The High Mileage Ka

C

harlie and I have decided that our emigration to America is now a case of “when” rather than “if.” To this end, we have been considering Kermit’s future. It was originally our intention to keep the lad right until we emigrate, and intrinsically, this hasn’t changed. I also suspect that with the right care and attention, he should be up to the task, too - even with Kermy set to do between 20,000 and 30,000 miles a year following my three hundred mile a week commute.

Some people believe the Endura-E’s longevity may be called into question as the miles creep up over the 100,000 mark, although to be fair I don’t anticipate this to be a problem. If we are in the United Kingdom until 2010, on New Years Day 2010 he will have between 150,00 and 200,000 miles on the odometer.

I’m curious as to what sort of condition the lad will be in at this point. With the right treatment (regular servicing, frequent oil changes, mechanical sympathy), the engine should last a long time. There’s no reason why the donk shouldn’t last for over 250,000 miles. But if we had to rebuild or recondition the engine this could, conceivably, involve some modifications to improve performance (although these would have to be carefully considered given our need for respectable fuel consumption). Examples could involve a gas flowed head and reprofiled camshaft.

Other possibilities I’ve explored include having him converted to run on LPG, or replacing the current donk with the 1·4 litre TDCi unit.

Kermit’s bodywork is another matter. In addition to the usual hazard of stone chips, we may also have the possibility of rust coming up in other spots. We’ll have to be careful to touch up stonechips as and when they occur.

As far as other mechanical systems go, I can expect his brakes to last approximately every couple of years or so. This is, naturally, dependent on how hard we are on those anchors at the bottom of the hills we descend.

The clutch should last for at least eighty thousand miles.

Otherwise, I don’t expect anything untoward to happen to him

Future Value

After an estimated 175,000 miles, I don’t really expect Kermit to be worth much. He’ll be worth a little bit less than he would be with, say, 75,000 miles. But by the time he’s seven years old, his value will be small.

Other Options

Given the relatively high cost of petrol and Kermit’s relative fuel inefficiency, there may be alternatives to keeping Kermit as he is.

One option is to replace his existing Endura-E with a diesel engine, either the 1·4 litre Ford (Peugeot) TDCi (HDI) unit, which is discussed here, or the older generation 1·5 litre Peugeot XUD, discussed here. The exact costs of this conversion are currently unknown but would likely be between £2,000 and £3,000.

Other alternative engines or solutions could be to have him converted to LPG, although this would result in significantly reduced boot space or no spare wheel. The cost of this conversion would be approximate intrinsically£1,200 or so and the issue is discussed in greater detail here.

Other possible solutions would be to use the 1·8 litre diesel engine from the mark three and mark four Fiesta. The disadvantage of this approach is that the 1·8 litre engine is heavy so this would likely result in a nose-heavy Ka to the tune of around one hundred kilograms. There is also the problem of engine bay space, since the Ka’s underbonnet volume isn’t especially large anyway.

Arguably the VAG 1·4 three cylinder turbodiesel engine is a useful powerplant; but there may be significant technical difficulties associated with fitting the engine. Not to mention ethical difficulties.