On sale now are right hand drive versions of the new three door Ford Ka designed and built with a little help from Fiat. Prices from the 2nd February range from £7,945 to £10,145. ECOnetic, even lower CO2 models, will follow.
Small cars are costly to develop, and that means ever smaller profit margins in a cost conscious world. So the new Ford Ka has been produced in conjunction with Fiat.
The Ka uses the same platform as the Fiat 500/Panda, the same engines and transmissions but with a suspension re-tuned by Ford with a stiffer rear axle, 30% softer springs, retuned dampers, firmer bushes resulting in a much more competent and comfortable ride. Overall Ford estimate that 20% of the Ka's components are theirs and 80% are Fiat. The Ka is built by Fiat at Tychy in Poland.
John Flemming, Head of Ford of Europe, has said, 'The sharing with Fiat has halved engineering costs and saved 30-40% on investment giving a total saving of 40-50% on the whole enterprise making the Ka project financially viable.'
The small Ka has been big business for Ford. Launched in 1996 the original A/B segment compact Ka became a style icon and throughout is 12 year life Ford says it had the greatest customer loyalty of any of their models.
Over 500,000 of them have been sold in the UK and 1.4 million throughout Europe in those 12 years. In the UK Ford now expects the new Ka to achieve 19,000 to 20,000 sales in 2009 retaining its position as sales leader in the segment. This new total is around 5,000 units less than their forecast made last November due to the reduction in size of the new car market.
The new Ka will continue to sell in the 'Sub-B' sales sector, as Ford calls it (smaller than supermini). This sector has doubled in size since 2003 due to customers' down-sizing, and due to the introduction of many more models. The sector now represents 8% of the total new car market. In 1996 there were just eight models competing for sales, now there are 26.
David Cross, small car product specialist, Ford of Britain, said this week at the press launch of right hand drive models, 85% of Ka's UK sales are likely to be to retail buyers and the remaining 15% will be taken up by sales to the fleet and business markets, which include local authorities and driving schools. There will be no short-cycle and minimal daily rental business. Currently Ford has 1,200 signed-up UK sales for the new Ka.
He added that the top of the range Zetec specification should achieve 48% of sales, Style and Style+, a combined 32% and the base Studio version 20%. In addition, to attract younger owners and increase the number of male buyers to Ka, Ford has introduced three personalisation packs, Digital Art, Grand Prix and Tattoo.
Costing from £300 for the interior pack and from £200 for the exterior pack, they feature external graphics and matching interior fabrics with bespoke steering wheel, gearlever and floor mats. Past Ka customers have been predominately female and the average age of owners has been around 50. Only when Ka became a used vehicle did the age of users drop and more men became drivers.
For the first time there is a diesel engine option in the Ka range, a Fiat 1.3-litre 75PS unit and this could account for 4% of total UK sales. The diesel engine is available only with the Zetec specification and adds £700 to the price.
A Fiat-sourced 1.2-litre 69PS petrol engine replaces the previous Ford 1.3-litre petrol unit used in the previous Ka. Both engines are sub 120g/km CO2 emissions which means a £35 a year road tax bill.
One of new Ka's major advantages, other than vastly improved safety and equipment levels, are low running costs. Insurance groups range from 1E to 3E and the residual values forecast from industry analysts CAP say new Ka will be worth on average 14% more than the previous models based on the usual three years/60,000 period.
New Ford Ka review
Two new popular size model ranges, Fiesta and now Ka, introduced in four months means Ford are well placed to pick up what sales are available in two prime sectors of a recession hit new car market.
But having two new models, only slightly different in style, size and price, will bring its problems. As a customer do I buy a Ka that mainly uses Fiat technology and is not such an iconic design as the previous one, or do I buy the much better class leading, but slightly more expensive, all-Ford Fiesta?
