Faults:

Well I think it was 2 weeks after purchase my car turned off as I rounded a corner, no warning. No power steering or power brakes as I headed toward a ditch. Stopped right on the edge. Less than 1 block from dealer. The dealer had it multiple times in for repair of the same problem, after spending over $3000.00 in parts they found it is a $0.25 o-ring. Of course all under warranty. Never had another problem until a couple years ago. Same problem, but according to the new dealer no o-ring in car. So we replaced it ourselves. Heater does not work, questioned the heater filter, same dealer stated there is not one, well there is. Dealer replaced heater blower. Air conditioner does not work, shifter button popped out, cup holders broker. Oxygen sensor, valve cover gasket, alignment problems, bottom ball joints etc.

General Comments:

Never buy one again or any Ford product! The Ford dealers are awful!

Faults:

The water pump suffered an internal explosion in a remote desert area around 60,000 miles. Since then, I have had to replace the water pump three more times.

If I open my trunk after rainy weather, water pours out of the license plate light access panels.

The clear coat is cracking.

The slated plastic piece that directs heat and air flow into the passenger cabin fell off one day for no apparent reason, as did the front passenger door warning light cover.

The air conditioning has become wimpy in temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

The car doesn't seem to have as much power in the mountains as it did 20,000 miles ago.

General Comments:

Used to be a fantastic car. I absolutely love features such as the adjustable power seat, the large trunk space, and the responsive handling. However, ever since its 60,000 mile tune up (which was done by a Ford dealership, who did an extremely poor job), the car has started falling apart. I now drive with one eye trained on the engine temperature gauge, and wonder when the car will fail me again. Sigh.

Faults:

* Front Brakes/rotors

* Rear Brakes/drums/wheel brake cylinder

* Drivers power window regulator

* 2 (of 8 or so) center rear LED-like brake lights burnt-out (had to buy them from dealer!)

* Factory installed CD player did not eject disks well when I bought it, so I replaced it with a $140 JVC which sounds quite reasonable with factory installed speakers.

* the 'check engine' light comes on very occasionally (couple times a month) stays on for a minute or so, then goes off. Sometimes the cycle will repeat during the same trip, but then it won't happen again for weeks. Mechanic told me not to worry about it, unless it stays on.

General Comments:

I really like this car, and cannot relate at all to any of the bad reviews I have read.

I love the way it handles. After putting more than 35,000 miles on the tires that were on the car when I bought it, when one caught a nail and blew out, I decided to replace the tires with Yokohama's (even though the old Firestones were still safe/serviceable). What a great decision it turned out to be, though. Really improved what was already pretty good handling. I can really pull some G's on tight on-ramps without even a small complaint from the tires.

Also, for a 4-cylinder, the engine is great. One thing to note about the engine in this car, it really likes to rev. That is to say, if you keep the RPM's up, you'll have a lot more fun driving it. I could not imagine this car with an automatic trans. It really has this nice 'pull' at around 4000 RPM's.

The transmission took a little getting used to, but patience paid off, and I really love it now and almost never 'miss' a shift, even under hard acceleration.

It also gets very reasonable gas mileage: ~29MPG in my regular, mostly highway 70 mile (RT) commute.

Other than pretty routine oil changes, I have done almost nothing to this car (not even a tune-up), and the performance has deteriorated very little.

I find the interior pleasant and comfortable.

Aside from a few burnt out (and insignificant) interior lights, everything still works in this 8 year old, 100K + car.

A few of the things I don't like:

* air con does not turn on with a button, but is 2 positions on the same dial that directs the air to various areas (panel, feet, defrost). I would like to be able to turn it on and direct it where I want it (only comes out of panel).

* for some reason, this is the most difficult car to fill with gas that I have ever experienced. The pump keeps shutting off after it's about 1/3rd full, meaning I need to move the pump around in the filler hole until I can get the gas to flow down without backing up and shutting off the pump. I have asked around about it, and nobody seems to have any idea why.

* The interior is a little bit noisy, but not too bad, just a bit of engine/road noise.

But for the most part, these fall into the 'quirks' category. I have so-far really enjoyed this car, and plan on keeping it for another year or so, and will maybe buy another, or even better, a Contour SVT (sigh!) (note that the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique are based on the same 'platform', or are more or less the same car with different styling).