It's taken a good six years, but Ford has brought its shopping trolley into the 21st century with a new engine, a new name and a chic new look. The SportKa should have reasonable punch thanks to the 1.6-litre sohc mill, promising 94bhp and a decent slug of torque. Top whack is an adequate-for-the-UK 108mph, while the 0-62mph dash is dispatched in 9.7sec. So, no fireball. But bare figures miss the point of light, punchy cars like this one.

There are only two models: the ΂£9995 SportKa and the ΂£10,995 SportKa SE. Ours is the SE, which gets air-con, two-tone leather seats and electrically heated and adjustable mirrors. Ford also ticked a few extra boxes on our behalf. The smart metallic blue paint added ΂£300 and an upgraded stereo with a built-in six-CD changer added another ΂£200. More sensibly the 'Reflex Pack' provides side-impact bags and a 'deactivatable' passenger airbag for just ΂£300. That adds up to ΂£11,795 - a lot for a little car.

I was quite sure that I wouldn't fit into the SportKa and that my first run down the M1 into central London would be very uncomfortable. With a few adjustments to seats, it wasn't. The chairs are too small for me (they need longer squabs and much taller backs) but I still step out feeling fine. The basic layout is good, with well-spaced pedals, a nice fat steering wheel and sensibly placed controls.

Even though there were fewer than 1000 miles on the clock, the SportKa punched its way down the motorway with vim. It's pretty loud in the cabin at an indicated 85mph (it's quite low-geared) but for some reason you just turn up the radio and happily ignore the racket. Next day we took off for the south coast (65 miles away) and the SportKa began to reveal itself on the superb West Sussex roads. Fun at 50mph? It looks entirely possible...