Found this site last week - really interesting and useful. Good for info.

I purchased my new Mk 2 Ka Studio February 09. Had the recall for the brakes and, yes within 2 weeks, had the windscreen wipers mangle on me too in pouring rain coming downhill to a busy junction - interesting! Drove straight to the showroom where they took the wipers from the showroom model until they could replace them over at the garage. I was told that this had been an issue with the previous model as well. Also lost one wheel trim on the drive home from initially picking the car up as it had not been snapped in properly prior to delivery which took 3 weeks to replace.

Apart from that all ok until I found mid December that the key wasn't turning very well in the steering lock when trying to start so took it to the Ford garage who weren't very keen to have it in but suggested seeing how I got on with it. Over Christmas it became a lottery as to whether or not it would start and even by jiggling the steering wheel could take up to 20 minutes to release. Last week back it went and they have agreed that it is a problem and are now ordering a complete new lock, keys etc from Italy, delivery time 4 to 6 weeks. To be fair, up to now, the garage have been helpful and they have put lube in the lock so it is possible to turn the key and use the car but its definetly not right. It's still just within the first year of warranty so luckily no cost to me. I am interested to see if anyone else has encountered this problem and if not to give the heads up to anyone who may in the future encounter the same.

Found this site last week - really interesting and useful. Good for info.

I purchased my new Mk 2 Ka Studio February 09. Had the recall for the brakes and, yes within 2 weeks, had the windscreen wipers mangle on me too in pouring rain coming downhill to a busy junction - interesting! Drove straight to the showroom where they took the wipers from the showroom model until they could replace them over at the garage. I was told that this had been an issue with the previous model as well. Also lost one wheel trim on the drive home from initially picking the car up as it had not been snapped in properly prior to delivery which took 3 weeks to replace.

Apart from that all ok until I found mid December that the key wasn't turning very well in the steering lock when trying to start so took it to the Ford garage who weren't very keen to have it in but suggested seeing how I got on with it. Over Christmas it became a lottery as to whether or not it would start and even by jiggling the steering wheel could take up to 20 minutes to release. Last week back it went and they have agreed that it is a problem and are now ordering a complete new lock, keys etc from Italy, delivery time 4 to 6 weeks. To be fair, up to now, the garage have been helpful and they have put lube in the lock so it is possible to turn the key and use the car but its definetly not right. It's still just within the first year of warranty so luckily no cost to me. I am interested to see if anyone else has encountered this problem and if not to give the heads up to anyone who may in the future encounter the same.

Yeah, i've noticed a couple of times that mines been hard to start (turning the key has been impossible), not to the extent of the post above though, just turning the steering wheel a bit did the job. I actually thought it was a security thing though so that's why I've never bothered to contact ford about it. Will see if it happens again though, but as I said it's only happened on a couple of occasions so not been worried. Havent had a prob with the wipers either. Only the leaking that causes me stress with my gorge little car! grrrr!

Yeah, i've noticed a couple of times that mines been hard to start (turning the key has been impossible), not to the extent of the post above though, just turning the steering wheel a bit did the job. I actually thought it was a security thing though so that's why I've never bothered to contact ford about it. Will see if it happens again though, but as I said it's only happened on a couple of occasions so not been worried. Havent had a prob with the wipers either. Only the leaking that causes me stress with my gorge little car! grrrr!

Keep an eye on it and see how you get on. Hopefully mine is just a 'one off'. My drivers window (manual) decided today that it won't go down more than 2 inches anymore. Deep joy!