In the Rear View | The Badge-Engineered Death of the Ford KA Mk2

Badge engineering.

Corporate chicanery at its finest, badge engineering is the equivalent of copying your mate’s homework, and then changing only the handwriting and the name scrawled guiltily across the top of the sheet.

Sometimes the results are even-Stevens, and badge-engineered cars sneak by without creating waves, often with mixed results in the showroom; think ubiquity of the Toyota Aygo versus the far rarer Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1. Some badge-engineering exercises are often quite respectfully earnest in their attempts at genuine differentiation with cars like the Audi R8 and Lamborghini Huracan, but for every Audi R8 there is a Qvale Mangusta/MG SV debacle, where seemingly only the badges and bumpers are crudely swapped.

On a side note, ten year-old Kerbsider thought the MG looked cool (and still does, truthfully), and will defend the SV to the death.

However, in some badge-engineering efforts, one of the test-tube babies steals the limelight, gets all the endorsements and now lives in a mansion; the other struggles by in anonymity. The metaphorical price and the pauper, you see.

One such relationship was that of the chic Fiat 500, and the forgettable Ford KA Mk2.

The KA was an especially sore loss, as the Mk.1 was a bit of a guilty pleasure for many. Developed during Ford Europe’s halcyon days of the late 1990s to early 2000s, the KA was smart and engaging to drive, with the later SportKA especially so (did anyone say future classic?), which makes the Mk2’s copout so much worse.

Things could have been solved with a KA Mk2 ST, but all the sporty and stylish genes went to the Fiat. So emerged the Abarth 500, the perennial tearaway hot hatch of the next ten years.

Truthfully, the KA got the duff end of the deal. But the Abarth has the undeniable equalizer, in the form of rose-tinted spectacles the size of the sun – historical precedence. And in badge-engineering exercises, cache is everything.

In the end, I feel sorry for the KA – its ugly and stodgy and it looks really top heavy, which is such a shame. If only Ford had backed themselves and perhaps the world of fast Fords would have been a happier place.