Faults:

Elevating cylinders for back door wore out.

Door seals came off.

Badly rusted sills and doors.

Lights for instrument panel disappeared.

Rear view mirror came off.

Wiper arms came loose.

Tracking wrong several times.

Leaking cylinder head cover.

The Catalytic converter pulverized.

Heated seat short circuited.

Fuel tank cover destroyed.

Electric wiring for interior lighting and brake lights.

Brake pistons broke.

Spent approx £1500 on lots of faults with the front wheels/steering so far. Still problems.

Idle running unstable.

And lots more...

General Comments:

It's a bit too small for an estate.

The 1.4 litre I've got has really high running costs. Fuel consumption is unbelievable: to go 10 km its got to consume 1,1 litre. The timing belt has to be renewed every 60,000 km. I've followed the service intervals closely, still it tends to keep falling apart. To this date it hasn't had one MOT free of faults. The quality of the build is not good. It even squeaks all over when driving.

This car is the best reason for never buying a Ford again.

Faults:

(Fixed Stuff!)

- Built in radio died.. made nice blue smoke!

- Changed rear muffler (sprung a big hole) around 130000km

- Replaced batteries 3 times (each lasted ~2 year)

- Replaced alternator at 140000km

- Minor leakage from engine, replaced small seal near distributer.

- Replaced steering rack parts to reduce dead zone.

- Place for Battery was deeply rusted.. had to fill up with rubber padding/epoxy

- Knob for heater temperature selector broke off, replaced cheaply.

(Annoying Stuff, not-fixed/fixable!)

- Water seeps (very slowly) near sunroof area.

- Trouble with battery area caused water to get in the car, still makes a lot of condensation inside.

- Some rust showing up around rear wheel arches.

General Comments:

This car is awesome! Its only 1.4L making around 80hp when new (must be down to 70-75hp now) yet it is hugely fast.

Ride quality is rather bad and car is too high so rolls a lot. Still the fully manual steering is spot-on, feedback from wheels is clear and crisp. Good value, good performance (for such small engine in a 16 years old car!) and quite good fuel economy, when I drive sensible.

For a 16 years old car, on which I learned to drive as well, it's a technical marvel. All lights work, heated seats work flawlessly, sunroof works, starts on within 3sec of turning the key even in winter. And most of all, it never broke down on side of road.

Faults:

Had to change brakes, when I tuned the engine.

I was involved in an car accident, and my Escort was crunched in the front.

General Comments:

After I changed the air filters (K&N) and chipped the car, it really started to be fast. I don't know how many HP I have got now, but the car is faster than before.

For best performance use 195/50R15 Dunlop R9000 tires.