Faults:

Timing belt, gasket in transmission pan, cassette player.

General Comments:

Good for what I need it for; never breaks down and is really reliable. It gets good gas mileage which saves me at the pumps. It is also pretty fun to drive.

Faults:

I have had to replace both the starter and the alternator, as well as a ignition module. All this was replaced over the last three years (2004-2007).

When I first bought the car I replaced the timing belt, some hoses, spark plugs, distributer cap, starter, alternator and the brakes.

Blown Speakers and bad radio.

Windshield wiper fluid container was cracked; never could get the system to work right.

The problems that I could not fix was there was either a small oil leak in the car, or it burned oil; I had to put oil in it every 800-1000 miles. Also the tachometer did not work (an easy fix I'm sure).

The other thing was it started hard. The engine usually had to turn over a few times before it would start. There was probally something worn out. Nonetheless it started every time.

General Comments:

This was my first car, and I am very pleased with it. It almost never let me down. When it did, it was because something that's expected to wear out did (ie the starter).

The radio was trash when I bought the car, so I got a new one. Also the rear speakers were blown. A trip to the junk yard fixed that.

The interior was roomy enough. Not nearly as large as some of the later Escorts, but it was adequate. The wagon part was excellent for moving stuff. I put stuff in the rear section that I never thought could go in.

The cruise works, and so did the heat and A/C. The transmission worked fine.

The body was pretty straight; there were a few rust spots and some dents. The rear left bumper got hit at some point, and was cracked.

The only bad thing was it didn't accelerate very quickly, but I guess I can't expect too much from a 1.9.

Faults:

The car's seats in the front leaned in, and cause the driver to sit in a fetal position. Very uncomfortable.

The hatch latch rusted open, so we couldn't close it.

The manual transmission was so worn you had to guess where a gear was.

The front CV joints and bearings went out twice.

General Comments:

Great car for economy. It took forever to get to 110 km/h, and then another eternity to get to 120 km/h, but you could go for 600 kilometers without filling the minuscule tank.

The engine was bulletproof. I don't think more than 60 or 70 of it's claimed ponies were ever working at one time.

The rear wiper, like that on most vehicles, was a disgrace, but always worked.

I put the car into a ditch going about 100 km/h (62 mph) and though I bent a few things such as the front CV joints, it was our daily driver for another 6 months, until it started spewing ball bearings from the front all over the road. It gave us plenty of warning.

The heater was pathetic. It was unable to cope with anything below -20°C. There was no A/C on our car, which I count as a blessing.

The seats were terribly uncomfortable. The front seats broke on the inward side, and forced you into a hunchback, driving stance. The rear seats showed their plastic-bucket construction even more plainly, and forced you into that same position.

The cargo room was incredible, and we used all of it many times, overloading the car by 500 pounds, one time. It always carried through, though the steering gets light with five people in the car (there are only belts for four).

We bought the car for $850, and I think that we got all of that, and more, out of it.