Faults:

A/C not working.

The car drove OK. But after driving for about 1 hour it died. Found out it was an ECU fault (I lived with it).

Service was done by me; spark plugs, oil etc. I found water in the oil and coolant coming out of the exhaust (very strange).

The clutch is just starting to go. But it was fine.

Cooling system is failing.

It's hard to start. Starter motor died.

Battery (the day we got it LOL).

General Comments:

This was my first car. I paid $3,000 for it. I am a huge Ford fan, but I got a small car to get used to driving. And that's where things went bad. This thing was in bad nick. At the car yard when I got it, I checked the oil (etc). It was fine. Being a mechanic in the works (work experience at Hyundai) I fixed a few things on it.

Performance was very good for an old 1.5 4 cylinder that was almost dead. It was still no XR6 Falcon, but for what it was, it was awesome (Mazda knows how to get good performance. I know I said Mazda; I will get to that later).

This car is based on a Mazda 323 (Mazda Protege in the USA), so parts are not cheap.

The factory speaker system was awesome for the year 2000.

The seats had covers, so they looked new. The interior was like new. And the car was smooth on the road.

What got me is it's a small car (Corolla size), but almost had the space of a Camry from 1990s, and a big boot. It can be used as a small family car. Or you can have friends in the car with things in the boot like shopping (tools and a dead battery in my case LOL).

I sold the car for $800 with faults. Last week I found it on Gumtree selling for 4 grand. It's been fixed. The Lasertaser lives on LOL.

All in all a good car. Just needed work. I miss this car in ways. It's a good teenager car (that's why I got it; I am 17). It's easy to fix most things on it.

An awesome first car. The performance is good. But it's not a hoon car. Cheap to run (if you get a good one). Easy to get parts (but they're not cheap). A heap of space. And they're about 15 years old so they're cheap.

Now I own a 2004 Ford Falcon BA, which is awesome. But that's a different story (a great one).

I got the Laser in Feb 2014, and sold it in May 2014.