Faults:

Well, not too much considering its not had a service since it was built...

When I got it I replaced the front springs, rear wheelarches, rear brake lines, patched the sills on both sides, patched serious holes in the rear pillars, replaced the injector nozzles, replaced the timing belts. Its had about one head gasket every 5 years so far, AFAICT.

General Comments:

Lovely ride, corners well. Turbo diesel surprises the boy racers every time, especially with the very low ratio first gear.

Engine noise is nice to listen to. She talks.

Interior is in great condition for its age.

Aside from the bad rear end the car is largely rust free.

Faults:

Clutch (mega expensive).

All 4 shocks (hard to find in breakers, expensive out of them!)

Brake discs (breakers and reskimmed).

2 batteries (in 5 years).

Electrics disintegrate (but it has done 150,000 miles) and accident damage to a door (oops!)

General Comments:

Very cheap on fuel (45+mpg) and tax at £100 but parts are incredibly expensive and slow to arrive and there are too few in the breakers. The engine has proved reliable despite doing 150,000 miles but it's getting rusty, especially on the boot and rear wheel arches.

Good OE stereo and the most comfortable seat of any car I have driven but the engine is very noisy and it is dog slow which discourages long journeys. Starts well with a good heavy duty battery, but terribly with an old one. It has never let me down on the road but its lack of speed is only rivalled by its lack of handling.

Faults:

After 120K miles. Worn out rear shocks.

Snapped throttle return spring! - proved very interesting for a few miles!

General Comments:

100 BHP 3 cylinder twin cam 12 valve rocket.

Weighs about as much as a mini and will see off Golf GTi's and XR3i's no trouble.

Cheap to buy and run - up to 45mpg if driven carefully.