2004 Ford Ka Sportka from UK and Ireland - Comments

Peeling sticker on n/s passenger door - rectified under warranty.

Astounding handling and levels of grip, in both the wet and dry. Accurate steering reveals little initial understeer, with a pleasing hint of oversteer at higher speeds.

Decent performance for a small car, although a little breathless at the top end. Capable of embarrassing larger and more expensive machines.

An amazing amount of room in the front for both driver and passenger. Tiny boot however.

So, so fuel consumption, particularly if driven hard, which it's not difficult to do.

Great looks, with just the right hint of aggression due to front and rear spoilers and mean looking 16" alloys and 45 profile tyres.

I bought an imperial blue Sport Ka SE about 6 months ago, I agree with the fact that it handles well and goes OK, but its stating to look a bit shabby already, the paint shows up every tiny little scratch and stone chip and a corrosion is already evident on a lot of the components. Build quality is a bit iffy too, lots of interior parts don't fit too well. But I forgive it all for the amount of fun you can have in it! Might try a Fiesta ST150 when they finally come out.

Sorry to hear about your problems. The only worries we have so far after 3 months and 2500 miles, is the ability of dealers to give us decent service. After 10+ years of Subaru dealers, the Ford ones are going to have to work hard to come even close!

Plus the 3 niggly little faults so far, have been 3 more than we've had in 6 Subaru Impreza Turbos/WRXs and 200,000+ miles.

Still love the Ka when I drive it though.

Decent performance?Who are you kidding!!I have a 2004 imperial blue SPORTKA and it's performance is abysmal, anything with a 1.4 litre engine or above can easily match it, or even worse beat it!To make matters worse it drinks petrol and is depreciating quicker than a KIA car. The only good thing about it so far is nothing has gone wrong with it yet in the 8 months/3,000 miles I've done in it, i just hope they hurry up and bring the FIESTA ST150 out so I can trade it in!!!

Great fun!

I to have a SportKa.

It is a Panther black 2004 model now fitted with a Weitec Shock and spring set that can be adjusted to lower the car. It is a very firm setup, but it handles even better. Also I put 17" wheels with 215/40 Goodyear F1 tires - wow. This is great. Quick car that handles extremly well.

Also a K&N filter makes a nice sound.

It has little comfort, but then, who cares? This is a truly drivers car.

I'm loving it!

See it at http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/724582.

Having had four Ka's in the family, the Sport Ka seemed a natural progression... also doubles as a mobile dog kennel for a large pointer/greyhound cross.

Bought as my 'company' car for driving in and around London and the Home Counties, like the Ka's before, it's put a smile back into town driving. Getting a consistent 32-33mpg with a mix of town and m/way/dual carriageway driving, but it seems to use less fuel when it's thrashed!!

Pluses -superb sound system with good bass, plenty of cubby holes for maps and bits and pieces, superb handling, except on the limit -see below...cute, purposeful looks, great for parking in town. Got an indicated 115mph...once... ;-) Tractable -pulls from 1500rpm in any gear.

Minuses -turning circle not as good as Ka; noisy at 3500rpm in particular, which equates with 70mph...thrash from gearbox 2-3,000rpm and release bearing noise...Ford's comment, 'they all do that sir...'; no cup holder in the front; on the limit handling suspect; not sure if steering has stiffened up, but something feels odd -even got the tracking checked; doesn't make the right noises -needs a sports filter and exhuast. Whole CD panel loose, can't be tightened up '-they've all got that sir'.

Mel.

For the owner of the Imperial Blue Sportka with abysmal performance - shame, maybe get it back to the dealer? It must be a duff one. Mine's the same colour, and the performance IS decent - very decent! Mind, compared with my 04 Impreza WRX PPP it probably isn't... Compared with the 255bhp Gp4 Sunbeam Lotus I rallied in the European Rally Championship during the early '80s, it probably isn't either.

