Faults:

Timing belt went up at 19,000 miles in June of '07. I don't put many miles on my car per year, so it was three months out of warranty when it happened. After much dickering and pulling some strings, the dealer rebuilt the cams, replaced the valves, etc. at their cost, but it took them a month to do the work.

In December of '07, I lost my heat. Dealer did diagnosis, and told me it was the thermostat. They wanted $468 to replace, and flush the system. I bought the part from them, and had an independent mechanic install it. I still did not have heat, and my mechanic told me it was the water pump.

I found out from an April post on THIS site, that there were water pump issues with this car. Armed with this information, I returned to the dealer today, and asked if they had replaced the water pump when they did the work in June. The answer was "no". I asked if they were aware of the water pump issues, and if so, WHY had they not replaced the pump when they did the cam work. They told me they had only become aware of this problem in the past several days, (Ha!) and that it was now, in fact, a factory recall.

I am certain that without the information from this site, I would have been bilked out of some big bucks.

General Comments:

It only *looks* good.

Faults:

Warped discs.

Odd sounds from linkage/wheels.

General Comments:

The resale value drops like a rock.

Parts are expensive because they don't use standard parts. I have to drive 30 miles to the dealership if I want to change the air filter. call your local tire stores and find out how many, if any, carry 195/55R15 tires.

Build quality is generally poor. my wife's acura is 3 times older and has 2 times more mileage, was half the money, and is.

Faults:

Nothing yet.

General Comments:

This car has been very reliable, is pretty comfortable and has many more features than most cars in the same price range. The engine performs adequately when driven in normal conditions, but could use a bit more power when trying to pass or get up to speed in a hurry. Fit and finish is very good. So far we are very pleased with the vehicle. We are in the process of purchasing another one (2005 Forenza LX wagon). I will update this review and let you know how both Forenza's are doing.

Faults:

Car is new as of 2/16/05, I here a noise as the car shifts into overdrive between 45mph and 50mph sounds like a rattle in the exhaust or catalytic converter, I will have this checked while under warranty, but it does not affect the performance of the car.

General Comments:

Forenza delivers a good all around car for the price. My forenza gets about 17mpg all around, with the automatic transmission, I enjoy using the hold mode which allows the driver to change gears as needed, bad thing about this mode is it uses more fuel. The forenzas engine has plenty of power for passing and play.