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Is the Ford Ka based on the Fiat 500 or the otherway round, or neither ?
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The current Ka is based on the 500, and built by Fiat in Poland alongside the 500. Ford modified the suspension for the Ka - and the changes were later incorporated into the 500.
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I think it is a joint Ford/Fiat development.
This is what wikipedia says - "In 2008,[3] the European Ka was replaced with a model developed and produced for Ford by Fiat S.p.A in conjunction with Fiat's own 500 vehicle.[21][22] The car is built in Fiat's Tychy, Poland, factory alongside the Fiat 500, Fiat Panda and Lancia Ypsilon."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Ka
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Its a joint development, and having done a few miles in both, my money would go on the Ka.
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I have had one for 3 years and 22K miles. Adequate A to B transport if motorways are not a major part of the route! Cheap servicing, insurance and road tax, needed 4 new tyres in the last 4 months despite mimser driving style.
No spare, just pump and goo but I bought a full size spare. Heated windscreen is a boon but I would like rain sensing wipers too. Rev counter with no red line = pointless; instruments too dim by day without some lights on and too bright at night - no rheostat. Heating and a/c are good but good volume of air only comes out of the centre vents of the dash and a lot less from the outer ones.
Fuel consumption around 50 mpg which isn't great for a 1250cc engine. Adequate but not fun, cheap and reliable for what I use it for.
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50mpg is as good as you'll get from a modern petrol - I doubt a 107/Aygo does much better with 200cc less.
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Thank you all for your replies.
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Fiat 500/Ford Ka both based on the panda!
I find the panda better in all regards
The Ka has very low customer satisfaction ratings
We had one of the last model pandas for 3 years and it was perfect
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>> 50mpg is as good as you'll get from a modern petrol - I doubt a
>> 107/Aygo does much better with 200cc less.
>>
We bought a VW Up! at the beginning of September, which has now racked up a massive 600 miles. It's been filled up twice; I say filled up - with a 37 litre tank each visit to Shell has been well under £40!! The trip computer says it's averaged 62 mpg since new; manual calculation shows that it's nearer 55, though the margin of error will be pretty high on just two fills. Still, on a new car that's been pushed pretty hard on occasion (by me at least) that's not bad. Its only gt 999cc i think, and has just 3 cylinders and a heady 75bhp. It's used on pretty easy journeys, mostly on 'B' roads, though when it has been taken onto the A27 and A3 on forays as far as Guildford (!!) it's capable of a reasonable turn of speed, if nt brisk acceleration!
The improvements in mpg in mpg in moderns cars still impresses me; 40+ mpg from a large automatic German estate car (albeit diesel) is good. North of 50 mpg for an new petrol engine which has only been on one longish journey (60 miles return) and usually does less than 10 miles is exceptional I think. That's with a/c permanently on and liberal use of the (standard) heated seats as well!!
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37 Litres for under £40!!! Where are you filling up - I want some of that! Topping up perhaps?
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>> 37 Litres for under £40!!! Where are you filling up - I want some of
>> that! Topping up perhaps?
>>
Sorry, I meant the tank has a 37 litre capacity, so filling it whenit gets down to the last quarter of a tank means that each fill has been under 30 litres!!
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Peter how do you get on with the VW Up? If daughter passes her test early next year as expected I'd wondered about leasing her a Skoda Citgo which I understand is 99% the same car under the skin.
The Citigo is only £360 down and £120/mth for 3yr lease which seems a good way to get her into a reliable small car (the Up is only £15 more deposit and £5/mth more).
I parked next to an Up the other day and it reminded me of the no nonsense Fiat Uno we bought new in the mid 80s.
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Hired a Citigo in Slovenia in the summer. Fantastic little car. Solidly built, spacious and fun to drive around the narrow bendy roads out there but also surprisingly good on the motorway. If I was buying a small car it would definitely be on the short list.
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I would not bother with a Ka, they are too expensive for what they are, the base spec has less equipment than a 2004 Panda base model did!
On the plus side to the Ka, the FIAT FIRE engines are very very well proven and perhaps a safer long term bet than some of the more modern engines.