The Fiesta, being thoroughbred Ford, is fantastic to drive and use. It is the undoubted leader in the 'supermini' sector and three door prices start from £9,195 for the 1.25-litre petrol Studio version. On the other hand the new Ka, looks quite sweet, but drives and handles only averagely well - but better than the Fiat 500, and costs from £7,945. My own view is, go for the roomier Fiesta three or five door models. Their real-life performance and user-friendly size offers much better value than the 'on-paper' price differential. Interestingly Ford is 'hiking'up the prices of the Fiesta range from 2nd February to distance it from Ka, but there are still discounts to be had.
The latest Ka continues with the new face of Ford with their trapezoidal front grille and wedge side profile with the added truncated rear end with rounded tailgate window. It looks cheeky, appealing but it is not as distinctive as the original Ka which had wide rear haunches and a steeply sloping rear tailgate and was so different to everything else in its class.
At 3,620mm in length new Ka is the same as the old model but the roof line is higher and longer than its predecessor and the Fiat 500. This allows more headroom, especially in the rear and more boot space, 224-litres with the rear seats in position and 747-litres with the seats folded down. The increase in headroom means the seating positions are higher, too high in the front and trying to get a comfortable driving position is not easy. The Steering column doesn't adjust for reach and foot space for the control pedals seems much less than for left hand drive versions I tried last year. The rear quarter visibility for the driver is not good either.
The interior styling is bold and imaginative and with the extra cost designer option packs there is huge scope for buyers to end up with a design and specification that really suits their personality or image.
Using the Fiat 500 platform, core suspension design, with the same type of engines and transmissions does bring cost effective benefits in the form of the retail purchase price and profitability for Ford and their dealers.
Thankfully for Ford the new Ka over the Fiat 500 is a much better car to drive and very much more capable in terms of handling and ride comfort but potholes will be felt and the ride is fidgety over our bad urban road surfaces. The tuning of the suspension with the addition of a rear anti roll bar has worked wonders giving the vehicle more controlled and predictable handling a with more front end grip than Fiat 500. The electronic power steering is well weighted and gives good feedback to the driver. Anti-lock braking is standard on all models but unfortunately ESP is only available as an extra cost option and that costs a high £400, not clever marketing for what should be a standard safety feature.
The two Fiat sourced engines work well with the new Ka. The 1.2-litre 69PS petrol unit is free-revving and will be by far the main selling unit and officially returns 55.4mpg. During the media test drive around the busy M25 and surrounding urban roads it returned 41.2mpg.
With CO2 emissions of 119g/km road tax is an appealing £35 a year. Being high geared for fuel economy this unit lacks the torque of the diesel engine for responsive driving in traffic or going up hills so be prepared for lots of gearchanging. Like the diesel engine, the petrol unit is mated with a five-speed manual gearbox. No automatic transmission is planned at this stage.
The 1.3-litre 75PS turbodiesel unit with 145Nm of torque from 1,500rpm, whilst it will only attract a projected 4% of Ka customers, is the better unit. It is quiet, responsive and copes better with all driving conditions. If I regularly covered long journeys I'd pay the extra £700 and the extra per litre cost in fuel and go for this engine because of the better quality of driving it gives and the potential for much better fuel economy. Driving over the same test routes the Ka diesel returned 48.5mpg - less than the official 67.3mpg, but still good. With CO2 emissions at 112g/km road tax is also £35 a year.
Overall the Ka adds to Ford's ability to produce clever, smart, affordable and safe vehicles. The new Ka is not the styling icon the first Ka was so do not expect this generation to be around for 12 years. It is a design for today where practicality, safety and price are prime considerations.
MILESTONES
Ford Ka 1.2 Zetec (best selling model)
Price: £9,445
Engine/transmission: 1.2-litre, four-cylinder petrol, 69PS, 102Nm from 3,000rpm, 5-speed manual. Performance: 99mph, 0-62mph 13.1 seconds, 55.4mpg (41.2mpg actual), CO2 119g/km, VED £35
Insurance group: 2E. Dimensions: 3,620mm long, 1,894mm wide, 1,505mm high, luggage space 224-747-litres
For: Compact size, price, flexible design, safe, good handling, much improved equipment levels either as standard or optional
Against: No design icon this time around, no ESP as standard, watch out for more added cost with designer option packs.