Faults:

Internal leak caused by the air conditioning overflow pipe allowing excess water to enter the driver footwell.

Rectified by the dealer, including drying out of the carpets. Nothing else to report so far.

General Comments:

This car has serious handling capability for its price tag. Unfortunately the performance is limited, but this does not dampen the fun of driving the Zetec S and it shouldn't put you off buying one.

From the front and sides the car really looks the buisiness with its mesh grill, round spots, and 15 inch alloys. Only the rear is let down as it could be easily mistaken for a basic model and really needs a slightly bigger spoiler.

Inside the Zetec S looks quite fresh, neat too with metal effect facia and a leather trimmed stearing wheel. The factory fit CD/radio sounds OK and can be made real quality by easily adding a decent set of rear speakers to the parcel shelf.

Driving this car is the best bit. Gearing is near perfect and the car will pull away comfortably in any gear, however to make it perform anything like it has to be revved hard,which it loves, and rewards you with a lovely engine tone as well. The Zetec S is very forgiving round corners and enables drivers with limited skills to get away with relatively fast cornering without putting themselves or others at too much risk.

Finally insurance is only group 7 or 8 and I usually get at least 35 to a gallon of petrol.

Faults:

The paint work on the rear spoiler started bubbling and chipping off after only 10,000 miles, but Ford were quick to fix this fault.

The power steering pump failed after 13,000 miles, but again ford were quick off the mark to fix this after saying this is a fault that is very rarely seen.

General Comments:

Compared to the last car, this car goes around corners like it is on rails.

At a recent track day it embarrassed cars with a lot more power and and a few times the value around the twisty stuff, but struggled on the straight, but this will soon be sorted when I can find a good engineering firm to shoehorn in a two litre lump for me.

This has so many sporty pretensions it is just a shame that Ford could not have seen to give it a bit more power as it is not as though the car can't handle it. Roll on the Fiesta ST150.

Faults:

Since new:

* The engine has never seemed to be properly tuned although Ford insist it is (rattles, sometimes misfires, small oil leak that cannot be traced).

* Brakes and wheels were not correctly balanced from new, which lead to me having to replace 3 tyres due to uneven wear and poor braking performance.

* Poor starting during the 1st winter caused by water in the electronics. Which will indefinitely stay there because of Ford's incompetence.

* Battery went dead in the Spring. Unexplainable??

* Needed a replacement radiator due to an unexplainable hole?

* Needed new shock absorbers after 10000 miles (maybe the councils fault for the excess of speed bumps!)

* Central locking failed to work several times, each time I had to have the remote reconfigured by Ford, cost £15 each time even though it wasn't my fault!

* Radio buttons broke, £130 for a new radio, the only solution according to Ford.

* Water leaking onto the seats due to apparently poor design.

* Rattling dashboard, can't stop it, very irritating on a long drive!

* Rust on the bottom of the doors, Ford manage to come up with a load of cobblers as to why it's not covered by the 7 year corrosion guarantee, MY FAULT as I didn't spot a small chip caused by a stone at an earlier date.

* Rust around the boot seal, again no point having the corrosion guarantee.

* Sunroof leaks from near the handle.

General Comments:

Having read the reviews of this car I thought it sounded perfect, but sadly I was mis-informed as many of us appear to be. It's drastically overrated. Ford demands you take a closer look, I wouldn't, you may find a lot you dislike. Personally I think the car has the following bad points:

Poorly built.

Noisy ride.

Very bland to look at, practically the same as 1989 except a few more curves.

Uncomfortable and uninspiring poorly manufactured interior.

Very unresponsive engine and gearbox, what can only be classed as a 'long' ratio gearbox.

Unreliable.

Ford do not want to know, once you have bought the car you are on your own. Utterly appalling customer service. Everything is YOUR FAULT, not the incompetent manufacturers or the dealers.

Thank goodness it's nearly September, the time of the new car, I will definitely be returning to the Vauxhall Astra which gave me 8 years of trouble free motoring before. Thankfully my finances are running much more smoothly than this Ford Fiesta...