Would I buy a Ford StreetKa instead of a Mazda MX-5 or a Toyota MR2, or an MGTF?

That's the kind of loaded question people like me hate, because it means coming down on one side or another, or even between four in this case, when we actually have different ways of liking all the options.

Part of the answer is, I would only buy any of them with the hardtop option, because we simply don't have the climate to justify the daily use of a convertible, and living under a black soft roof for most of a driving year simply doesn't attract me.

The other part of the answer is, 'yes'. Simply because It seems to me that there's more real luggage space in the Ford, and I have this feeling that it will have less of a 'begrudger' effect from those who don't have one.

Try driving an MX-5 through Dublin traffic with the top down. There are other drivers out there who will deliberately cut you off, waggle the fingered bird, and generally abuse you as either a young poseur or, at my age, a mid-life crisiser frantically trying a King Canute on the Waves of Age.

(I'n no longer young, and I'm equally too busy to be concerned about encroaching age, but the experience still rankles.)

But I reckon the StreetKa might avoid all that, because it is one of these car styles that makes people smile. When they're smiling, it is hard for them to be nasty.

(How often do you see George Bush smile? Though, on the other hand, we used regularly see Saddam Hussein smiling as he loosed off his shotgun, so maybe the theory isn't perfect.)

Anyway, as far as Ford are concerned, before they even launch the sweet little StreetKa here, they've got three times more orders just from the pictures than MX-5s were sold here last year.

And they figure that they'll double that 56 or so in actual sales this year after the car comes available in early summer.

They cliniced it quite strongly for what will be a very niche pl in the Senior Service of the Ford-owned brands).

Truth is, everybody who saw the first concept by Ghia fell for it, and even though it was always going to be a tiny player - only 20,000 a year will be built - Ford had no choice but to bring StreetKa off the fashion catwalk and onto the real world highway.

They never tried to make it a 'sports' car, though. Right too. The brief was that it should be easy to buy, easy to insure and service, and generally easy to own.

It still needed to be largely hand-finished, with its own special metal pressings, and a chassis rather stronger and heavier than the standard Ka. That would have screwed up the assembly operation for the mass-produced Ka, so the actual building of StreetKa has been outsourced to Italian specialist Pininfarina.

They chose a 95PS 8v 1.6-litre engine as the powerplant, which isn't so expensive to produce (indeed, it is built in South Africa) and is untempramental in operation. In my short couple of hours in the car, I came to appreciate the broad torque band which 8v engines have, low down too, and StreetKa didn't ask me to stir the gearshifter too much on even twisty hill roads.

There always has to be a chassis-flexing tradeoff when you take the roof off a car, and there proved to be just that in the StreetKa, but it was little enough, and only noticable when pushing the car around bends with wrong cambers. It has a wider wheelbase than the standard Ka, and it means the chassis/wheels setup is all the more four-square on the tarmac.

They also tightened up the suspension significantly, though not to hard, which helped.

You won't break traffic light derby records with this one - the 0-100 km/h is above 12 seconds - but there's a nice rorty exhaust note built into the powertrain.

The gearshift is adequate, though the aluminium knob will chill the metatarsals on a frosty morning. And for my 6'2" lank, there is still a very comfortable driving position possible.

If you have to put up the manual top, it can be done in 30 seconds according to the blurb. I reckon practice will bring it down to less than 15. And what can be a knuckle-crunching last snapdown in some other roadsters is a neat and tidy operation in thte StreetKa (well, paying compo for bruises to Kylie's unwashupped digits might have wiped out whatever profits are to be made with the car during its lifetime).

So - because I've seen close-up the hard-top that will be available for StreetKa before the end of the year - the answer to the question at the start has to be 'yes'. If anything is to replace the short-lived and much-loved Puma, StreetKa Tintop will do it.

And if I needed a 2-seater for my own fun, I'd smile even at Charlie McCreevy's exorbitant taxes to have one of these.