Faults:

Bottom suspension arm bush - Replaced wishbone both sides.

General Comments:

This car is quick and embarrasses bigger engined sports car's. The seats in this car are top notch - recaros with nice side supports.

Driveability is good so the car is very nice to drive sensibly or at speed racing other boy racers! I've Destroyed VTR's, beat a 106 Gti, easily beat focus's and astra's.

Faults:

The drivers electric window has just failed, but it is probably just jammed and can be easily fixed.

The passenger door will not unlock with the key, but it will lock, I think this is due to vandalism.

The sun-visor drops annoyingly when you hit a bump.

The starter motor is beginning to go now at 72000 miles, although it starts first time nine time out of ten.

General Comments:

I prefer the design of this model fiesta than the softer curved current (2003) model.

The power of the 1600cc bullet proof injection engine is enough to see off a swarm of GT-i's at the lights. You can cruise on the motorway without fearing steep hills or being forced behind convoys of slow moving loaders.

However, as with all small hatchbacks, the boot is small and the comfort fairly limited. I have owned a 1995 Fiesta SI which has better seats than the Ghia.

Faults:

The rear brake drums and cylinders needed to be replaced at 67000miles

Universal Joint seizing at 68000miles

Front tires wore heavily on the inside corners.

General Comments:

A great first car.

Insurance is low and running costs(without maintenance) are bearable.

If you look after a Fiesta I am sure they will last forever.

Really comfortable on a long journey.

She hasn't let me down so far!

Faults:

Only one major problem so far - the engine would not drop the revs when changing gear - a well known fault on the Endura engine.

Cream interior hard to keep clean.

Clutch release bearing noisy.

General Comments:

So, the engine revs. I did a bit of research and found out that the Throttle Position Sensor needs replacing. So that was replaced, which made no difference. OK, time for a new Idle Air Control valve - once again, no difference. So the Oxygen Sensor was replaced - no difference! This did need doing anyway as we found out after the problem was fixed.

So, just as I was gearing up to spend £400 quid on a new Engine Management Computer, my mechanic had another look in the pedal box - some ****ing tw*t had pulled out the clutch position switch. Not just taken the switch out of the circuit, otherwise it would have shown up on the fault finding computer - actually ripped the switch out of where it sits and shoved it up under the dash. I must add that he had checked this before, but because he could not even see the switch he thought the car did not have one - some do, some don't, apparently.

So as far as the car was concerned I was changing gear without using the clutch, so it didn't drop the revs quick enough.

Anyway, apart from that, a cracker, really. Always starts first time, and hasn't used a drop of oil (At under 27000 miles I should hope not!)

This car is surprisingly quick when you want it to be though, but you have to give it some stick. And it struggles a lot more going up hills than I thought a 1.3i would.

Reasonably economical to run.

Seats can make your back ache after a while, but this could be due to my not setting them up properly or the seats being a bad design.

Not much legroom in the back - but its not a four person car really. It can manage it, and as long as the front people aren't too greedy with their legroom it should be OK.

The handling of this car is amazing considering I have done nothing to the suspension etc, its all standard, but it sticks to the road like anything.

Nothing else to say really! Any comments, questions or advice email me at: tim.wheaton@btopenworld.com.