The FordKa is all about fun and thanks to its one-of-a-kind designing cues it is a shape that says fun. It is minimalistic and functional. Manufactured in Valencia, Spain, it’s quirky and full of personality. In short, the FordKa is a real head turner. It stands out from the crowd for all the right reasons.
The FordKa has won various awards in testimony to its new edge styling. Among them three major international awards for design: the American Industrial Design Excellence Award, the European Award for Auto Design and the “Golden Marker” award from the Japanese magazine Car Styling.
It’s safe to say that the Ka’s striking avant garde design and individual looks have contributed greatly to its continual appeal. Now as it enters the South African market, it will bring a new flavour and extra pizzazz to the local Sub-B segment.
Distinctive and different, FordKa introduces a sophisticated new look into the small car market. The FordKa’s exterior is graphic, almost flamboyant, with sheer, simple surfaces that flow together to create sweeping feature-lines and edge highlights where the curved planes intersect.
The inspiration for the visually playful FordKa came from a bottle of Evian water. The jagged mountains etched along the side of the bottle reminded the Ford design team of an edgy design they had seen before. Ford Motor Company’s German design studio had just proposed a concept for a new European small car but it was the Evian bottle that eventually got the ball rolling.
Originally introduced as a concept design it wasn’t long before FordKa made it to the production line. With its adventurous styling and simplified compact appeal it was logical to move the FordKa into production as the number of small car buyers were on the continual rise at the time.
The new design direction heralded the concept of “New Edge” design for Ford Motor Company. The new Ford theme sought to inspire customers by giving them cars that would be both stylish dependable and fun to drive.
FordKa is the epitome of this philosophy with its crisp lines, wide stance and edgy lines it has a definite individuality. With all four wheels pushed to the outer corners of the vehicle its dynamic handling characteristics shine through.
It is certainly safe to say that the FordKa cuts the mustard in the urban style stakes. It comes in a variety of fresh and youthful colour pallets. There are three solid colours on offer namely; Deep Navy, Bright Yellow and Diamond White. The metallic range also includes a variety of fashionable colours such as Panther Black, Moondust Silver, Tango, Viola, Tonic, Apple and Jeans Blue.
The bumpers are colour coded with the mirrors and door handles both in black. In addition you will find the instrumentation panel features sports-style silver dials with black graphics, tinted windows and alloy wheels all of which reiterate the vehicle’s sporty and trendy intentions.
The FordKa’s interior is as distinctive as its memorable exterior shape. The interior is designed around the customer. It is modern and distinctive, with an emphasis on practicality, functionality and comfort. The passengers benefit from an improved sense of spaciousness, enhanced by an uncluttered interior.
The unique, curving shape of the instrument binnacle puts the driver in command, with easy-to-read instruments linked to an integrated silver centre console that is inclined slightly towards the driver. This brings the controls of the uniquely styled audio bezel and heater into hand’s reach while the eye-catching oval-shaped analogue clock is centrally-mounted on the upper fascia.
The dashboard and soft touch steering wheel make for a pleasurable interior environment. Door panels feature colour co-coordinated cloth trim integrated with the sheet metal of the door frame, which has a painted finish in the exterior body colour. The interior cloth trim pattern for the seats and door panels is called Indigo Cascade.
The FordKa’s unique style, urban practicality and fun-loving nature have inspired many artists across Europe. British artist Rob Scott combined genres of installation art and car design in the Ka Aquarium exhibition shown at fashionable bars, nightspots and shops throughout the country. German artist HA Schult created 50, hand-painted exclusive editions of the Globe Ka, based on the famous World Globe in Cologne.
One of the most extraordinary collaborations came when Spanish artists Pedro Moriliio and Ricardo Ruiz were so taken with the dynamic Ford Ka they were inspired to construct a sculpture made with 2 000 FordKa parts. Exhibited in the Leulle de Espane, a pedestrian zone in Barcelona, the sculpture is 270 meters in length.