Ford Ka is not a hit with big Jeremy, like the Fiesta was

[Ford Jellymoulds]

KA is not such a big hit like the Fiesta was with Jeremy Clarkson.

 

And so, because I approached the new Ford Ka in a state of blissful ignorance, I was expecting a very great deal. I assumed it would be a funky, small and cheap alternative to the new Ford Fiesta, a car that does everything very well whether you’re on the road, at the shopping centre or taking part in a beach assault with the Royal Marines.

 

Almost immediately, however, I began to dislike the Ka very much. First of all, the styling’s not quite right. The door — and I apologise to the faceless man who made it — doesn’t seem to sit very happily with the lines of the profile. And the wheelarches look as though they were going to be flared but someone dropped the original clay model from a fork-lift truck and they got squashed.

 

Inside, there are problems too, including ridiculously hard seats that someone — whom I’ve never met — at Ford thinks are a good idea. Worst of all, though, is the driving position. The steering wheel, which adjusts for height but not reach, is too far away and, even on its highest setting, too low down.

 

 

And the clutch pedal is far too close to the centre console. A small foot rest has been provided inside the aforementioned console but the only way you can actually get your foot in there properly is if you saw it off.

 

 

Then I began the test drive and things got worse. Because the old Ka looked like a teapot, you didn’t expect it to be very fast. And it’s the same story with the Toyota iQ. That looks like an urban runaround, but the new Ka does not. It looks like a normal car; a Fiesta that’s shrunk slightly in the wash. Which is why I was expecting it to be able to get up a hill. Which in fifth it often could not. Sometimes I had a problem in fourth.

 

Even on level ground things are far from rosy because at anything above 50 the whole car really does start to feel loose and disconnected, a problem that was amplified by a graunching front nearside brake disc. Often I found myself doing 40, at which speed following drivers became impatient and started to overtake in silly places.

 

Then it went dark and as a result I discovered the new Ka’s biggest problem. It’s a whopper. A proper full-sized elephant in the wardrobe. A genuine, bona fide reason all on its own for buying something else. The headlights are absolutely useless. For seeing where you are going, a Hallowe’en pumpkin would be better.

 

did a test. I drove at the speed at which I could safely stop in the distance visible in the light from those miserable candles in jam jars. And it was 18mph. Any faster and I was having to rely on crossed fingers that there was nothing out there in the gloom.

 

The only solution was to drive on full beam, which was a) little better and B) just bright enough for oncoming motorists to retaliate, making me even more blind than if I’d stayed on dipped.

 

Of course, not having been at the press launch, I didn’t understand any of this. So I tiptoed along, with my heart beating like broken plumbing, wondering how on earth Ford could possibly have got it all so wrong. Vauxhall? Yes. Kia? For sure. But Ford? No way. Ford makes good cars these days. Some of them border on greatness. So finding that it’s got one this wrong is like going out for dinner at a Marco Pierre White restaurant and being served a plate of sick.

 

Clarkson rambles on for 2 pages in Jeremy's own unique way on the Ka, gotta say l don't think he liked the Ka half as much as he liked the Fiesta which you could say was a bit of an understatement.

 

Jeremy's full 2 page KA report.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/j...icle5574385.ece

The Clarksometer

 

ENGINE 1242cc, four cylinders

POWER 68bhp @ 5500rpm

TORQUE 76 lb ft @ 3000rpm

TRANSMISSION Five-speed manual

FUEL 55.4mpg (combined)

CO2 119g/km

ACCELERATION 0-60mph: 13.1sec

TOP SPEED 99mph

PRICE £9,295

ROAD TAX BAND B (£35 a year)

RELEASE DATE On sale now

VERDICT Fine for Fiat; frightful for Ford

RATING

[theoldwizard]

... and Alan wants to bring it to the US !

[Noah Harbinger]

I tend to, in my head, compare engine displacements to soda containers. 1242cc is about 10 ounces, which makes each cylinder smaller than a soda can.

[ANTAUS]

I compare it with soda bottles...a bottle of Coke is bigger than a Civic engine...

[papilgee4evaeva]

I compare it with soda bottles...a bottle of Coke is bigger than a Civic engine...

 

 

Hey, remember when they sold 3-liter soda bottles? We can now compare those to the venerable BMW straight-6.

[danup]

The reviews of the Smart car sound much the same, which leaves me to think that city cars simply are not cars in the now-understood sense. I don't want something that drives a lot like a car, considering how small it is--that sort of thing should never be relative.

[Edstock]

Well, if the headlights are a problem, that can be fixed in next year's. More power, too. Maybe an optional 6-speed? The point is, the car can be up-graded like the Mustang and its power-train. Be great to see the tuner versions as they appear. But as a low CO2 Consumption Eurogreenie, it is solidly competitive.

[2b2]

Jeremy's full 2 page KA report.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/j...icle5574385.ece

that pommy-jerk's 1page report on wannabee-jetsetting that mentions the Cinquecento in passing

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/j...icle3504933.ece

 

^ had to find it, not hard ^ & I'm not sorry

 

imho, JC (hmm.... ) has permanent eyesight damage from the flashbulbs not aimed at him in St.Moritz...

