Faults:

I had a lot of problems with this car. I bought it thinking that it was reliable, but now I know better.

The cup holders where hot glued in at first. I didn't notice this until after I purchased the car.

Belts seemed to wear badly.

Wipers on the car are horrid.

Anything electronic seemed like it could die at any time. Even the clock had back light problems. The power window switches worked half the time, same with the driver side locks.

This car has by far the worst transmission I have ever had in a car. Recently it started to slip after 50 miles of driving. Doesn't seem like a transmission problem, more of a electronic one, such as the temperature control on the valve cover. A transmission job on this car is $2500. Ford had bad luck with these cars.

The car ran hot, all the time. I heard the V-6 models are worse though.

General Comments:

It was a nice looking car. Lots of problems though.

Comfortable for being small, and fully loaded which was nice.

A great gas car. Even at 150,000 miles, I could get 30mpg out of it. As long as you take care of it.

Faults:

It overheated at about 52,000 miles in November 2000. I got a new water pump and that lasted for about a month.

The engine made a knocking sound.

The tachometer needle would bounce around even if the car was in park or sitting idle.

The car stayed parked until April 2003. I had the motor rebuilt and it lasted until August 2003.

As of January 2004 the car has been sold to a salvage yard to tear down and sell parts.

General Comments:

The first few years I had this car was great.

I loved how it handled and it was comfortable.

I took very good care of this car and feel it should have lasted much longer than 92,000 miles.

Faults:

I don't know how much of my vehicle was still original equipment, but in reading some of the other responses, I'm noticing similar problems.

Something that definitely would have prevented me from buying the car in the first place is the constant burning smell. Even after having the engine cleaned, the smell still persisted, so I quickly just got used to having a smelly car.

I have seen a lot of comments about O2 sensors going out. Mine did around 70,000 miles. It was replaced, but I still seemed to have an overheating problem that would surface every now and then (especially during the hot Texas summers).

Acceleration was hit or miss. So days the car would accelerate faster than I I though it was capable. Other days, the believed it was related to a snail. One problem may be that even though the manufacturer says regular gas is okay, the car performed much better when fed 91+ octane. Most of the sluggishness would dissappear.

The cup holder may draw complaints, but in Europe, where the car's original platform was based, they frown upon then and when they do have them, they are small. Europe (especially Germany), have higher highway speeds and they consider that a distraction (when you see an accident on the autobahn, you'll understand).

General Comments:

I was really surprised when I first drove this car. A few years earlier, I owned an Acura Integra GSR. When I went to the lot and the salesperson recommended this as a cheaper alternative, I laugh.

Although not as quick as the Acura. I was genuinely impressed with the presentation. The car had good power, great handling (considering the price (good tires helped too) ), the interior was comfortable (I'm six foot 225 pounds) and the price was right. Other than some reliability issues, I like the car. My car is on it's last leg though. I just dropped $1100 into it and my mechanic say that there are several things that are about ready to die. I don't plan to fix them.

The car was never intended to be a highway cruiser for five, but if you have small kids (or none) and need to get mainly across town, this is a great car. After reading about some of the problems, I probably won't by another one, unless it has less than 20,000 miles. That will be hard to do since the car has been out of production for more than 4 years.