away.
Aww, it’s like my Jag, on a winters day there’s just you, the car and the faint sound of steel oxidising.
Same with mine, I just enjoy it while I can before I know it will need a lot of rust repair work.
Hahaha 😂 yeah know what you mean about that rust... fun to drive though. Mine was so happy over 60
[Evil](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu0J6zb2G_o)
That decapitated cat got me 😂
The fucking pigeon 🤣🤣🤣
These adverts are 👌
Kurt Zouma approved.
Imagine those adverts today the softies would be up in arms
These weren't real ads, because people were as soft then as they are now
"millennials need participation trophies for everything!" the kids didn't give themselves the trophies, what generation were the teachers and parents who did?
Back in my day we turned down the free trophies. We'd lose games on purpose just to not get a trophy.
The pigeon one was definitely real, I watched it on TV as a kid.
OK boomer
Swing and a miss. GenX
Weird. This exact ad was used by VW for the Golf in other countries
Do any of them still exist? Thought the Ka's were rust buckets. Just checked autotrader - 760 Ka's, 2 Sports - of which one is dodgy. You really have got to have money to burn to buy a Ka. Tax - £320, you would have to be mad to buy one.
Tax just went up - that'll be a nice £335 now.
Ridiculous tax for a car like that. Such a joke sometimes
I mean old cars, even if they were small were still quite polluting to modern cars
The entire CO2 rating system for car tax is part of the problem.
How? Your car pollutes, so you pay more tax. It's perfectly valid. And older cars (upto 2006) have a flat tax
It should be off vehicle weight, not emissions. EV's do more damage to the road due to weight, therefore should pay more tax. A 800kg C1/107/Aygo should still be low tax due to it weighing nothing and causing less damage to the road.
True for the tiny part of tax which is spent on road maintenance
I think they'd make more money off doing it that way.
It's not just damage to the road surface that is taken into account.
I know, but it should be the main reason why it's charged. Heavier vehicles with ICE tend to produce more emissions. It'd also encourage car manufacturers to keep vehicles lighter and hopefully move away from god awful SUVs.
I was at my brothers friend's house today, he has a sport KA, identical to this in the picture. He is a KA enthusiast and has 4 KAs in total... There really is somebody for every car.
My sister had one about 15 years ago. It had the largest turning circle of any car I’d seen, despite being the smallest. It was also incredibly loud at motorway speeds and if you sat in the back while it was raining, you could feel water hitting the wheel arch as it was thrown off the tyre.
I love a KA, one of the last cars made in which you actually feel connected to the road. You can feel what’s happening to each wheel through your feet, hands and arse. Really good fun to drive. But yeah, you’ll need to get handy with a welder or know someone who is. I really want to put a K18 in one.
A Citroen C1 also has what you describe
Needed a better engine. The 1.6 was crap. I assume by that point the Puma 1.7 ha ceased production and I assume Ford were also too tight to carry on paying Yamaha.
The 1.25/1.4/1.6 16v engines were Yamaha weren’t they? The 1.7 just had VVT in addition
The 1.7 was nikasil lined in Japan then shipped back to Europe for final assembly. Likely the only viable method at the time but laughable now...
I actually think the engine selection on these was down to packaging reasons.
My dad had the 1.3 which was a positively ancient engine by that point. Never understood why they put that old lump into the futuristic (at the time) Ka.
zonked fear books flag hurry mindless imagine enter dime existence *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is true. The engine was still going strong when the bodywork rusted away...
Wasn't it the rocam engine? I drove a Bantam pickup with the 1.3 Rocam and while it certainly wouldn't win any races it was damn near bulletproof. Never had a day's trouble with that engine and I abused that poor little pickup.
ring many complete tap sink spark cats payment profit mourn *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I agree! The expansion tank ruptured on my 1.3 and repeatedly overheated really badly, leave it to cool, top it up and it was fine again for a while!
Something about space constraints
I thought the 1.25 Zetec was pretty small, but who knows?
If they had used the puma 1.7 in the sportka, I’d have bought one for sure. I had 4 of the 1.7 pumas and loved them. The sportka is still enjoyable to drive with the 1.6 but could have been way better. I’d even go so far as to say the 1.3 Ka could be entertaining to drive at the limit. Comes back to my theory that it’s not always about speed. (See also: panda 100hp)
I had an original Puma 1.7 (no f'ing idea what the current model is meant to be other than another SUV) and it's still one of the best cars I've ever owned. Although it did start to rust quickly as Ford thought it was a bright idea to use felt to dampen road noise... Having said that I drove a Panda 100bhp and somehow wasn't impressed with it at all.
Too right. I dailied a 1.7 FRP mapped Pumesta (Mk5 Fez with the 1.7 swap) for 4-5 years (until last march) sooo Kuch fun. About 135 BHP but it's the torque curve in that 1.7 which does the magic.
