Faults:

The car has been rather neglected as it needed servicing, like a new distributor cap and a set of ignition cables. I carefully replaced the timing chain and a few hose lines too.

Loses a bit of cooling fluid, but it's less than 1/2 a litre per year, the water-pump under pressure seemed to be all right, so I neglected it.

Tends to corrode below the doors.

Only once out of order because of a corroded fuse holder for the fuel pump.

General Comments:

Very cheap because of the (completely wrong) image of an old ladies car, but it's a wolf in sheep's clothing. Cheap in insurance (in Germany) too.

Heavy drinker with 9-10 l/100 km.

Most reliable and solid car I ever had, saw the service in 3 years only for the fuse and the annual emmisson/biannual technical control (like MOT in England).

Needs a new shock absorber in the front now.

Faults:

Easy to trace its history since the previous (elderly) owner kept pretty much every bill he ever received:

Four (!) silencers have been replaced since new.

The water pump went at 100T km.

Corroded fuel line at 185T km.

Other than that, it's been very reliable so far, but the engine started cutting out every now and then for no apparent reason, will replace the distributor cap over the weekend.

General Comments:

The typical wolf in sheep's clothing, it's great being able to out-drag those 1980's bespoilered BMW 316's on the autobahn. Fairly soggy suspension in the corners though.

Will cruise happily at 100 mph all day without using too much fuel, have had it up to 200kmh (125 mph) and that was at only 5500 RPM!

Insurance is surprisingly high (in Germany).

If you're not bothered about image (I quote one particular classic car mag in Germany: "it's image ranks just above that of a Lada") it's great.