Clarkson comes down hard on Ka. Headline news from the weekend papers

The weekend newspaper headlines were full of coverage of small cars, reflecting the state of the economy. Jeremy Clarkson in the Sunday Times got stuck into the Ford Ka.

“Unlike most motoring journalists, I do not attend ritzy, champagne-drenched, Michelin-starred, club-class car launches at exotic hotels in sun-kissed, faraway places.

“I’m not being holier than thou here. I’d love to eat a swan at Mazda’s expense and spend my life licking the goose fat from the hand that feeds me, but I simply don’t have the time.

“This means I never get the chance to meet the people who design the cars I drive or the people who are charged with selling them. In one important way, this is a good thing.

“When I review a car, I am unable to visualise the man who sweated into the night to make it possible. So I can be as rude as I like because I don’t have to worry about upsetting him.

“However, there is a downside. Because I don’t meet the engineers or sit through the two-hour-long technical press conferences, I am less well informed than my colleagues. And less well fed, for that matter.”

“I assumed it would be a funky, small and cheap alternative to the new Ford Fiesta, a car that does everything very well whether you’re on the road, at the shopping centre or taking part in a beach assault with the Royal Marines.

“Almost immediately, however, I began to dislike the Ka very much. First of all, the styling’s not quite right. The door – and I apologise to the faceless man who made it – doesn’t seem to sit very happily with the lines of the profile.

“And the wheelarches look as though they were going to be flared but someone dropped the original clay model from a fork-lift truck and they got squashed.

“Inside, there are problems too, including ridiculously hard seats that someone – whom I’ve never met – at Ford thinks are a good idea. Worst of all, though, is the driving position.

“The steering wheel, which adjusts for height but not reach, is too far away and, even on its highest setting, too low down. And the clutch pedal is far too close to the centre console.

“A small foot rest has been provided inside the aforementioned console but the only way you can actually get your foot in there properly is if you saw it off.

“Then I began the test drive and things got worse. Because the old Ka looked like a teapot, you didn’t expect it to be very fast.

“And it’s the same story with the Toyota iQ. That looks like an urban runaround, but the new Ka does not. It looks like a normal car; a Fiesta that’s shrunk slightly in the wash. Which is why I was expecting it to be able to get up a hill. Which in fifth it often could not. Sometimes I had a problem in fourth.”

“How on earth Ford could possibly have got it all so wrong?”

Ken Gibson in The Sun wrote on pricing and small cars

“What price are you willing to pay for an upmarket small car? Toyota are about to find out with their new IQ, the cleverest new small car since the two-seat Smart hit the scene in 1999. They think there are buyers ready to pay above the norm for a sophisticated city car.

“Which is why they’ve priced a dinky three-metre long car from £9,295 up to £11,255 – around £3,000 more than its rivals. And it is crammed with the kind of standard equipment you’d expect on a junior executive car – air con, electrically adjustable mirrors/windows and electric power steering, a six-speaker premium audio system, ABS brakes, etc.

“And ultra-low CO2 emissions mean you don’t pay road tax. Despite its dimensions, the IQ is a mini-Tardis inside. If you are sitting in the comfortable front seats, it’s like being in a normal family car. But Toyota are stretching things when they say the car is a four-seater.

“There are two seats in the back, but when I sat behind a 5ft 7in driver he had to pull the seat forward so I could squeeze in and I’m a ½in shorter. So unless you are one of Snow White’s dwarfs, the back seats are best for two baby seats or small children, and with four on board there is no space for luggage.

Erin Baker in the Daily Telegraph also wrote on small cars. “There are small cars you remember with affection: the Austin Metro (although I think that’s just me), the Fiat Panda, perhaps, or the Renault 5.

“It’s doubtful the Hyundai Getz will ride a wave of nostalgia, even though 500,000 have sold since its launch in 2002. Its replacement, the longer, lower, wider i20, however, is another matter: Hyundai expects to sell more i20s than Getzs and the small hatchback should be the Korean company’s best seller.

“It slips in the Hyundai hatchback range between the ugly, dull i10 and family-friendly, really-quite-good i30, and is undoubtedly the best looking of the bunch. The exterior is the right blend of sleek, sporty and cutesy, with a neat snout, deep front valence and sporty inset front fog lights.

“The chassis is as nimble as a featherweight boxer, ducking and diving on undulating, twisting roads but keeping the tyres planted on the ground. The ride isn’t unduly jiggly, unlike some of its short-wheelbase competitors; in fact the suspension set-up keeps things remarkably supple.

