Automotive Riddle: Stop me if you heard this one

"Gertman2000" (gertman2001) 06/08/2020 at 01:15 • Filed to: riddle, ford, ford of europe

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So I came up with this riddle a few years ago and don’t think I have found anyone that could solve it without any clues. Now, I bet someone on here is going to be able to do it:

QUESTION: What should the vanity plate read for this car:

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Gertman2000 06/08/2020 at 01:18

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What kind of Ka are we talking about?

Svend > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 06/08/2020 at 01:22

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That is a Ford StreetKA (the last being one word). 

Svend > Gertman2000 06/08/2020 at 01:27

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STREKA aka StreetKA aka Streak’a (streaker), or

FRKA aka Ford KA aka FurrKA (f**k’a), of

STREET. 

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Svend 06/08/2020 at 01:30

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Looks more like an alleyKa or a parkinglotKa to me. 

fhrblig > Gertman2000 06/08/2020 at 01:30

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Desire?

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 06/08/2020 at 01:31

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Given  this information I’ll say MUH KA

ClassicDatsunDebate > Gertman2000 06/08/2020 at 01:32

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Desire

pip bip - choose Corrour > Gertman2000 06/08/2020 at 01:36

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Trolley

Svend > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 06/08/2020 at 03:27

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It also came in Limited Edition Thunderbird pink after Ford did a tie up with the Thunderbird.

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > Gertman2000 06/08/2020 at 08:40

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Two options:

CONKA

RUSTKA

The actual option of DESIRE is designed to make most people hurl...

Gertman2000 > fhrblig 06/08/2020 at 08:48

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DING DING DING You got it!!!!! VERY Good!!!!!!!!!

I really don’t know why there is so much hate for this little car? I’ve never driven one but I think they look cool enough, weren’t ’ they super cheap?

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Svend 06/08/2020 at 11:25

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That’s terrible.

Svend > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 06/08/2020 at 11:40

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I like it.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Svend 06/08/2020 at 11:42

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Do you like it enough to buy one?

Svend > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 06/08/2020 at 12:13

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No, because of the cars of that time, I’d go for the Renault Wind.

Vauxhall Tigra

Micra C+C

Mitsubishi Colt CZC2

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Svend 06/08/2020 at 12:38

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The closest thing to something like that we got here was the VW Eos, and that was larger. I suppose if you go back the Dodge Shadow and the like were similar ideas, but it was a soft top.

Was there some sort of hard top cabrio craze? The Renault Wind is the only one that does anything for me. I found it interesting how the top flips backwards for storage. Of course, even in larger convertibles the hard top eats up most luggage space. Is there any space left at all in those with the top down? I remember not being able to have the top down in my friend’s Eos because the luggage wouldn’t fit with the hard top stowed. 

Svend > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 06/08/2020 at 12:47

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Not a hell of a lot, by it’s general nature.

A neighbour has an Eos and loves it. The boot is okay for size but with the roof down it heavily reduces the luggage capacity and access.

There was a period, sort of early 1990 until about 2010, where there was a large option of vehicles and body-styles .

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Svend 06/08/2020 at 13:06

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Why were convertibles so popular in rainy old England? I can see the appeal of hard tops at least. That period saw lots of unique body styles (as I’ve written about here before) but mostly they were ignored here. One of the best examples is the previous generation Hyundai Elantra, which had a coupe version. I’ve seen one (1) ever, while the four door is literally on every single corner of every single street in the nation. Convertibles were dying off after the recession, with the non muscle cars really taking the hit. Not that I really miss the Sebring and its ilk.

I like the Eos too, but I’d rather have a Golf. 

Svend > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 06/08/2020 at 13:42

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Back in 2003 Britons bought the second largest number of convertibles (60,000) (after Germany, 120,000), twice as many as Italy and ten times more than Spain.

That position has been looked at almost every year and almost every year, Britain has been the second largest buyer of convertibles.

Ironically it’s the British weather that sells them as many near the Mediterranean say it’s too hot and sunny to drive a convertible.

My neighbour doesn’t work due to disability and bought an Eos over the Golf, because the Eos was less practical. Yes he likes driving it, etc... but he wanted something less practical so many people wouldn’t phone up asking him to do favours all the time as he doesn’t work. Lol.   

