Faults:

Started stalling when it was cold. Found out that it was only firing on 3 cylinders.

Flasher unit for the indicators stopped working.

Rear wiper fuse went, causing fire in the steering column.

HDT leads needing replacing.

Radio stopped working, replaced with a Kenwood MP3 player.

Replaced spark leads.

General Comments:

This car is very quick, however whenever you put your foot down, you can virtually see the petrol gauge drop. It literally eats petrol. On a full tank, which is about £25-£30 of petrol, I get about 170-200 miles.

The interior of this car is absolutely brilliant. It very comfortable, and the sports seats hug your arms really nicely.

All the things that have gone wrong with the car so far are just general wear and tear things that are bound to go wrong at some point.

The car drives superbly on the motorway, and this combined with the comfortable interior makes long jouney's easy to do!

The suspension on this car is just about the hardest I've ever felt in any car. You make sure you drive damn slowly over road humps! However, again the seats help to counteract this.

The car seems to rattle from everywhere. However I've just spent ages looking around the car to see what is causing it. When I sort out one rattle, another seems to be made, but again, when a stereo is on, they are unnoticeable.

Faults:

Worn bushings on front linkage.

Replaced timing belt.

Broken fan belt.

Leaking fuel pump.

Replaced both rear wheel bearings.

New front tires every 6-8 months.

Replaced alternator.

Seats badly worn, uncomfortable.

New universal joint for steering linkage.

All locks badly worn, boot locks replaced.

New glow plugs.

General Comments:

This car is very attractive to thieves, due to the ease of entry. Both doors have been 'folded' out at 45 degrees.

Very very heavy steering.

Very sloppy handling.

Takes a least two primes to ensure a start, even with new battery and glow plugs.

All the bad points aside, the car quite happily cruises on motorways. I get around 60 mpg and always drive with the outside lane traffic.

The car seems to cruise at a similar speed no matter how heavily laden. My last trip was to the south of France with four people, a roof box and a bike rack. Still managed 80 mph on the toll roads.

The Nissan micra I owned previously was faultless from 55 to 105000 miles. Ford were seriously behind the competition for reliability in the 90's.

Faults:

I bought this car second hand, in the the first day I have noticed the following faults:

Electric window rollers are marking the drivers side window;

The interior light doesn't come on when the door (s) are opened;

The remote boot release doesn't work;

The hose has come off of the back of one of the air vents;

And most importantly, it keeps stalling for no apparent reason! Whilst driving on the motorway at 70, and in town at 30, just turns itself off for no reason (that I can think of).

Thank god for the warranty!

General Comments:

On the plus side, this car performs extremely well (given the £2000 price tag), effortless acceleration up to the 100MPH area, 115MPH top speed (although I think you could get a bit more if you had the engine tuned), nice interior with lots of creature comforts. Central locking, electric windows, power assisted steering.

The servicing is cheap and nearly all garages can service a Ford, parts are fairly cheap and easy to get hold of.