...it could account for brain damage as well except everyone knows that's a pre-existing condition

 

RATING

RATING

^ same car ^

basically

even sounds like the same car in the "reviews" - just different RATings

Edited January 25, 2009 by 2b2

[RichardJensen]

In other news of relevance to this topic: I had the battered catfish at Chilis once and it was atrocious. It tasted like they had deepfried whole peppercorns.

 

Why do I mention this? Because Jeremy Clarkson's opinion on the Ka will probably influence Ford sales in the US about as much as my tidbit about the catfish.

 

It really was that bad, too. All I could taste was black pepper. I think someone in the kitchen might've had it in for me, in which case, I'm glad it tasted like black pepper.

[ANTAUS]

I'm interested in seeing what other reviews will be like, just for curiousity. Isn't this the same idiot that thought he was testing a Mustang GT but it was a V6 instead?

[jpd80]

The strangest part of the story was his panning of a 1.25 litre engine not pulling 5th up an incline.

And as for the headlights being ineffective, perhaps they weren't aimed properly at the factory?

He (Clarkson) expected more from the KA because it didn't look like a teapot any more?

 

 

I mean really, Clarkson is bordering on toss pot journalism.

[Versa-Tech]

The strangest part of the story was his panning of a 1.25 litre engine not pulling 5th up an incline.

And as for the headlights being ineffective, perhaps they weren't aimed properly at the factory?

He (Clarkson) expected more from the KA because it didn't look like a teapot any more?

 

 

I mean really, Clarkson is bordering on toss pot journalism.

Well, I know too things. Jeremy smoke too much pot, and he is a valuable resource when considering a high end car. When it comes to lower end models, not so much.

 

What can I say, the guy is a perfectionist. So am I...

[BORG]

He should blame Fiat .

 

Too bad the car sounds like a floppy turd, but Jeremy is irrelevant. How are general reviews of the car from the Euro press? I don't think there is a good business case to bring this car here.

[Ford Jellymoulds]

that pommy-jerk's 1page report on wannabee-jetsetting that mentions the Cinquecento in passing

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/j...icle3504933.ece

 

^ had to find it, not hard ^ & I'm not sorry

 

imho, JC (hmm.... ) has permanent eyesight damage from the flashbulbs not aimed at him in St.Moritz...

...it could account for brain damage as well except everyone knows that's a pre-existing condition

 

RATING

RATING

^ same car ^

basically

even sounds like the same car in the "reviews" - just different RATings

 

When ever JC does an item on a car it normally ends 90% humour with nothing to do with the car and a couple of paragraphs on the car itself.

BON rules being BON rule does say you must cut & paste complete items, and to be fair to Jeremy he did mention the Fiat 500 in this item & a lot about hydrogen cars as well on page 2 which would explain why he gave the Fiat 500 a higher rating in another article you fished out, and l don't think you read both pages on the link that provided l provided as l didnot think it was relevant to cut & paste the whole 2 pages on the KA.

 

For anybody interested in what JC said about the Fiat 500 & hydrogen from the KA report here it is.

 

KA ITEM ON - THE FIAT 500, and maybe he gave it a 4 Star rating from YOUR Fiat 500 item

Here’s the thing, though. Subsequent investigation revealed that Ford hasn’t got the Ka wrong at all because despite the Ford badge, despite the Ford styling and despite the Ford fixtures and fittings, this car, actually, is a Fiat 500. It has the same basic structure and the same engine. It’s even built in the same factory, in Poland.

 

 

 

The fact that it’s come out of the joint venture so wrong demonstrates two things. First, that the Fiat 500 must be a fairly bad car as well, but neither I nor anyone else has noticed because it’s so lovely to look at and so delightful to own. And, second, that we’re all doomed.

 

Obviously, Ford would have wanted to develop its own small car. Asking its engineers to reclothe a Fiat rather than asking them to design their own baby from the ground up is like asking Stella McCartney to sew some new buttons on an Ozwald Boateng suit. No one becomes an engineer in a car company so they can spend their life sanding the word “Fiat” off components and writing “Ford” on them instead.

 

 

 

The only reason a company would do this is to save money. It gets a new car for a fraction of the cost of designing one itself. The problem is, the new car we are asked to buy simply isn’t as good as it could have been. Or good-looking enough to mask the faults.

 

FORD KA ITEM - ON HYDROGEN

 

Worse, because every car company must now save money — great, big, fat lumps of it — almost all automotive development is going to stop. We’re already seeing this with new propulsion ideas. Most people accept that in the fullness of time, cars will have to be powered with hydrogen, but developing the fuel cells necessary to make the technology work is fantastically complicated, and this, in an accountant’s mind, means ruinously expensive.

 

As a result, car makers are simply launching much simpler, much cheaper and almost completely useless conventional battery-powered cars instead. Or idiotic hybrids that make owners feel smug and organic but move the human race about 3ft in completely the wrong direction.

