Went up to the Lake District yesterday to leave my son with my parent's for a week, and they were filling me in on their new (ie. mk2) Ka. On the whole they like it, but there are a couple of niggles:
1. Difficulty with the petrol filler cap. They find it quite difficult to get it on and/or off (sorry can't remember exactly what they said), and when they mentioned it to the chap at the local Ford dealer, he had a go and failed. Dad points out that not being able to get petrol into it does wonders for the running costs though :-)
2. No external lock on the passenger door. My parents opted not to have central locking (no I don't know why either), but there's no key hole in the passenger door, so mum has to wait for dad to open his door and open her door from the inside (I guess on the previous Micra they had 2 keys). Bit of a nuisance if it's raining, which is not that unusual in the Lakes. I told them that it's because the car designers would have assumed every car would be sold with central locking and it's their fault for being Luddites, but mum said that the Ford chap had told her that quite a few customers have mentioned this. And is there a safety issue?
Just wondering if anyone else has come across these.
Cheers
F
Edited by Focus {P} on 09/08/2009 at 11:31
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2. No external lock on the passenger door. My parents opted not to have central locking (no I don't know why either) but there's no key hole in the passenger door
Hmm I would have a word with the dealer, it should be possible to get a LHD lock fitted, Im not sure what parts would be needed or costs, or have central locking retro fitted?
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Have a 54 reg focus and although it has central locking there iis only one key that operates it and my wife keeps that one so I too have to wait until the passenger door is open before locking up as there is no lock on the passenger side All very inconvenient
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Even the cheapest, most basic Panda that leaves the Tychy factory in Poland has key operated central locking, so why are Ford being so penny-pinching with the Ka from the same factory?
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Because they can charge more a la carte?
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Bit of a nuisance if it's raining which is not that unusual in the Lakes.
I guess an umbrella would be the cheapest solution...
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I''ll have a look at a '05 plate basic KA when it returns, but from memory, it's owner took a little while to get used to the filler locking mechanism.
The whole of the cap top spins when it is locked, you need to hold it to stop it spinning while you "unlock" it with the key, then you can unscrew the cap from the filler tube.
Will report back regarding door locking...
Edited by Another John H on 09/08/2009 at 18:27
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The whole of the cap top spins when it is locked you need to hold it to stop it spinning while you "unlock" it with the key then you can unscrew the cap from the filler tube.
Thanks. My parent;s said something like that - I think they know what's you're supposed to do, but still find it quite tricky.
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>>2. No external lock on the passenger door.
The base '05 KA has external locking on the passenger door.
However, re-reading the original post, if your KA is the new Panda based one (nicely built in Poland), the base Panda doesn't have this lock, but as DrChris comments even the basic Panda has central locking.
But it doesn't have a locking filler cap...
Edited by Another John H on 09/08/2009 at 20:03
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We'd be interested in hearing from anyone with a similar issue to this or any other consumer issues.
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Contact us on dom@flametv.co.uk or call 0207 598 7210
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![2016 Ford Ka 1.2 Zetec 3dr [Start Stop]](http://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/url/crop/90x60/https/assets.heycar.co.uk/t_default-export/f_auto/application_assets/vehicles/pictures/eacabf22afea46165bcafa98355e7d46/c030f12f1661eae283253d93863563bf.jpg)
![2016 Ford Ka 1.2 Zetec 3dr [Start Stop]](http://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/url/crop/90x60/https/assets.heycar.co.uk/t_default-export/f_auto/application_assets/vehicles/pictures/66f2cae052ad99dc5658f88b1f8476ea/4c29c644eb564b79e00fe7c2486bb0a0.jpg)
