For me, the Ford Ka is very similar to the first-generation smart city car in that I understand their wide appeal but would not personally like to own either of them. Call me picky, but in each case the whole ethos of the thing somehow isn't "me". Buy them in droves by all means, form owners' clubs if you must - just leave me out of the whole scene, thank you.But times are changing. I'm looking forward to driving the forthcoming smart roadsters and the long-wheelbase forfour. And I know, having just spent a week in one, that I could definitely live with a Ford Streetka.Fingers may be pointed here, since the Streetka is considered, not least by Ford itself, as a car for the ladies, of which I am not one. Well, phooey to that. Whether its hood is up or down (the transition between the two states being a simple process) I think the Streetka looks about a million times better than the dumpy hatchback on which it is based. It's also fantastic to drive, though the Ka is a pretty good handler too, so let's say that in this respect the Streetka is merely half a million times better.In fact, it probably handles even more splendidly than I think it does. I was never fully comfortable because the interior seems to have been designed for people who are a lot shorter than I am. I always felt I was in a slightly awkward position for turning the wheel, and I had to duck down slightly to see under the top of the windscreen. On the same subject, I don't care how sturdy the two roll hoops are - in the event of an inversion they might stop my shoulders scraping along the tarmac, but they wouldn't prevent my hairdo from being all mussed up.Anyway, despite all that I thought the Streetka was wonderful to drive. Perfectly happy to burble through city streets, it's also a fine machine for zipping along country roads. The balance of grip is absolutely perfect, Ford having arranged for the front end to be tremendously responsive without making the back end uncomfortably stiff.With a fairly modest 93bhp available you're unlikely to be pressed into the back of your seat during storming acceleration, and the 1.6-litre engine isn't too happy about being revved to the red line. What you do is get into the mid-range and allow the close-ratio gearbox to keep you there. Forget about outright power and concentrate on flexibility.I know some other motoring writers who are rather sniffy about the Streetka, but I think it's an excellent little package, far better than I would have supposed as the founding member of the Ka Unappreciation Society. And I can't help wondering what would have happened if Ford had done the same job ten years ago, which they almost certainly could have done. The platform is, after all, the same as that of the Mk3 Fiesta, which came out in 1989.Not all the components would have been identical (the engine wasn't around then, for example), but a similarly powered machine could certainly have developed. Imagine if it had been - wouldn't a car like this have turned the motor industry upside down in the early 1990s? It may just have been one of Ford's greatest lost opportunities.Second opinion: After two miles of town driving, I was thinking dismissively: "This is just a toy." Twenty minutes later, having diverted off to explore some old country-lane rally roads, the years seemed to have rolled back somewhat, and I was thinking: "But it's pretty good fun." You can't help feeling that some fundamental error occurred between the planning stages for the Streetka (done at Ghia, now a slimmed-down-almost-to-invisible division of Ford) and its appearance in the showrooms. It's almost as if the prime requirement was for a girlie car, nobody in the development team paid a blind bit of attention, and the marketing people completely lost the original plot. The Streetka looks fine from the front, snazzy from the rear (ah, that central reversing light!) and like a camel designed by a committee from either side. But it's a real surprise packet out on the road, and shows that there's definitely a place for a modestly powered roadster which looks the business and has agility built in. The Luxury model at £13,645 adds heated leather seats, air-conditioning, a height-adjustable passenger seat and so on, and is well worth thinking about. Ross Finlay.
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