“Thankfully, unlike the wallowing Getz, the i20 suffers little from body roll. Hyundai clearly has every faith in its platform because it is planning to build an MPV on it, with a concept ready for the Geneva motor show in March of this year. The steering feels well weighted and sharp, and is fully electronic for the first time.

“Will the i20 claim a long-lasting place in our affections? Possibly, and everyone except me already loves its baby sister, the i10. But it’ll never beat an Austin Metro, obviously.”

Andrew Anthony in The Guardian explains perhaps why we all need smaller cars.

“I remember once asking a rather haughty woman who had parked her giant 4×4 across two parking spaces, thus denying me the use of one of them, why she needed such an enormous car. She looked at me with an expression of amazement, as if the answer was blindingly obvious, then replied with due indignation: “I’ve got a baby!” “What?” I asked. “That big?”

“I won’t detail what she said in response, but this was a good few years back. Even then, driving a 4×4 was a provocative statement, at least in cramped city environments, where most of them were driven. These days, however, it seems more like an act of nostalgic denial.

“Not because of the effect on the global climate – if the icecaps are melting, why is it so cold in my loft? – but as a result of the economic climate. The sheer size and presence of a 4×4 suggests expansive optimism, an open road of opportunity – and screw anyone who gets in your way.

“That may make a certain kind of selfish sense when there’s a lot of money around, but it looks monstrously out of place in the midst of a recession. Then it begins to look like some hopeless, oversized beast left over from a previous geological age.

“And yet, as I look out of the window, there are seven cars in my street, and three of them are 4x4s. There’s also one hatchback, a saloon, a people carrier and a Nissan Qashqai +2, which looks like a 4×4 but isn’t.

“The Qashqai +2 is certainly not an off-road vehicle. There are no roof bars or any of that nonsense. But it does have bigger wheels, elevated seating, and conforms to the general shape of a 4×4, the shape that suggests you’re crossing the African savannah by way of the local farmers’ market.

“In fact, the Qashqai +2 is smaller than most 4x4s and, being diesel, reasonably fuel-efficient, too (though its CO2 emissions are not impressive), and therefore in theory it’s a lot less offensive to, well, Guardian readers.

“But sitting high up in some pinched urban setting, it doesn’t seem like that. It still makes you feel as if drivers in more sensibly proportioned cars are giving you looks that suggest everything that is going wrong in their life – not just the fact that they are stuck in traffic – is your fault.

“And it’s not as if you can wind down the window and shout, “It’s OK – it’s a Qashqai +2” because how would you pronounce it? I have enough trouble spelling the word. In my head, I hear “Cash Cow” spoken in a Northern Irish accent. And try telling some irate vegan in an electric bubble car not to worry because you’re driving a Cash Cow Plus Two, and see how well that goes down.”

John Griffiths in the FT Weekend got behind the wheel of the new Cayman S in Spain.

“Eight miles later, the road had proved beyond doubt that Porsche has done, at long last, what it said it would never do and even now will not admit to. It has created a two-seater sports coupe, the latest version of the Cayman S, which eliminates almost every reason for spending nearly £20,000 more on the time-hallowed 911.

“Yes, there are two-seaters out there which can out-brake and out-handle the Cayman, such as Lotus’s supercharged Exige S. But almost without exception they are stripped-out, more fragile, trackday-oriented ultra-lightweight machines. The Cayman is a car for all roads, not least Andalucia’s, and all seasons.”

John Simister in The Independent wrote about Honda’s new Insight. “Technology always gets cheaper with time, but how has it happened here? Mainly by making the hybrid parts simpler, lighter and smaller. More costs were saved by basing the suspension, steering and part of the structure on those of the new Jazz supermini, although the Insight is a bigger car.

“It’s also one compromised by the need to appeal to diverse world markets. The Americans would have preferred a saloon with a separate boot, but to emphasise the futurism and suit most European buyers’ needs, Honda opted for a five-door hatchback body. Thanks to that high tail, the battery and control unit can be placed under the boot floor and still leave room for a decent boot and fold-down seats.

“Sit inside the Insight and it’s clear where more cost was cut. Nearly every non-upholstered surface is formed from hard, unyielding plastic. Americans accept this but Europeans will flinch.

“If you’re driving economically, the background to the digital speedometer in the upper display is green. Be profligate with the fuel or brake too hard and the background turns through turquoise to blue.”

Source: Headline Aut