I personally love my Panda, extremely reliable and effortless to drive.
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>> Peter how do you get on with the VW Up? If daughter passes her test
>> early next year as expected I'd wondered about leasing her a Skoda Citgo which I
>> understand is 99% the same car under the skin.
I think its a great little car - there are very few differences between the VW, Skoda and Seat variants of the car as far as I can see, but in 3 door form we preferred the shape of the rear side window on the VW as it kicks up at the back!
Ours is, somewhat unnecessarily, a High Up!, which is the cheapest one with the 75 bhp engine. I test drove the 60bhp one which was absolutely fine on A/B roads and round town, but it felt a bit stretched when joining the dual carriageway that formed part of my test drive route.
Other than that I'm not sure there's much difference in day to day use, so if that's not important I'd save money and go for a cheaper, lower output version. Likewise the High UP! comes with an unnecessarily high level of standard equipment for a supermini IMO; ours has esp and a/c as you'd expect, along with remote locking and electric windows. It also has smart 15" alloys in a graphite colour, heated seats, sat-nav, bluetooth, a high-gloss black dash and two tone seats, all of which the next level down do with out. If you want alloys though then you either add them as an option or go for the High Up though (I've given up adding the ! to its name...)
Feels solid enough - a bit more road noise from the rear than I'd like, but when you look there's little soundproofing to speak of in or around the rear wheel area, and there are no wheel arch liners. The three cylinder engine sounds nice and rorty, and has quite a pleasant hum, and the whole car feels very solid - far more so than its diminutive size would have you believe. There is a reasonable amount of space in the back, and the front feels quite spacious. Somewhere I have an aerial view of it next to my LEC - quite funny! Handles nicely too, and, I'm led to believe, is capable of quite a brisk pace when pushed ;-)
Just a few thoughts; let me know if there's anything specific you want to know
Last edited by: PeterS on Wed 7 Nov 12 at 16:10
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Peter. Great report thanks... supports the feeling I got from reading articles and looking at the vehicle.
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If you want alloys though then you either add them as an option...
Once you've personalized it by adding the option does it become an Up Yours?
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>>
>> Once you've personalized it by adding the option does it become an Up Yours?
>>
:-).
I am waiting to take it back for a service in the hope that the service receptionist has to ask "is that up yours?"
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To which the only reasonable answer would be...
"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."
:-)
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I wonder why they decided against their original plan to call it Lupo? Hence the Up! for the concept name. A bit like the Scirocco was the IROC.
And I wonder why they call the models:
- Take up!
- Move up!
- High up!
- up! black
- up! white
The last two would have included black up! and they got slammed for it. What were they thinking. Look like good cars.
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The last two are indeed called the Black Up! and White Up! in other parts of Europe - basically High Ups in either metallic black or white with different interior/exterior trim and alloys IIRC
It certainly captures more of the essence of Lupo than the VW Fox, which is a depressing looking car I think, and looks too narrow for its height
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You're right - the Lupo was a 'fun' car - not just the GTI - and so is the Up. I'm not entirely sure what it was about the Fox that caused it to lack the fun factor - was it the looks / handling / engine choice?
I never drove a Fox so this is only on hearsay, but it seems to be a general view that the Fox was dreary.
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I seem to remember that the VW Fox was designed for (and built in) one of the South American countries - perhaps Brazil? Presumably it was seen as a quick, cheap way of replacing the Lupo and tackling the lower priced competition like the C1/106/Aygo.
I haven't driven one either though, and interestingly (and perhaps somewhat telling) VW dealers didn't tend to use them courtesy cars - they all seemed to be Polos round here - so perhaps they didn't think much of them either!
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The European version of the Fox was made in Brazil. The European version was re-engineered to achieve a decent Euro NCAP rating of four stars - whereas South America was left with the original version.
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I was looking at a new UP in a main agent VW showroom, to my surprise it didn't have a spare wheel, you could buy one as an "extra".
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Ford Ka - Fiat 500/Ford Ka - Auristocrat
