Faults:

When I got the car from my parents it needed new front ball joints and rear shocks.

Replaced the front struts at 115 000km and brakes at 125 000.

Recently replaced the alternator and serpentine belt.

Otherwise just regular maintenance.

General Comments:

While it's no road rocket it has been reliable and economical to run.

The seats need more lumbar and side support.

The radio is too low to operate comfortably.

Good sized trunk.

Well built and durable no squeaks or rattles.

Faults:

Temp Gauge Does not work, needle won't move past cold mark.

Head lights very dim even on high beams.

General Comments:

For a 5 speed-1.9 this car has quite a bit of zip even on hills.

I am 6ft 1" and have plenty of leg room for a 60 mile comute every day.

Heater/defrost work great after I replaced the heater core (myself)

Faults:

Timing belt broke at 115000 miles.

Speed odometer bounces a little after 50 MPH.

General Comments:

This car runs Good. Very little downtime.

Great gas mileage still at 185000 miles. (28-32mpg)

Love the hatchback and the fold down back seats to haul a lot of stuff.

This is the best car I have ever owned. (12 years running)

Faults:

Replaced light under the hood that lights up when opening the hood.

Change the oil. Freed up the auto retracting belt on driver's side in the door track. It would not open up all the time.

Replaced tires with larger ones. One size bigger than allowed, then had the speed gauge re-calibrated.

Removed a plastic tie down on the speedometer cable at the throttle area. This made the needle jump at 50 plus mph.

General Comments:

This car is great on gas, 28 to 32 miles per gallon. Cross winds do push it around until I put larger, wider tires on it.

My air, defrost and heater, radio and other options work great. The speedometer did jump a little at 50 mph plus until I freed it up from the tie that was holding it to the motor (plastic tie someone used).

The car was well taken care of, all servicing performed and was garaged as the body and interior is near flawless. A great back and forth to work car!

This car reminds me a lot of the '88 Chevy Nova (aka Toyota Corolla) in every field, and I loved that car too. The brake light came on until I notice the ex owner just did not add enough after replacing the discs.

Faults:

Things that have gone wrong, well the only things that have failed, that I wouldn’t consider normal wear and tear, were the alternator died at 170 000, the tie rod end completely failed after leaving a stop light, and the front wheels toed in after getting toed. It was an easy fix to replace (both), also replaced the gas hatchback lifters.

Thing that I have replaced are, all new tires at 210 000, I have replaced the front brakes and rotors twice now, once just after I bought it, and the last just a week ago at 282000km, replaced the muffler at 230 000km.

I do regular maintenance on the car, and for some reason it just keeps going.

The heater fan stopped working, and while sitting in the passenger seat getting ready to tear the dash apart to get to the heater switch, I bumped the fan assembly and the fan started up. The connector is on the bottom, and I gather someone had kicked some snow up there, and it rusted and made a bad contact, cost me $2 to fix, bad spot for a connector plug to live.

I need to replace all the struts as they are shot, I will do that in a week or so.

General Comments:

Let see, my previous 1989 Escort had died at 320 000km (it developed a strange engine problems that I couldn’t get resolved). I was able to purchase this 1994 Escort for $2700cnd. At the time I was driving 168km a day back and forth to work, and needed a reliable car, and basically at the time had no money.

I found this cheap little car, and it has surpassed all my expectations. The car just keeps going, the car always starts and is surprisingly good on gas.

The car had 164000km on it, and I just passed 282000km the other day. 110000km were done in 2.5 years.

I now live closer to work, and I have been looking to get another car, but not sure what to get as this 4 door hatchback has the trunk space of a van with all the seats down - the little car will swallow pretty much anything you try to, but in the back, I recently brought home our new clothes dryer in the back of the car. With all the seats folded down, you can fit pretty much anything in this car…

I will drive this car till the engine fails, not really sure if that’s possible, the car is very easy to work on and the parts are really cheap (well from Canadian Tire they are). Amazingly the AC is still working, just push the button and it spits out cold air (and you also lose ~15kph, but at least you’re cool).

The manual transmission is great, never had a clutch changed and it still feels great. On a drive in to Toronto last night, the car was happy coasting along at 150kpm.

We also have a Volvo 850, which is far more comfortable, but this wonderful little beater has been a wonderful car!