Compared to my 1983 road car - a new Peugeot 205GTI - it's not far off! 0-60mph is less than a second away from the seminal Pug. Whilst it IS 20+ years on, there still aren't that many 1.6 ltr hatches that can break 10 seconds to 60mph. And, it's a 4.5 star car in Evo Magazine. Still, my Impreza with 265bhp made all 5 stars... ;-)

To the person with the scooby, there is nothing wrong with the the imperial blue sportka, they are all slow!!I to have had a 205 1.6 GTI and rest assured it would lick it easily, the reason being the 0-60 on the car is closer to 11 seconds than 9.7 Ford quote, most professional car reviewers have said the same thing. Plus I have driven a 1.4 zetec Fiesta and can confirm it is definitely quicker, i have also driven a CITREON C2 GT and a SUZUKI IGNIS SPORT, both these cars would leave the SPORTKA for dead on the road or on the track!On paper the sportka looks good, in reality its way off the pace!So much so I'm trading it in already and having a Ford Mondeo V6 Zetec-s, which is far, far, far faster, even better handling and about the same on petrol! (if anyone is wondering if mine is a one off, I've driven 3 SPORTKA'S and they are all that slow!)

I agree with the person with the Imperial Blue Sportka, the performance is pants, a friends H-reg Rover 214si which he only paid £200 for easily pulls away from it (sooo embarrassed) Not only that, but it seems to be averaging 25-30 mpg!!The standard KA collection I had previously could easily match one on a dual carriage way/motorway with half the noise!The SPORTKA'S good looks/road handling cannot make up for this level of poor performance, so much so Ford have realised it's a flop and knocked thousands off the list price (hence the steep depreciation) as you can now pick a new one up for about £8000!!!

Ours must be a one off ;-) - although the demo car I drove was fine too! :-)

At Croft, with Datron timing gear, 2 up, and about half a tank of juice, I pulled a 2 way average of 0-60mph in 9.4secs. Best one way was 9.3secs.

For those who are unsure, the Datron system's used by UK magazines such as Autocar, Evo etc and obviously it was a real 60mph, not the indicated speed from the Ka speedo. We tested as always, the same way the Mags do.

Best I could do with a 1.6 105bhp 205GTI was 8.7secs to 60 (and I owned 3 from new between '83 and '86), and 8.2secs for the 115bhp 1.6 (owned 4 from new between '86 and '93) -using similar testing methods to above, but with a "5th wheel" for timing. Wonderful cars and also huge fun.

As I said before, take yours back and make some noise at the dealer if your cars are so slow, as ours isn't.

Cheers.

PS Where are these £8K new Sportkas, as a friend wants to buy one and whilst it's easy to get a Grand of list (it's a Ford after all), £2K? He'd love to know and is happy to travel. Possibly you could leave the dealer's name or give an indication of the Town/City if the admin in this site don't like advertising? Many thanks.

You can get a standard Sportka for £8000 at BURNS of Congleton, King Ford of Fenton. Sportka SE models are £9000!!Both main dealers advertise on AUTOTRADER website. Plus a lot of car supermarkets on this website are selling them cheap!!I seriously wouldn't recommend one though, how can someone with a top scooby think that these are quick??Never mind it wouldn't suit us all to be same, interesting to hear about the 0-60 times though as you need to be in third to acheive 60mph, you must be very quick at changing gear?The major performance gripe with the car is it's got nothing after third gear, just lots of noise and a slow moving speedo, the car seriously runs out of puff at 90mph, it really should have been 6 speed or a 16valve engine!!!

I'm baffled about the people who claim that they can't get the SportKa to do 0-60 in under 10 seconds. Just put your foot down and change gears properly FOOLS!

Do you lot have anything better to do!! Obviously too much time on ya hands!

I purchased my Sport SE in November for £9,600.Bargain I thought? Although the car looks good and handles well around town, when it comes to that bit extra it really does not have it. I have also had a problem with the rear spoiler. I took the car to the car wash yesterday as I have every week and the spoiler was ripped right off! I advise anyone with a spoiler to use the jet wash and not the drive throu. Its going to cost me about £280 for a new one with fitting, so please beware!

I owned a panther black sport KA SE from new, pretty decant car with good looks/nice interior/good handling. The performance is weak for a 1.6 in a car that is so light, but someone above said a normal 1.3 KA can keep up. I don't think so mate, when I had a couple of races with 1.3KA's they where nowhere to be seen, if one is keeping up with your sport KA you have a broken engine:)

After following the above "conversation" I can honestly say I finally understand women when they say some men are pathetic when it comes to cars. There's a speed limit out there and if you plan on taking these cars to a racing track then this is not the site to discuss it. People want to know about how the car behaves in "real life" use, like going to work, travel, etc. Seriously, you give this site a bad name just for accepting that sort of comments.