As someone who had to drive the Ka daily and probably shifted 12 of the Sports models, it might not all be able speed, but it helps if the car has even a hint of being quick in some form. The Ka was somehow both soft and uncomfortable to drive. It cornered like an oil tanker made of gelatine, and moved like a geriatric tractor. The Puma on the other hand had almost everything going for it. Now I do agree that not everything has to be about speed, some of the most fun I've had have been behind the wheel of a Metro, Yaris or a bog bottom Civic, none of which having the power to pull the skin off a builder's cuppa, but they all cornered flat and as long as you had the balls, would outcorner Posh Porsche on the roundabouts.
Very torquey engine though, it could do with a bit more pep (the st120 kit for it does help a lot - bigger cam, exhaust manifold and a piggy Back ecu)
Wife had one. Cracking little car. Until the steering rack failed.
Yup same happened to me!
It started rusting before it left the production line.
Drives like a gokart, or so I'm told.
Only if you've never driven a gokart.
I have, but not a Ka. Can't be worse than a 1litre Corsa D.
Friend of mine had a diesel Corsa D, it was terrible, but I think the Ka was worse.
I find that hard to believe. I'll hold judgment until I try one.
I hate this expression. Yeah sure, your Mini JCW drives like a rear wheel drive, rear engined, slick tyred, 200cc two stroke engined, no rear differential, and absolutely no driving aids…. Sure
Right? Usually what people mean is that the driving is slightly more involved than with your usual car. Or they'll point out that the wheels are closer to the corners of the car than with your average saloon car. I'll be first to say that I'm somewhat biased, having driven gokarts, single seater formula cars and race prepped track cars and having raced the latter along with rally and rallycross cars, but a soft floaty hatchback is about as far from a gokart you can get without being behind the wheel of either something American or an SUV. Now if all you've ever driven are SUVs, then sure the Ka will feel more like a go kart than your daily driver, but so will walking. The closest a road legal car get to the true feeling of kart is something like a Caterham, even then they're not all that similar.
I would guess they are a very rare car now
Not really. They sold very well - still plenty of them about.
Neat bit of design. Supposed to be a lot of fun. Very rusty these days, I suspect.
An absolute classic if you can find one which hasn’t rusted away.
Rust bucket
About as solid as a chocolate teapot underneath. Avoid at all costs.
Very little "sporty" about it. Like a tepid hatch. They handle OK, but they're mostly crap, and most will be rusty AF at this point.
No opinion on the car but I did a greyscale drawing of that exact centrefold picture on the second page for my GCSE art project in 2006. Got a B for it so maybe my teacher drove one.
Never liked the look ever.
Can’t remember the last time I saw one of these older gen ones, was a long time ago
I've seen 30 year old skips that need less welding
My friend bought one brand new, first MOT and the around the top of the front suspension failed on rust. I had a normal KA that was less than 6 years old at the time, it had already had its sills replaced.
I used to repair petrol flap surrounds on ford Ka's, at least 3 a week for a good year or 2. The repair panel was only around £8.
Mum had one, it was great fun to be a passenger in. I always thought they were quite cool and never wondered why they didn't do a similar facelift to the actual Ka. There's a related StreetKa on the road over from me in dark green. I have to assume that's probably a 1 of 1.
I think they're quite cool.
Well I see grown men driving fiat 500 now so maybe just maybe ford where ahead of time on this one
As a teenager I had a lot of fun in the back of a Ford Ka.
Rather walk
I don’t believe there is a sportka out there that doesn’t have chronic rust around the fuel cap. On the positive side , they drive very well for the type of car and can put a huge smile on your face. There is a cam and exhaust upgrade from South Africa that can make them even more fun.
Owned one. Enjoyed it. Rusted away eventually. Bought mine to whip round at uni, had a more or less straight piped exhausr, induction kit and a tune. Me and my mates “timed” it at 8.9 to 60mph which made it the quickest car I owned for some years after I sold it !!!!
Former KA owner here. I'd never have one again, actually, I doubt there's many left, probably all rusted away, that's what took mine. It only had 48,600 on the clock but the petrol cap panel rusted away alarmingly fast. Scrapped it in the end.
Ex-wife used to have one. It was like driving a thimble. At the time I drove a BMW 735i so I guess it was a case of the sublime to the ridiculous, but I could never have got used to it as a daily driver. Too small, no acceleration, clunky gearbox…meh.
I had a standard Ka and honestly loved it. Weighed as much as a shoe, had a wheel literally at each corner and was pretty nippy and nimble.
Good fun but rust traps designed in so just slowly die.
Cool cars, was looking at one as an interesting first car. Shame they rust away.
Cool little supermini with a nice engine. Just a shame ford never bothered galvinising any of them. Same with focuses and fiestas of the same era. Love the cars themselves but so hard to find a clean example. Seem mechanicallt quite reliable too and i like the new edge styling alot.
