New Ford Ka - a commercial failure?

[Johnnytheboy]

The old Ford Ka was a massive success for Ford, and spawned a warm version and a convertible.

The new version is built on the underpinnings of the Fiat 500 but without the retro cuteness, had a distinctly lukewarm reception in the press, and as far as I can see from the numbers I see on the roads, is not selling very well.

I'm sure they aren't that bad and are selling in some numbers, but how about compared to the success of the mark 1?

Do you think the upper echelons of Ford think they dropped a bk with the new Ka?

[PumpkinSteve]

I thought about this a few times myself. I wonder if the money they saved in using the 500's underpinnings has been worth it? If they'd have fully developed a car themselves, which gave more of a nod to the old Ka, then I think it would've sold a lot better.

[pwrc]

I think the new one looks worse than the old one, which is saying a lot because the old one is the fking devil in terms of car design.

then again i had a dream once where i turned a sportka into this weird sort of open-wheel racer. it was really cool. true story

[Johnnytheboy]

pwrc said:

I think the new one looks worse than the old one, which is saying a lot because the old one is the fking devil in terms of car design.

Another good example is the Fiat Multipla. The old one was sort of "so ugly it was cool", the new one just bland. And afaik has sold relatively poorly.

[rumple]

The thing about the original Ka is that alot of buyers werent buyers of Fords, it atracted a whole new buyer to the brand.

[poing]

If I remember correctly the old Ford KA was a really slow seller to start with but I'm not sure this one will see anything like the sales before it's end. I think cars like the Aygo/107/C1 and Twingo are more of a spiritual successor to the old KA.

[David87]

I think its problem is simply its sister car: the Fiat 500. I just can't see any logical reason (other than a massive fking discount) why you'd plump for anything other than the Italian. It's vastly more desirable, looks better and is available with the brilliant TwinAir engine, all for little more money than the Ka. The Mk1 Ka was a great - and unique - little car. The current one is just boring, despite Ford pretending it's not by offering bits of trim painted in stupid colours.

[forsure]

David87 said:

I think its problem is simply its sister car: the Fiat 500. I just can't see any logical reason (other than a massive fking discount) why you'd plump for anything other than the Italian. It's vastly more desirable, looks better and is available with the brilliant TwinAir engine, all for little more money than the Ka. The Mk1 Ka was a great - and unique - little car. The current one is just boring, despite Ford pretending it's not by offering bits of trim painted in stupid colours.

Or, if you don't like the cutesy styling of the 500, buy a Panda. That manages to be practical (boxy) and still looks neat.
The Ka is neither one thing nor the other.

[24lemons]

There's a house near me where there's a white ford KA and a white fiesta. I was sat in traffic thinking how similar they looked and how the KA appeared larger than the fiesta. You used to be able to tell a KA from a hundred paces but now its lost it's individuality. Mind you the same could be said for so many modern car ranges

[daydotz]

It's not a bad car but it's not a eco box like a c1 or up which is a shame

I'm sure I read the suspension was different to the 500 originally it was later used on the 500

[Vitorio]

David87 said:

I think its problem is simply its sister car: the Fiat 500. I just can't see any logical reason (other than a massive fking discount) why you'd plump for anything other than the Italian. It's vastly more desirable, looks better and is available with the brilliant TwinAir engine, all for little more money than the Ka. The Mk1 Ka was a great - and unique - little car. The current one is just boring, despite Ford pretending it's not by offering bits of trim painted in stupid colours.

Over here the 500 is about 50% more expensive for a base-model, granted the 500 will be a nicer car, but the 4k gap buys a lot of toys on the ford.

I honestly like the mk2 Ka, and a lot more then the mk1. If i were looking at something in the sub-ermini segment, it would be between the ka, clio and possibly the seat mii.

[Mr2Mike]

PumpkinSteve said:

I thought about this a few times myself. I wonder if the money they saved in using the 500's underpinnings has been worth it? If they'd have fully developed a car themselves, which gave more of a nod to the old Ka, then I think it would've sold a lot better.

They were quite free to design a body that looked good and fitted around the Fiat floorpan - after all Fiat managed it. The problem is that Ford have simply made a slightly smaller Fiesta with the new Ka by adopting exactly the same styling. The old Ka was based on a Fiesta, but there was no way you could tell from the outside.

[rallycross]

they look horrible, too high, especially too high at the rear,all round ugly -why would you go and buy one?

[AAGR]

Mr2Mike said:

PumpkinSteve said:

I thought about this a few times myself. I wonder if the money they saved in using the 500's underpinnings has been worth it? If they'd have fully developed a car themselves, which gave more of a nod to the old Ka, then I think it would've sold a lot better.

They were quite free to design a body that looked good and fitted around the Fiat floorpan - after all Fiat managed it. The problem is that Ford have simply made a slightly smaller Fiesta with the new Ka by adopting exactly the same styling. The old Ka was based on a Fiesta, but there was no way you could tell from the outside.

Uncle Henry is no fool, so you can be sure that the decision to share underpinnings, engines, transmissions and suspensions, was analysed repeatedly before the decision was made. For sure, the investment needed only to produce a new (upper) body shell will pay off rapidly, so in the end the accountants will be happy.

But you are all right - the old Ka looked (and was) unique, whereas the new Ka looks too close to the Fiesta.

Incidentally, ask yourselves the reverse question from the thread heading. Do you agree that the new Fiesta is selling much better than the previous model did - better, in fact, than Ford had expected ?

[PumpkinSteve]

AAGR said:

Incidentally, ask yourselves the reverse question from the thread heading. Do you agree that the new Fiesta is selling much better than the previous model did - better, in fact, than Ford had expected ?

Yes, but I think that's down to numerous things: People wanting to downsize, the new Fiesta being fooking huge, and nothing but glowing reviews from the motoring press.

[ajprice]

The Ka Mk2 isn't nice, it's a slightly shrunk, melted Fiesta. The thing is that Ford made a concept car, and they really should have gone with it as the Ka Mk2. It had the Aston Martin style grille too.

Ford Start

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/04/22/ford-start-conc...
This, productionised, would have made a great looking Ka.

Edited by ajprice on Tuesday 7th August 22:48

Edited by ajprice on Tuesday 7th August 22:50

[Andyjc86]

I work on a few if these for my customers. I like them, seem well built, rarely go wrong, easy to work on (always a plus for a mechanic!!), nice to drive for a 1.2 town car.

The only thing I don't like is how similar it is to the fiesta.

[p1doc]

i have a ford ka mk1 lovely little car nice handling sipped petrol no matter how you tanked it and was peanuts to buy-£4500 brand new after haggling.New car is not unique costs twice as much looks cr*p and does not handle as well=not selling to any mk1 buyers
martin

[VeeDub Geezer]

Wasn't the Mk1 KA only as popular as it was due to very cheap credit agreements?

[kambites]

If you look carefully, there are quite a lot of new KAs about; they just blend into all the other dullness on the road so much more than the old ones that you don't notice them.