Faults:

Parts are expensive in Melbourne for this car. A radiator would cost about $1k to fix.

The arm rest of the door breaks easily when used with too much weight.

Petrol is 7km/l if you play on the RPM, but could be a good 12km/l if you drive safely and maintain it at 2k rpm (90km/h).

The car drives smoother when it's at 2.5k RPM and about 120km/h, and would cost about $149 for traffic fines. Which I got like at least 5 in this 2 years.

Back seat head clearance is too low; only suits people about 1.6m in height.

General Comments:

Have owned the car for 2 years, and travel about 40,000. Travel to many places in Melbourne, and it still runs smooth, responds fast, and handles very well.

Steering is between a BMW (too hard) and a AUDI (too smooth), and provides a very good feel for turning. It's about 1.5 turns on each side, and able to do a 2 lane U turn easily.

Pick up is better in 2nd gear when the RPM hits from 3krpm, which can be an easy 80km/h. (1st gear is just to move off). Might not catch up a Prelude at the start, but does over take at 60-80km/h.

Install an aftermarket air filter, and it's much smoother to run, as the engine gets more air, but it's easier to change to a lower gear when slightly accelerating.

Low seating provides a very comfortable feeling, and is like those living room bean bags.

A proper wheel alignment and tires would give you a smooth and quiet 180km/h, which might take about 12-14sec to reach. When 0-100 is about 6 secs with an aftermarket filter.

A hatchback of its design allows me to transport a bed frame of 1.9m in length, and about a book shelf of 1m in width from Ikea (having the bed to be out of the rear door).

Overall, I love this car very very much for the feel, looks, the drive and the handling.

* All remarks are based on previous cars my family and I have owned for at least 2 years of driving.

AUDI A6

BM 325

Toyota Yaris

Toyota RAV 4

Honda Jazz (1.3) Singapore

Toyota Corolla

Faults:

When first got the car, knew it had bad CV joints and bad water pump.

CV joints - $450.

Water pump - $350 (plus labour costs)

Misthreaded bolt in brake caliper, hard to find the part but found a similar bolt which was only a couple of dollars, not the cars fault, just some stupid previous mechanic.

Automatic Aerial started having problems, but easy to disable it.

Misfiring problem, but probably something minor.

General Comments:

A very nice car to drive, handles great and not too much understeer for a front wheel drive, very comfortable to drive, not the fastest thing around but has enough power. Fuel consumption is reasonably good, ranges from around 10-12.5 litres per 100km.

A few things have gone wrong as do all cars, but nothing has made it un-drivable.

Changed the spark plugs, leads and it still misfires low down, may need to injectors cleaned or new distributor cap and rotor. Other than that it's been a very pleasant car.

Faults:

This car was an absolute lemon from the very start. Had the car for a week and all was good, but then the carnage started.

1. Clunking sound in the front and rear brakes. Took it in to get it checked out. Seemed to happen after applying brakes, then releasing the brake, then applying them, and then CLUNK!. Took it in 5 times for clip replacements; did not get any better. So I gave up.

2. Rattles from all directions. Started with the glove box, console, CD Player, dashboard, rear.

3. Remote control stopped working, was not a battery problem, tried to slug me $100 for it.

4. Started using excessive oil. Went through 4ltrs of oil in 300km's.

5. Said they replaced engine; apparently they just reconditioned it, 10,000 KM's later same story.

6. Engine replaced. Then at 100,000K service (only 10K into new engine) they slugged me $1,600. LOL I tore it up and grabbed my key's and ran.

7. 110,000K's stationary at a set of traffic lights, some idiot rammed me from behind at 80 click's, pushed me into the car in front.

8. INSURANCE COMPANY CALLED ME AND SAID THE CAR IS A WRITE OFF!!! YAHOOOOOOOO Everyone raves about Toyota, however mine was the car and service from HELL!!

General Comments:

Hopeless.

However, the car was not too bad for pickup considering it had the standard Camry motor in it.