Faults:

We were replacing wheel bearings at regular intervals.

Had to have a suspension knuckle joint replaced.

The rear wheel-arches rotted something chronic.

The radiator had to be replaced, but cost peanuts to fix.

General Comments:

Reliable, nippy and practical, but not big enough for two children and their clobber. When we only had one kid, we had to drop one of the seats to fit a pram as well as a suitcase.

That said, it cost very little to run and never broke down. We kept it for seven years until we grew out of it (and I was worried we wouldn't have much left but a pile of rust).

Faults:

New clutch at 38000 miles.

New radiator at 43000 miles.

General Comments:

It is a good first car with not much body roll and excellent pick up on hills. I have had 124 mph out of it and the 0 to 60 is around 10 seconds.

The seats are very comfortable.

The back wheel arches need to be looked after or they will rust a little.

It is quite low to the ground and often scrapes on bumps if going too fast.

Faults:

My Exhaust downpipe became disconnected from the rest of the exhaust, quite a common fault, but quick and easy to fix.

Needed a small amount of welding to the lower sills for its MoT.

Started mis-firing, but a new Distributor Cap and Rotor Arm fixed this.

General Comments:

Isn't very good pulling off when you have just started from cold.

Handles quite quickly around town with good, nippy acceleration.

Is great fun to drive with its go-kart handling.

Not had any major problems with the car, it only cost me £100 and I've had to spend another £100 on parts and labour to have it fixed.

Car still needs a new set of HT leads, but these will only cost me about £10 when I get round to doing it.

Faults:

During the time when I had the car, I have replaced the radiator as the car started overheating, alternator which went on a cold Christmas Eve, two sets of tires due to my style of driving, full exhaust system the front pipe snapped in half (no cat) the back box had a nasty hole and the middle pipe which I had welded and then blew the welds, gear selector rod just happened out of the blue, main coolant hose split, new cylinder head gasket, new cylinder head, exhaust manifold gasket, thermostat, petrol tank and back bumper.

General Comments:

This car lives up to the name (Pocket Rocket). Although I have had many problems with the car I will always like the Metro Gti.

The main coolant hose split as I left a Ford Escort XR3i standing. This then lead to the cylinder head getting warped and I has serious problems getting the engine re-built.

Apart from that a classic example of a boy racer car which is faster on acceleration than most "things" that boy racers drive.

Faults:

Rust was the main fault I had with this car. The main problem occurred with the wheels which rusted causing my tyres to go flat on six occasions.

Tracking was also a big problem and constantly had to be fixed to the point of once every month.

My boyfriend had a similar car with the same problems. It is also worth noting that when he took the key out of his ignition, the car kept running!

General Comments:

A good city with high maintenance costs the older you buy it. Watch out for wheel rusting - I spoke with my local mechanic who informed me this was a common Metro problem across the range!

Fuel consumption is good for a city car. This was all I could use mine for really. Hitting more than 50 miles per hour often gave my car problems.