Ford Ka (1996-2008)
‘The Ka’s angles, arches and curves were a huge diversion for Ford’
It’s easy to forget the impact made by the Ford Ka when it debuted in 1996, such is its familiarity as part of Britain’s street furniture – just one of the parallels that can be drawn with the 1959 Ford Anglia, which had an equally avant-garde approach to its styling.
A less expected similarity lies beneath the bonnet – the Ka’s 1.3-litre overhead-valve ‘Endura-e’ engine is a direct evolution of the original 957cc ‘Kent’ engine that powered the Anglia, along with every generation of Escort that succeeded it.
The engine’s historic origins are well-hidden, though, thanks to styling that still looks rakish even today. The design of the Ka was led by late British designer Chris Svensson, who was born in Sunderland in 1965 and sadly passed away in 2018. Svensson was the main protagonist behind Ford’s ‘New-edge’ design language, first seen with the Ka in 1996 and subsequently defined with the appearance of the Focus and Mondeo MKIII, among others.
The Ka’s triangulated angles, defined arches and swooping, curvaceous roofline were a huge diversion for Ford, and were based on a small car design submitted by Svensson as part of his graduation project from London’s Royal College of Art in 1992. In profile, it looked like a teapot, minus its handle and spout, but the front and rear aspects were far more adventurous than the somewhat amorphous and blobby Ford designs of the Nineties. The unpainted plastic bumpers and arches were city-friendly, too, shrugging off knocks and scrapes – at least until buyer snobbery led to painted trim on later models.
The interior was equally adventurous, with a distinctive two-spoke steering wheel and an instrument binnacle that morphed into a speech bubble-shaped centre console that looked like it could have been penned by Salvador Dali.
A ‘hot’ version known as the Sportka would follow, along with a ‘Streetka’ convertible, designed and assembled by Pininfarina, and allegedly far better made than any Ka constructed by Ford itself. For it was dreadful corrosion resistance that would become the Ka’s Achilles’ Heel. By the time rust bubbles appeared along the edge of the thick bumpers and body cladding, it had advanced to the point that there wasn’t a huge amount of Ka left underneath.
All of which makes Tom Barnard’s lovely car, seen here, something of an investment for the future. Having covered just 10,300 miles from new, Tom’s base model is as close to a new Ka as you’re likely to find, and a reminder of just how good this car was when it was new. For not only did it look striking, but the Ka was fabulous to drive, too – the chassis was the same as that of the 1995 Fiesta facelift, which transformed the dynamics of the model using lessons learned from the 1993 Mondeo. The Ka, then, was a huge success, with a production run of 12 years.