Autocar - First for car news and reviews

We’ve already seen pictures of the Ford Ka, but now it’s been officially unveiled at the Paris motor show.

The new city car clearly draws on the visual DNA of the seminal original version, which was introduced as long ago as 1996, but the new car also looks considerably more modern. Ford claims to have paid particular attention to making the car’s ‘face’ as distinctive as possible.

Underneath the Ka shares its underpinnings with the Fiat 500, and will be built alongside its Italian...Read the full article

Autocar:

original version, which was introduced as long ago as 1996

Ford must of made a fortune from this, is this the oldest car on sale in the uk? 

 

Why no case for a hot Ka when Fiat/Abarth can make a case for a hot and hotter 500?  Is it just that Ford makes more money out of its lardier hot hatches?  A hot Ka would make perfect sense to my missus, who currently plans to replace her 207 CC with an Abarth 500.

It depends if you want to count the Land Rover Defender or not

Paul J:

Why no case for a hot Ka when Fiat/Abarth can make a case for a hot and hotter 500?  Is it just that Ford makes more money out of its lardier hot hatches?

Ford will effectively purchase finished KA's from Fiat.  The contractual issues around the whole joint venture will be massive, in much the same way as it was with VW and Ford when they produced the Sharnalaxyambra.

I don't know for a fact but it is likely the deal only includes certain engines, and if they wish to go for a hot version then there will either be some sort of considerable price hike or the contract will state that only Fiat can have the hot donkeys.

As this is car is predominantly engineered by Fiat, then Ford putting their own engine in to the KA would be a bit of an engineering and financial nightmare.