THE KA+ Active is Ford's smallest car to be given the SUV treatment.

It recently joined the range as part of a refresh for the fullKAline-up and the Active makeover gives the little car character.

Like the other Active models in the BlueOval'srange theKA+ gets a higher stance with a macho body kit to give it a jacked-up appearance.

My car featured the 1.2 petrol engine which is expected to account for 96 per cent of sales with the rest going diesel.

The Active costs just over a £1,000 more than the normalZetecKAand is well worth the money for the cosmetic changes alone.

The extra cash gets you rear privacy glass, roof rails, extra body trim with black plastic on the wheel arches, somefaux-skid plates on the front and rear bumpers and some nice looking 15-inch alloy wheels. They combine to make the Active look a lot funkier than the city car it is based on.

The new three-cylinder engine is big improvement over the former four-cylinder power plant fitted to earlier models and it always feels lively and willing with a nice thrum. It is linked to a five-speed manual gearbox and also features stop/start.

It produces 85ps and is good for a top speed of 105mph with the sprint to 62mph taking 13.5 seconds. It returns just under 50mpg on the combined cycle and over a week of mixed motoring I got pretty close to that figure.

TheActive'sride height is 23mm higher than the normalKAand it gets a thicker front anti-roll bar to reduce lean through tight corners. The extra suspension travel gives the Active more suppleness and as a result it is very good over our bumpy badly repaired roads.

It is fun to drive thanks to its neat dimensions, good visibility and sharp steering and is very easy to park in tight situations. It is also a surprisingly comfortable motorway cruiser and sits quietly at the legal limit.

Four adults can travel in the surprisingly spacious cabin and the 270-litre boot is only slightly smaller than the larger Fiesta's.

Instruments and controls are easy to read and use and the equipment list is generous and includes the latest Ford Sync 3 infotainment system. This gives you both AppleCarPlayand Android phone connectivity and you also get electric windows and door mirrors, a leather steering wheel with remote and audio controls, air conditioning, cruise control, front fog lamps and day running lights.