Ford Ka (1996 - 2008)

Small size: 11' 10" by 6' wide (inc mirrors) and weighing 871kg. Original grey nylon flexible wings good for parking bumps, like the rubber wings of old Morris Minor Royal Mail vans. Good ride comfort. Great handling. With PAS, nice to drive, easy to park. Aircon available. Base model Ka with PAS reduced to £5,995. Reasonable Three-Star rating in Euro NCAP crash tests.

Ka Sun Collection from March 2001 with big electric folding canvas sunroof.

February 2003: got 70bhp 1.3 Duratec engine with new overhead cam alloy head and 78lb ft torque. Does 0-60 in 13.4 seconds, goes on to 104mph, returns 43.mpg, emits 154g/km CO2 and stays in IG 2E. Supplemented by £10,000 94bhp single-cam South African engined 1.6 SportKa in Spring 2003, which is good fun to drive and formed the basis of the Street Ka, launched by Kylie Minogue.

BMW, Toyota and Ford jointly suffered the fewest breakdowns attended by German ADAC during 2001. Joint third top of 2002 Which reliability survey of cars up to 2 years old; came out 98% fault free; 132 cars surveyed. Ford had 7th lowest average warranty repair costs in 2003 Warranty Direct Reliability index (index 65.51 v/s lowest 31.93) Ford 4th top top of Reliability Index for 2004 combining very low average cost of repair of £207.58 with average 32.16 failures per 100 Warranty Direct policies. Link:- www.reliabilityindex.co.uk Low 3 out of 9 point death rate from accidents in this model. Rated one of the cheapest superminis to run in 2003 Which survey. 1995-1997 rated average for breakdowns and faults, fewest problems; 1998-2000 rated average for problems and faults, fewest breakdowns; 2001-2003 rated average for breakdowns, fewest problems and faults in 2003 Which survey. Ford Ka 10th most reliable car in 2005 Warranty Direct Reliability Survey with 17 repair claims per 100 cars. Link:- www.reliabilityindex.co.uk