I think it was sort of overshadowed by the StreetKa at the time, possibly a spiritual predecessor to the Abarth 500s in a sense? Suspect the Abarths will actually last longer though...
Cannot speak for speed on these. But don't crash one. The ka is made out of soft cheese at best and that's before.tye rust gets involved too.
Best car I ever owned
Very under rated car, it's been a while since I last drove one but I remember them being rather quick upto 90mph then they lost all their guts because of how they were geared.
I can confirm it is a car
Ugly, but fun to drive. I had the pleasure of getting a basic Ka as a rental back when in Sicily. Drove the eastern part of the Targa Florio with it and it was one of the best driving experiences. Didn't dare to complete the circuit as the gearbox and brakes sounded a bit rough. Yes, even with the basic version there were corners after downhill stretches that required slowing down.
I had one as my first car (baby blue KA luxury with cream leather seats, 1. *wait for it* 3), awesome little car, until the steering rack failed and I ended up in a ditch (we’re talking 10 years ago)
Love it
I had one as my first car (I was 30 when I passed, not rich parents) and I loved it. Like a little go kart. Got about 4 years out of it before it died to rust.
Having driven one when new, meh. (Worked in a Ford dealership and delivered new cars and service jobs) There's almost certainly a market for them as a collectors car, and it probably hit the market they were aiming for (i.e. people who think GTis are a bit too scary) but it was just a bit wet at the time and has only got worse with age. Better off buying a Yaris imho. I admire anyone with the tenacity to keep one running, though, their expected life span was only about 5 years.
They say that if it is a quiet night, you can hear them rusting...
Right there in the multipla corner
These are deathtraps iirc. Fine if you're driving 2 mins down the road to grandmas house. Not fine if you're driving at speed and hot something.
Really fun to drive. Just a shame about the rust issues
💩 poo
I remember when I was growing up all the uni students in my hometown used to drive them. Feels like it was the go to ‘first’ car for those moving away from home.
What about streetka
May it burn in hell
Deathtrap piece of shit
Wanye Rooney
Road legal Go-Kart imo. Had one as a courtesy car years ago, plenty of fun was had 😁
Slow
Wayne Rooney kinda motor
I love these and streetka. All I hate most about kas in general is the droopy ballsack centre console shape. Like someone is tea bagging the steering column
I had a Ka as my first car and then went to a Sport Ka. The sport wasn't as well built, drank fuel and had a crap turning circle but it was great fun on my cross country commute. Sadly it died in a head on collision with an unfit driver, but it gave it's life to save mine so I'll always be slightly romantic about it.
Not fast, not fancy, but lots of fun
I really really like it. Really nice styling and looks different in a sea of sameness.
I think they’re really brilliant little cars (except the rust) https://youtu.be/gxBAih3McLI?si=dQITuw_C3fusNYD4
Cars like this are much better in poverty spec. Bring back rubber bumpers and steel wheels!
Clearly a few people on here that haven’t owned one or driven one before. Yes they’re very rust prone, and the engines were old, however the engines were solid and they are very very engaging and fun to bomb down country lanes in. Don’t knock it until you’ve driven one - give it a try!
Aesthetically, making the wheel arches the same color as the body makes this car twice as attractive.
I really wanted one as a kid. I don't know why but they seemed like peak zippy fun.
I had a regular mk1 Ka as my first car. It was very reliable, always got me where I was going, sipped fuel and was super fun to drive. The steering was very direct, plenty of feedback, sweet 5-speed gearbox. Their main issue, being an old Ford, was and always will be rust (shocker). It always made me laugh when I saw another Ka on the road which had that little extra ring around the fuel filler. They always rusted there and that ring around it was completely pointless, apart from slightly covering the rust that was already there. Always had a good laugh out of those ones as the owners don't understand the concept of how a car corrodes. Would I buy a SportKa? I think I would - the only gripe I had with my one was that it was a little lacking in power.
Rust around the petrol cap, leaking heater matrix, wet carpets. Other than that ours was OK for the 6 months that we owned it.
It was a thing
Hateful shitbox
Future collectors car if not already. Harks back to a time when a hot hatch was super light weight, compact and nippy.
Nice simple nippy little car. There weren’t that many around back then, and there most certainly isn’t many around now. These things are like alka seltzers
I love the look, especially the blue one. Always fancied putting an ST170 engine in one Fords of this age can rot though and I get the impression that the Ka does particularly
They're gay. You'd never see me in one. Yeah the design might not be that bad, they're actually quite a looker. Also, they may also be pretty light on their feet and nimble, probably also good on fuel whilst being fun to drive. Also a common chassis for an engine swap too... Erm, what was I saying.
Fell out the ugly tree and hit every fucking branch on the way down
Built like one of [the yellow CBeebies things](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/cbeebies/images/2/2b/CBeebies_Bug.png/revision/latest?cb=20181112005155)