Faults:

In 10 years and 100,000 miles of driving this car, the only thing that has gone wrong is at 90,000 miles, the battery went flat. When I managed to jump start the car and attempt to recharge the battery by doing some drives around the block and on A roads, the engine would turn itself off when the revs reached idle speeds - if I took my foot off the accelerator, the revs died down but didn't hold the idle speed of say 700rpm. Revs would drop to 0 and the engine would stall. After another 10 miles or so of driving, the engine seemed to cure itself of this problem. Haven't experienced any problems. The reliability has been extraordinary.

General Comments:

Nice V6 engine, but tends to get 'tappety' at high mileages. Engine very responsive on the motorway in 4th and 5th gears.

Franchised dealer costs are expensive, as are parts.

Faults:

The rocker cover gaskets seem to leak at around 80,000 miles or so.

Noisy tappets on cold starts when miles are above 100,000.

General Comments:

This car is amongst the best bargains you can get with a V6 power plant and silky smooth performance.

Its as fast as its competitors were and has a nice set of leather seats and comes fully equipped with air conditioning, vanity mirror lights and many other useful features.

Faults:

Nothing, apart from an occasional squeak from the left side of the glovebox.

General Comments:

The 2 litre V6 engine is absolutely stunning. It's so quiet, sounds superb at the top of the rev range and allows for superb mid range overtaking. As good a V6 engine as anything that the Germans have produced. Best thing about the car.

The car is quieter and more refined than a BMW 318.

I don't know whether it's me or just the particular car that I've got, but the drivetrain is slightly jerky in traffic. Either the clutch or accelerator (or both) are too sensitive. You have to be really gentle in letting out the clutch and applying the accelerator in order to progress smoothly in traffic and without a slight lurch. The drivetrain is more suited to fast A roads and motorways.

The Sport version has a rear wing - it would look better without it!

The steering is far too light.

Low speed ride quality could be slightly better - it's a bit knobbly and no where near as soft as a Citroen Xantia, although the handling is reasonably good.

The car is quite rare - unlike a BMW 3 Series which are more almost as common as Ford Mondeos!