2001 Ford Ka review from UK and Ireland

Exhaust sealing ring - led to poor performance and fuel economy due to a mis-informed ECU. This was fixed at 46000 miles - believe the trouble had first started around 42000 but I assumed I was being frustrated by the cars low power.

Seats have started to wear (the fabric has a couple of snags).

The drivers side headlight was letting in water and filling with water. A replacement was £65 from Ford. A full repair including fitting by Ford is £130.

The car is based on the Puma chassis and shows. However, the large profile 13" wheels my car comes with lets the handling down - they start to lose grip although it is easily controllable. This has improved now I use Pirelli based Ceat tyres (£40 each inc. fitting).

The driving position has limited adjustment (I am 6 foot 5, but it is better than my old car).

This car is ridiculously cheap to insure. It is Group 2, which means anyone of any age can afford to insure it. If you can't, don't drive.

One problem with the car is safe overtaking - there are no blind spots apart from the A-pillars (the corners of the windscreen) but the car does not have sufficient power to overtake safely in most scenarios. Just don't expect it to be like a twin cam engine like I did... I got a nasty surprise! This car is more meant for cruising in 5th gear. I do an 80 mile round trip to University 5 days a week and achieve 50mpg in mixed conditions. Yes, that figure is correct. In town, this drops to roughly 40mpg.