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Svend 06/08/2020 at 13:49

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That logic works quite well. Here, you simply don’t drive a pickup truck or a full sized SUV and you’re good. Really, people should be asking to borrow minivans but that doesn’t happen for some reason.

I can understand the convertible thing too, I guess. Putting the top down on a cloudless day is not fun, but night driving in the open air is glorious. 

I recently told some of my friends that I thought my car was bigger than I really needed and I want something smaller and sporty. By global standards, the Cruze is not a particularly tiny car, but they couldn’t wrap their heads around the idea.

Svend > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 06/08/2020 at 14:16

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The Chevy Cruze, is the same size as a Vauxhall Astra, in fact in Australia, because Vauxhall/Opel don’t make a 4 door saloon car, the Cruze is sold as the Holden Astra saloon, alongside the five door and estate Vauxhall/Opel rebadged Holden Astras.

The Astra (because we no longer sell Chevy in Europe, it pitted against the likes of the Ford Focus.

We tend to buy more practical cars over here, cars can be expensive to own, maintain, park, drive, if we one a van, we'll ask a mate or hire one for a few hour

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Svend 06/08/2020 at 14:20

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Yes, that is definitely a factor. I just can’t believe how expensive cars are to own over there. Here, the insurance is the only major expense besides the already cheap gas. It makes owning less practical fuel sucking vehicles more reasonable. Classic car insurance with a mileage per year cap is supposedly surprisingly affordable too . Hence, daily driving a Ford (F150) Raptor to slog through rush hour traffic is not an uncommon occurrence . 

Svend > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 06/08/2020 at 16:23

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It’s not overly expensive if you buy right and what’s right for you. An Aston Martin is more expensive to buy than a Skoda because, well, it is. The road tax is higher for the Aston because it has higher emissions, more expensive to maintain because that’s just how much the parts cost, the Aston is much more expensive to in sure than a Skoda, etc...

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Svend 06/08/2020 at 16:42

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Huh. Relative to the value of the car though, it seems fairly expensive to keep registered across the board. 

Svend > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 06/08/2020 at 20:03

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Yes, but strangely we buy new cars nearly the most often in Europe.

Though the prices are higher to what you get in the U.S.. The U.S. allows some serious underhand goings on in buying a car, such as price gouging. Here that’s illegal. Hell when I went to get the second Skoda Superb (Piglet), I cheekily asked what discount we’d get. The saleswoman said, ‘were taking £5,000 off the list price for the car, with Skoda customer loyalty and early trade-in’. I just said thanks and looked back at the paperwork. Lol.

So not only got a Czechia built (better looking more practical) version of a VW Passat, we got it for mid-range VW Golf money. 

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Svend 06/08/2020 at 22:17

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The dealer system in the US is more messed up than many of its other dysfunctional systems. Employees are miserable, customers are miserable, and car manufacturers are miserable.

People here often would rather have a used luxury car than a new low end car. Add aggressive and unsustainable consumer loans and you get a ton of long loans on expensive cars no one can afford and a lot of discounted off lease luxury cars to be snapped up by the aspiring buyer until they can buy new with a massive loan. In total you get a lucrative repo business and very well equiped cars on the used market, which is at least a win for the wary.

I find it interesting that because if the associated road tax and the like, England's used car market often has very low prices because there must be room to pay the government and insurance companies. Yet people still buy lots of new cars.

Svend > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 06/08/2020 at 22:47

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Here price gouging isn’t allowed and strangely while car manufacturers let it happen in the U.S., over here if it comes about a franchised dealership is doing something wrong, the manufacturer will jump in and say, ‘correct it or we’ll take your franchise status away’, which is serious as there is a limit on how many franchised dealers of any marque can be had in any one area, lose it, someone else could take it up and you’d never get it back. 

People want and buy new cars for various reasons, for some it’s ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’, the latest tech, latest safety, etc...

Used car prices are low because in like Europe and it’s LHD cars which can sold from Italy to Spain, Sweden to Romania, etc... British RHD cars usually only get sold to other RHD countries such as Ireland, Malta or Cyprus. Plus many don’t like older cars because of maintenance costs (or perceived costs, as they think it’ll cost more to keep an older car on the road ).

Many cars come under £150 for a year road tax (though we call it road tax, it’s not, it’s Vehicle Excise Duty, but as we all see it as a tax to pay to be able to drive on the road, we call it road tax colloquially).