Faults:

Endless minor electrical faults with mainly the lights and the central locking.

Replaced all the rubber hoses at 98000 miles.

Had a terrible final drive whine in 5th gear and when I got it checked out, I was told that it was just a design fault and that all Fuego's did it. It never gave me any trouble other than making an annoying sound on a long trip. Solution - turn up the stereo a bit louder.

The brake disks were very soft, and chewed out. I had to replace the discs and pads, which was rather expensive - $800 NZD for the parts alone. I did the job myself - a relatively easy job considering that I was an accountant at the time - not a mechanic.

Overall, mechanically a very sound car.

General Comments:

An extremely quick car on the open road. Very smooth riding and handled extremely well at high speed. Absolutely no wind noise - just an annoying whine from the final drive in 5th gear.

An extremely comfortable car which seemed to drive better at high speed. Very tall geared and definitely designed for the open road. Used to run very cool on the open road, but got rather hot with around town running. Not so quick off the mark though, mainly due to the tall gearing.

A very practical car with plenty of room inside for a three door. With the back seats folded down, I could get my whole drum set in the back.

Probably one of the best cars I have ever owned. Never gave me any grief mechanically. The faster you drove it, the better it went - very smooth at 180 - 200 km/h.

Faults:

Only minor electrical faults.

Connection problems with RH tail light.

Connection problem with the rear wiper.

Trip computer required specialist work although not expensive.

Any faults seem to be minor and common to all Fuegos.

General Comments:

This has been my second Fuego (the first one was used as a main car and driven to 100,000 miles). I know of Fuegos approaching 200,000 miles and still going strong.

Both have been totally reliable, comfortable, and thoroughly enjoyable to own.

The design inside and out has aged very well. You would never guess it dates back 20 years.

Faults:

So much I can't be bothered to list, but all the little idiosyncratic faults seem to cancel each other out!

General Comments:

I bought this car as a temp after my Peugeot 405 was written off on the freeway by a Holden Commodore.

It cost me $500 and the only thing I have put into it apart from petrol since I bought it, is a battery.

The car has traveled 450,000 kms without any reconditioning and doesn't leak ANY fluids (oil, water, brake fluid, etc.)

It's very fuel efficient and has never missed a beat.

Try and buy a car in Australia for under $500 that has power windows, central locking, air conditioning and a gutsy, reliable engine - you won't.