No offense taken! Yes, the new Ford Ka is built in the same factory as the new Fiat 500 actually. You know, this might sound kind of perverse but one of the reasons I like my new shape Ford Ka is that I get so much disrespect on the road. Yes, it's slow and had poor brakes but it's not as slow as it looks and I have fun with it...especially on B roads. For some reason, a lot of 'drivers' get mad if a Ford Ka overtakes them! It got me thinking that I could have a heap more fun with it if it had some serious go-forward! Oh yeh, I've owned a Ford Cossie and other performance cars in the past but I just don't like being seen in 'sporty' looking cars these days - people see you coming and it attracts the wrong kind of attention.

I know the new Ka is probably not the way forward though - not least because nobody seems to have used it for engine transplants yet. I'm open minded, if I could make a sporty model (eg. Focus RS) look like a base model, I might do that. However, the basic design of the Focus is still essentially sporty looking even on a base model. It's just not frumpy enough.

By the way, I was considering buying a Honda Jazz that was up for sale with a supercharged K20 Honda engine. Looked fairly standard from the outside and quite understated. I missed out on that one. I'm still considering that option. The Jazz has those flip down rear seats so very practical too. I see lots of retired fold driving Jazz's so it really does fit the image I'm trying to build.

Zarty