Just Bought a new Ka for £150

[Vince70]

My other half wanted to buy a small manual Car for her boy’s to have after they pass their tests and I saw on Facebook market place a red Ford Ka for sale that had been standing since February for £150 and I’ve seemed to have hit the Jackpot again and bought another rust free genuine example.

The problem is now is it’s too nice to give to someone just to trash as it’s actually near immaculate and it’s actually only done 19000 miles from new and it’s an early model with keep fit windows and few toys.

So this weekend I will give it a wash and waxoyl underneath and just look at this petrol cap lol.

I really rate them and in my book it’s what the mini should of been and this one is old school with its Ford Anglia engine plus I’ve never heard a Kent Valencia Crossflow whatever it is this quiet  before and  it’s just too nice to use lol.

It says it’s had some corrosion issues in the past but I can’t find any at the moment and it doesn’t have a black tide mark anywhere but it’s wait and see as I’m going to just take it in and try an mot and see what happens.

 

[HMC]

That’s quite a find, it’s still red, and just look at how fresh that fuel filler is! 
 

PS another fan here too, super little things- agreed on the concept being more true to a mini than the BINI
 

 

[Vince70]

I bought another about 3 years ago which was completely rot free and the day we bought it I smothered waxoyl everywhere and it’s never had a single issue with rot.

I was told the early cars are a bit better put together and to keep clear of 07/08 examples as these are the worst you can get for the rust bug.

[Broadsword]

Had a few of these, always brilliant to drive. They are very Mini in spirit, I agree with you on that. The Duratec is superior but the Endura-E has a certain charm. A 19,000 mile for £150 is quite an achievement.

Not wanting to rain on your parade but that isn’t a rust free example. You can see the rot creeping in the fuel filler cap, it will be a lot worse on the reverse. Also based on no evidence at all (actually it’s in the MOT history) I know it will be at the very least a bit crispy underneath, it’s just a fact of life with these. I’ve seen even lower mileage examples and they were still rotten in places. Anyway it’s £150, happy days! I’m sure it will clean up nice. Huge amounts of Waxoyl will probably keep the march of rust as slow as possible.

[2flags]

It seems like you have a proper bargain  there. Best of luck with the MoT. My daughter had one for a while. She loved it.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Are these getting rare now? I don't think I've seen one for a while.

[Vince70]

16 minutes ago, Broadsword said:

Had a few of these, always brilliant to drive. They are very Mini in spirit, I agree with you on that. The Duratec is superior but the Endura-E has a certain charm. A 19,000 mile for £150 is quite an achievement.

Not wanting to rain on your parade but that isn’t a rust free example. You can see the rot creeping in the fuel filler cap, it will be a lot worse on the reverse. Also based on no evidence at all (actually it’s in the MOT history) I know it will be at the very least a bit crispy underneath, it’s just a fact of life with these. I’ve even lower mileage example and they were still rotten in places. Anyway it’s £150, happy days! I’m sure it will clean up nice.

It’s not rot on the filler cap luckily it’s just covered in dirt as that was the first place I looked but it did have a some welding in 2017 around the seat belt area and looking underneath all I can see is a bit of surface rust that I will coat up with some bilt hamber I’ve got sitting about.

My girlfriends daughter had a Duratec Collection edition on an 04 and that’s been a fantastic little thing and has always just goes  through the mot every year without fuss and in the time she’s had the car all I’ve done is fitted a £15 coil pack.

[cobblers]

Everybody should drive a low mileage one of these, they're really good! Light on their feet, comfy, perfect amount of power, use no petrol at all and unkillable. an absolutely winning formula.

After about 70k miles every rubber bush in the suspension is fucked and all the aftermarket replacements are lousy, it turns them into horrible knocking clattering shitters. I'm sure the chassis flex of years of MOT patches doesn't help either. But they really were properly enjoyable when "current". I'd get out of a 106 XSi or a Saxo VTR into my sisters Ka and has just as much fun.

[Timewaster]

Am old girlfriend had a brand new one on an R plate. 

She picked me up in it with about 50 miles on the clock and then proceeded to rag it down the bypass at 90mph!

Brilliant cars in my book. 

Few years later my wife (not the same person) had one as a courtesy car which had numberwang seats. I thought it was ace, she wasn't at all keen though. 

Good buy. 

[sutty2006]

These are fairly easy to work on. My apprentice still has the blue one we bought off Cavcraft over 12 months ago. Starter motor packed up just after it’s last MOT but it took 10 mins to take it off, and 5 to put new one on, (needed a brew in between etc etc). So yeah, easy to fix. It’s getting a little crusty round the filler cap though. But I have seen another blue one same year and model with absolutely NO rust round the filler cap...... I was gob smacked. 

[Vince70]

I’ve been lucky with the filler caps on the two we’ve bought but on the silver 04 reg Ka I pressure washed it and did knock some paint off around the filler cap and it took it straight back to bare metal and it must of been a work of art to get the paint so thin especially being metallic as it needed primer then a top coat plus clear coat yet the paint was thinner than a finger nail.

When I waxoyled that one underneath it looked like all it got just a from the factory was a very light coat of primer so no wonder these old things rotted out.

The first job for this one is to clean  out underneath the rear suspension mounts and absolutely cover it in as much old waxoyl as I can and hopefully not prod to hard anywhere lol.

[barefoot]

I had one as a courtesy car and remember the lovely, compliant ride. When I got back into my 944 it felt like driving a wooden board. A fast one, but still a wooden board in comparison.

