Ford Ka (girlfriends first ka, potentially?)

furnace

furnace

furnace

Soldato
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Worthing, West Sussex
edit; just noticed I wrote "girlfriends first ka" ... I meant car!

Okay another "what's your opinion" thread from me regarding a cheap car :o

Same story (still); girlfriends first car, not passed her test yet, wants something cheap and reliable but one up from a shed/box on wheels.

Doesn't need to be fast, but she will be doing lots of motorway driving so can't be too slow (don't want her having too much trouble overtaking/merging with traffic). The parkers specs for this look okay though.

So my questions are;
  • There is rust on the sills which the seller has had welded and filled but not painted. I figure that's okay, what do you think?
  • Power steering isn't listed as a feature. It's a Ford Ka ("Belladonna" whatever that is) 1998. Do you think it'll have PAS or not? She doesn't want a car without it.
  • Any experiences or issues with Ka's? (image issues aside)

I have a guide from UserCarExpert with things to look at and will obviously give it a good look over when I get there, but unfortunately my Dad is away so unless my brothers friend is available I don't think I'll be able to get any 'expert' opinion on this one :confused:
 
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in my experience they are good little cars (dad had one for a while) but I really wouldnt want to do any motorway driving in one if I was to be honest, also the boot is non existant :p
 
Noisy, small, uncomfortable and slow :) You'd be better off getting something a little bigger.
 
pretty much what duke said, underpowered for motorway driving, at that speed it will be pretty noisy and the whole car is liable to vibrate and rattle, if she is going to do motorway driving get something with more power and built for motorway use.
 
I would have thought the corsa would be less comfortable but it would just be a guess seeing as I have never even been in a corsa! :p I would look at larger 5 door saloons/hatcbacks? I really only know about rovers so im not really that much help sadly! :p
 
furnace said:
So my questions are;
There is rust on the sills which the seller has had welded and filled but not painted. I figure that's okay, what do you think?
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No. Ka's are one of the only newer Fords that can suffer badly from rust, and some of the early ones are now being scrapped due to rust it can get that bad. If the rust has started to take hold then a few patches on the sills won't hold it back for long unless the owner has done a really good job of removing all the current rust and has applied rust proofing.

Power steering isn't listed as a feature. It's a Ford Ka ("Belladonna" whatever that is) 1998. Do you think it'll have PAS or not? She doesn't want a car without it.
Click to expand...

PAS was an option IIRC. However the Ka is tiny and light, and does not really require power steering unless your girlfirends arms are the size of pipe cleaners...

Any experiences or issues with Ka's? (image issues aside)
Click to expand...

Rust.
Rattly engines (cam followers can wear very quickly).
Corrosion in door wiring
 
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Hrm OK I think we'll give this a miss then..! :p

DannyW said:
How much has she got to spend?

Motorway driving + small car = Fiesta 1.4 TDCI (about £4000 though)
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Anything with at least the comfort of a Corsa B will be fine with her, it's really things like mk3 fiesta, citroen AX, that she wants to avoid.

She has ~£1000, preferably the £800-900 mark but if £1,050 would get a bargain she'd do it.

I'm sure cars are a complete rip-off around here :( Something like this costs £950+ from a dealer.

Do you think she'd be better off holding out for one of those fiestas (mk4 as per that link) on friday ad/autotrader/pistonheads?
 
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Id rather have a mk4 fiesta then a Ka!

Them 1.25's are perfectly ok on the motorway, I used to do 80 miles a day in one.
 
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