Faults:

Australia.

Rotted out steering wheel (chunks fell off) by sun damage. Was replaced under warranty. 3 year old windows not tinted then.

Broken ashtray mechanism. Required full dashboard removal to be repaired under warranty.

Sun damaged rotted out driver door seal. Warranty replaced.

Clutch had been repaired by dealer when bought in from previous owner.

Very narrow clutch take-up. Seemed like 2 to 4 mm between total engage and total disengage, making it hard to take off smoothly and without stalling. Never got completely used to it in 9000 kms of use.

Problems mostly caused by previous owners neglect and/ or heavy towing.

General Comments:

Positive... Driven gently, it feels like 6cyl performance with 4cyl economy, and is quiet and comfortable on a long run. MP3 CD gives quality sound.

Same fuel consumption as my Excel on the 85km round trip to work.

Fantastic leg room in rear seat.

Disappointed with the performance, although the engine is certainly powerful enough.

Poor gear ratio match to the engine character.

Long wheelbase; backend would easily swing around cornering on wet roads.

Engine would "hunt" continually when cruising at 100kmph or any set speed. This is a manual transmission car. Annoying.

Poor rear vision. Dangerous blind spots in mirrors.

Faults:

I do approximately 600kms per week with no major problems until recently.

There seems to be an electrical issue; it has begun blowing the low beam head lights, about 1 a month, and at times massive electrical interference is heard through the MP3 player.

About once a week it just refuses to start. It’s like there is an issue with the immobiliser. The battery is good, you have power to dash, music and AC, but just dead when you turn the ignition. You can’t even move the car because it is locked in park. After 20-30 minutes it just starts like there was no problem. Have had the mechanics look at it several times; they just can’t find the problem. Looks like I'm going to have to buy a new car.

General Comments:

On the whole I love this car. I was a bit concerned down sizing from the 6 cylinder Ford, but this little car has performed brilliantly.

It handles the steep terrain where I live with ease, plenty of power. It took a little to get used to front wheel drive. It handles very differently when you hit the dirt. Next car will be Hyundai again.

Faults:

Intermittent starting problem (fixed by new spark plugs).

Was told it was a clutch switch (by a mechanic).

Was told it was a immobilizer problem by another mechanic.

Both were fixed, costing over $700.00 two weeks later.

The problem returned; changed the spark plugs 1 month ago at the cost of $12.00; problem fixed?

So if you have the same problem, try changing your spark plugs (worked for me).

I've owned the car for 3 years no other problems.

General Comments:

Very reliable 2 litre. Has enough punch.

My next car will be an i30.

Faults:

Brakes make terrible sounds.

Water leaks in above windshield on drivers side.

Struggles to start most of the time.

Rough accelaration always.

General Comments:

The car looks good, but is really starting to perform quite poorly, and more and more things are starting to go wrong.

Faults:

Where to start!

After the first 1000 or so kms, the engine started to develop an odd... rattle / knocking sound.

Took the dealer forever to find the fault and then to fix it - I had to get a new Short motor, and even then the problem didn't disappear!

TPS was replaced due to the 'characteristic' of the car 'flaring' between gear changes, which made the car very difficult to drive without lurching all over the place.

Handbrake cables BOTH (for some reason these cars have TWO cables for the hand brakes) fell to pieces within 5000km..

General Comments:

Was a good looking car and had a fair bit of get up and go.

It wasn't as cheap to run as I had hoped it would be.

Driving position was generally very good for around town only, taking the car on any form of long trip results in an uncomfortable drive.

Part of my experience was diminished though because of really bad dealer service when I was having the problems with my car.