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Anyone got any experience of a Ford KA 1.3 ?
My daughter is looking to buy a 2002 model as her first car, other than the obvious age related stuff what should I look out for ?
i.e rust - mechanicals etc that they are prone to ??
Noisy valve gear and spark plugs seizing in the head
Have seen a few with rusty wheel arches
How about a Toyota Yaris or a Nissan Micra ?
good reliable car but unless its been waxoyled from new it will have a few holes on the chassis and sills and the inner wings under the big plastic covers
They seem to be prone to bubbling under the paint around the fuel filler cap area - mud / moisture trap perhaps ?
Agree, the yaris is a great car. My wife has an 04 plate and it is super reliable. The only problem has been bubbling on the alloys, which make the tires flat, so i bought some nice new aftermarket wheels.
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Originally posted by perksy
Noisy valve gear and spark plugs seizing in the head
Have seen a few with rusty wheel arches
How about a Toyota Yaris or a Nissan Micra ?
Ive just gone through this exercise, trying to find a first car for my 17 year old Daughter, I found the KA's a bit expensive on insurance,
compared to others, I ended up with a mint condition year 2000 1.0E VW Lupo for £900, very cheap on insurance, she's only paying £680 fully comp,
its doing over 50mpg around town, well built safe car
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quote:
Originally posted by HomersDouble
They seem to be prone to bubbling under the paint around the fuel filler cap area - mud / moisture trap perhaps ?
rust like no tomorrow, cheap though
i would look at a 1.0 yaris we have had one for 7 years, changed nothing apart from tyres 55mpg too and faster than a ka
quote:
Originally posted by wombat
Anyone got any experience of a Ford KA 1.3 ?
My daughter is looking to buy a 2002 model as her first car, other than the obvious age related stuff what should I look out for ?
i.e rust - mechanicals etc that they are prone to ??
Just got rid of my daughters Ka - paid £1000 for it 2 years ago it failed MOT this time on rust but as a first car it was good. Easy to drive and work
on. Just pick a good one to start with and don't expect it to last forever.
Lupo looks like a good (probably better) choice if you can find a reasonably priced one..
Mrs S had one new and kept it for 7 years, it was absolutely fantastic.
It had a new clutch at 40k (her driving - that was 6 years use (read -abuse), the PAS pump leaked from almost new and ford couldn't sort it
despite a new pump (warranty) in the end I just let it weep and topped it up from time to time, and it had coil springs all round as they snapped.
Other than that I fed and watered it and it just kept going.
The clutch cost £40 and the springs about £15 each. so total cost for 7 years motoring was incredibly low, especially as we bought it on a voucher for
£6250 and sold it for £1500, it even had aircon, that was still icy cold when we sold it.
They do rust, sills, pillers, window surround, fuel cap and bootlid around the wiper grommet which spins and rubs the paint off (common ford fault)
On the whole I'd recommend one!
[Edited on 13/7/12 by Stott]
I run a bodyshop jointly owned by Ford and Toyota main dealers.
There are good Ford Ka's at the 2002 age.
But I have never seen one!
My advice would be to check the insurance on a few different cars first. The big problem for kids now is insurance.
I was amazed how some cars you would expect to be about the same, came out almost double the cost, for no good reason,that I could see, even down to a
lupo 2001 model being £360 more than a 2000 model.
I found diamond insurance cheapest for my daughter
Mrs is currently on her second, a 2007 model which we have had from about 6 months old. Prior to that she had a 1997 model.
As noted previously, main problem is rust. Sills, fuel filler etc.
Other probs. are wiper motors and linkages, heater fan resistor, front lower suspension arms.
Basically the KA is a simple, cheap, no frills motor, built down to a price.
My vote is a bit of a wild card - we have just passed our Daihatsu Sirion (2002) on to our son after running it for over 5 faultless years and 40,000
miles - it was the 1.3 SL which she may find a bit pricey to insure, however, there are a few of the 1.0 litre ones about.
The bottom line is, the engines are toyota Yaris ones, so are pretty bombproof.
Great little car - very easy car to drive, incredible turning circle.
Plenty of Ka's end up scrapped due to extensive rust. Ford took everything they knew about rustproofing from the Mk3 Escort and applied to the Ka.
And, not only do they rust, they have the most STUPID name. 
Get something with a really good name - like a SIRION!
Get a 205, they don't rust and are probably about as safe in an accident, and they will always be cool and are fairly cheap to insure. I had a 1.6 on carbs as my first car and it was one of the cheapest cars to insure I could find for my budget.
Thanks Paul, rescued us from a house of strop this morning as daughter got quotes in excess of £1800 quid! Diamond Insurance much more competitive @
£870 with me and wife on policy as named drivers. Now trying to convince her on the lupo,yaris etc route (failing....).
Oh and I got it wrong it's a 2001 model.
What about a mk5 Fiesta? The 1.25 zetec is a far better engine than the 1.3 it'll do 38mpg regardless of how hard you thrash it, they don't
rust nearly as badly as Ka's and they handle reasonably well.
Cheers
Davie