Faults:

New nearside drive-shaft at 79000 miles.

New Steering joint at 79000 miles.

New indicator stalk at 71000 miles.

Whole exhaust system at 58000 miles.

New cylinders and brake disc's at 71000 miles.`

General Comments:

I'm really happy with my Fiesta. I never have any trouble with starting, no matter how cold it is (always first time), I much prefer the manual choke versions to the automatic ones, theyre far less hasstle, automatic choke versions have annoying faults I find.

In the time I've owned the car, which is 1999-2003 and 26,000 miles, it has never failed to start or broken down on route.

The 1.3 engine is far more responsive than the 1.1, I find the 1.3 quite good on fuel economy and cruising on the motorway happily at 90mph.

Body work on the Mk3's can go, but touch wood, as yet I've had no problems with body work, slight surface rust round the wheel arches, but nothing that can be sorted in a matter of hours.

One final bit of advice look for LX rather than Ghia, because although the equipment is better, the 1.3 Ghia's fall into group 8 insurance, whereas the Lx's are only group 5.

A really good first car, reliable and good balance of economy and performance!

Faults:

No major problems so far, The car had a slight miss fire when I bought it, but that was due to lack of servicing by the previous owner, There were bits of rust here and there that were sorted without too much of a problem.

General Comments:

The car is a wolf in sheep's clothing, very quick all the way through the rev range.

The ride is a bit hard, but it would not handle so well is the ride was soft, But for the performance that I get from this car I can live with the hard ride.

Faults:

Not a lot really the car has been well looked after so no signs of rust yet.

Sometimes has difficulty starting when it is cold mainly due to performance air filter.

Needed to have tappets adjusted at 93000 which was surprisingly cheap at £40 at a ford dealer, this has made noticeable difference to noise of engine.

Often find it hard to engage reverse.

General Comments:

Considering it is only a 1.3 the insurance is quite high (group 7) so when I bought it I had to have a CAT1 alarm fitted in order to get insured, even though I'm 19 with full no claims bonus.

My car has had a few modification like a performance air filter and an exhaust and this makes the car considerably faster, faster than most other small hatchbacks and sounds fantastic.

The suspension is very soft and the car does suffer from a lot of body roll when cornering at speed.

Faults:

Nothing really has gone wrong with it in the time that I have had it.

The one thing that has is that it does not like to reverse up hills, thus trying to stall itself. still haven't found the root of the problem.

Because the car is ten years old, you would expext their to be a bit of rust around the front and rear valencies.

The sunroof leaked like a sieve, the rain gutter had rotted away, easily repaired.

General Comments:

The interior other than the water damage, which is booked in to be sorted out is like new. the rest of the exterior is in pristine condition, seeing as it was owned by a construction company.

The usual rot spots in fiestas the wheel arches and the petrol cap, were all sorted out by the company who had it before. which saved me a bob or two.

Surprisingly it is quick for a 1.3 it can beat any nova and 205. I have even managed to fend off a fiesta S.