[Vince70]

I feel the same as I have more fun driving a cheapo Ka than I do the other cars I have sitting on the drive.

I told the misses to keep it as it will be worth some Ford scene tax in about 10 years as it might be the new Mk1 Escort lol

[Angrydicky]

These are good fun little things to drive. 

[brownnova]

Former Ka owner here too!

I expected to dislike it when I bought it but it was very chuckable and zipped along quite nicely. Roomier than you would imagine inside too. 

A good early one like that is the sort of thing I’d be sticking in a barn as an investment if I had one. Ford scene tax means that I reckon these will be worth a pretty penny in 10 years time. 

[theshadow]

they only rot because dozy ford,put 2 sound foam up there,get them out pronto,acts like sponge,than rots them out...

[GrumpiusMaximus]

My first car was an early S-reg like this.  Base spec, absolutely no toys (but I liked the analogue clock a lot).  We moved it on in 2010 as a bit of a heap in P/X for a Fiesta and the MOT records run out in 2013 when it was found to be terminally rusty.

Bloody fantastic little cars and a lot of fun to drive.  It was an ideal first car for me, not having power steering or ABS.  Learned a lot in it.

[Tenmil Socket]

I would love to have a go of a sporty one of these. I saw a Sport KA the other day with Puma 'fan blade'? alloys on it which really suited it.

[ETCHY]

Sounds a great buy, well done.

These are another motor that seemed to be everywhere and then one day had just disappeared.

A mate of mine had three of these including some sort of luxurious one and absolutely  loved them.

[bramz7]

I say this every time I see a photo of one but an ex Girlfriend had one as her first (or second) car and took it up to an indicated 110 near MK. Neither me or her enjoyed that, it was quite loud. 

Another ex this time, her brother had one and he neglected it terribly, yet it took ages to die. Think it was nearly run dry (coolant) several times. 

[Vince70]

The only thing I don’t like about this one is it’s got power steering and I wanted poverty spec this time.

[Dirk Diggler]

But the non PAS rack is 4 turns lock to lock; I always found the non PAS cars to be not nearly as sharp on the road; and the PAS isn't too overassisted

Has been 20 years since I drove one and they're still a car I've found memories of; I'd say a SportKa is a hoot

[Tadhg Tiogar]

If a decent Ka costs £150, I wonder what this one's worth:

 

[Vince70]

2 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

If a decent Ka costs £150, I wonder what this one's worth:

 

That is a decent car to me as I’ve never had a car that new before.

[KWhite]

Great little cars! I drove my Mum's 07 Plate Luxury for a year or so after passing my test, huge fun although being a later Mk1 it seemed to rot worse than the early ones

[richardmorris]

21 minutes ago, Vince70 said:

That is a decent car to me as I’ve never had a car that new before.

Me neither - decent doesn’t depend on age. 

[Spurious]

My sister had a Ghia one. Alloys and electric windows. Still quite basic all the same. Borrowed it for about a month and it was alright. 

Coming from a Starlet/Clio and I thought it was glacially slow; think they were about 15-16 seconds to 60. More is the pity they never put the 1.25 Zetec/Yamaha engine out if the Fiesta in the Ka. Would have had some shove then. 

Handled well I'll give it that. Looked nice too, the new Ford styling has aged rather well. 

They're a good car I think. 

[Rod/b]

3 minutes ago, Spurious said:

My sister had a Ghia one. Alloys and electric windows. Still quite basic all the same. Borrowed it for about a month and it was alright. 

Coming from a Starlet/Clio and I thought it was glacially slow; think they were about 15-16 seconds to 60. More is the pity they never put the 1.25 Zetec/Yamaha engine out if the Fiesta in the Ka. Would have had some shove then. 

Handled well I'll give it that. Looked nice too, the new Ford styling has aged rather well. 

They're a good car I think. 

Could have been worse - they were intended to take a 2-stroke engine until quite late in the day. 

[2flags]

32 minutes ago, Spurious said:

My sister had a Ghia one. Alloys and electric windows. Still quite basic all the same. Borrowed it for about a month and it was alright. 

Coming from a Starlet/Clio and I thought it was glacially slow; think they were about 15-16 seconds to 60. More is the pity they never put the 1.25 Zetec/Yamaha engine out if the Fiesta in the Ka. Would have had some shove then. 

Handled well I'll give it that. Looked nice too, the new Ford styling has aged rather well. 

They're a good car I think. 

I heard the reason it didn't have the later engine was that it wouldn't fit. As has been said, originally it was supposed to have the Australian Orbital 2 stroke engine. They could not get the emissions down. At the last minute it was decided to fit the Kent engine, or a more modern version. 

[holbeck]

9 minutes ago, 2flags said:

I heard the reason it didn't have the later engine was that it wouldn't fit. As has been said, originally it was supposed to have the Australian Orbital 2 stroke engine. They could not get the emissions down. At the last minute it was decided to fit the Kent engine, or a more modern version. 

Cough.  I was a suppliers rep at Ford Engineering at the time. The orbital 2 stroke was considered for a few projects but was dead quite early on in the gestation of the Ka (BE146).

The engine planned for Ka was a 1.05 litre 3 cylinder version of the ZetecSE/ Yamaha motor.  Loads of work was done and it nearly happened. The reason it didn't was cost. The Valencia engine was a bag of nails but it was cheap to build and actually quite reliable.