When the first generation of Ka was coughing and spluttering its last few sales in 2008, it had been on the market for over eleven years. The Fiesta it shared its oily bits with had been consigned to the scrapheap several years earlier and various “improvements” had been nailed on to try to iron out some of the wrinkles. It only partially worked; the sheer familiarity of the Ka was enough to make it feel like a seriously old car.
So, what did Ford replace it with? Well; this. The new Ka was built not in Spain but in Poland, in a facility shared by Fiat. In fact the same production facility also grinds out 500s and Pandas. This raises the first question; does the fact that Poland is rather more familiar with crappy weather than Spain mean that the new Ka has half a chance of not rusting into tiny little pieces? Only time can tell. Second question is; well, is it any good? And is it still a Ka? Today I finally got the chance to spend a decent amount of time behind the wheel of one.