 

The upshot is that when the oil does start to run out, we as a species will be completely unprepared.

 

And that’s what’s given me an idea. At present most governments in the world seem to agree that the only way out of the financial hole is to print money and throw this at various state projects. Unfortunately, because we in Britain are governed by fools and madmen, the projects they have in mind are street football outreach co-co-ordinators and ethnic watchdogs who will ensure the dole queues accurately reflect the nation’s ethnic diversity.

 

You can see this is idiotic. We all can. So why not give the money instead to British engineering firms, which would use it, under close supervision to make sure they didn’t employ any health-and-safety people or ethnicity czars, to get the hydrogen fuel cell working on a practical everyday level?

 

 

Maybe we could team up with Iceland, partly because — heaven knows — we owe the Icelanders a favour and partly because they have enough geothermal power to make hydrogen cheaply. I can see no flaws with my idea at all. It pleases the global-warmingists because it spells an end for carbon-based fossil fuels; it pleases me because I get a whole new range of extremely powerful cars to play with; and, best of all, it puts Britain back where it belongs — on the prow of HMS Progress.

 

If we don’t do this, we will emerge from the financial crisis only to discover that because of a lack of oil all the lights have gone out. And this is going to be a big problem if you have a Ka. Because you simply won’t be able to see where you’re going.

 

There is still more of the KA item that l have not cut & pasted but Jeremy does waffle on a bit if you are interested l suggest you read it all, but l can't help but think Richard & Nick will slap me for cutting and pasting complete test reports items on BON.

[jpd80]

Oh, Oh, I just found Chrysler's new engineering Standard:

No one becomes an engineer in a car company so they can spend their life

sanding the word “Fiat” off components and writing “Chrysler” on them instead.

[StevenCaylor]

I'm interested in seeing what other reviews will be like, just for curiousity. Isn't this the same idiot that thought he was testing a Mustang GT but it was a V6 instead?

 

I remember that test. He had an automatic convertable V6 with the standard wheels/tires/suspension. That's absolutely the slowest, worst handling Mustang you can buy. He mentioned the car having 300 hp.

Edited January 26, 2009 by StevenCaylor

[Ford Jellymoulds]

In other news of relevance to this topic: I had the battered catfish at Chilis once and it was atrocious. It tasted like they had deepfried whole peppercorns.

 

Why do I mention this? Because Jeremy Clarkson's opinion on the Ka will probably influence Ford sales in the US about as much as my tidbit about the catfish.

 

It really was that bad, too. All I could taste was black pepper. I think someone in the kitchen might've had it in for me, in which case, I'm glad it tasted like black pepper.

 

LOL , l can remember saying a couple of years ago to you about the Fiat 500 will be coming to the US Richard, you replied no American would NEVER ever be see dead in one driving around the Rocky Mountain on some fishing trip or something like that.

 

If l had said Chrysler would be building Fiat 500's Stateside for Fiat you would have laughed at that as well, with Obama's new legislation on CO2 Ka's, Fiesta's & Focus's might be as big as it gets in the future so never say NEVER.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fovQlj0oLwI

[Mark B. Morrow]

... and Alan wants to bring it to the US !

 

 

Well the whole clutch pedal and foot rest complaint won't be a problem when they put the steering wheel on the left where it belongs.

 

Honestly it may not be as good looking as the Fiesta but it is still better looking than the competition from Toyota, Nissan and Chevy.

Edited January 27, 2009 by Mark B. Morrow

[Deanh]

Well the whole clutch pedal and foot rest complaint won't be a problem when they put the steering wheel on the left where it belongs.

 

Honestly it may not be as good looking as the Fiesta but it is still better looking than the competition from Toyota, Nissan and Chevy.

personally i've read a couple of really positive reveiws....they say its dynamics are better than the 500's....

[MKII]

AutoCars UK 1st drive impressions

The Ford Ka doesn’t drive like the Fiat 500, though, and Ford has put maximum effort into differentiating the Ka from its origins.

 

Where the Fiat 500 and Panda feel soft and unresponsive, the Ford Ka is quick and precise – not as darty and rapid as the original, but it has maintained its predecessor’s small-car reactions.

 

It is not fast, though. The Ka takes 13.1secs to reach 62mph, and it feels like it.

 

Like the old Ford Ka, it rides beautifully. In fact, it feels considerably more grown up than you might expect, even given Ford’s recognised ability to match chassis dynamics with comfort. It absorbs speed bumps silently and smoothes out bad roads like a car from the class above.

The Ford Ka is good at speed, too - much better than the original. Sit on the motorway at 90mph and there’s no fuss, with minimal wind noise.

 

the new Ford Ka is not as distinctive as the 500 or the old Ford Ka but it’s a better car than either of them. It feels like a miniaturised version of the excellent Ford Fiesta.

 

It’s deft and able, compact enough to be perfect in difficult urban situations but refined enough to drive everywhere else. And where the Fiat compromises on dynamics, the Ford makes a virtue of them.

 

http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/FirstD...2-Zetec/235621/