Faults:

The water pump literally fell apart taking with it the cam-belt and tensioners - £300 fix at dealer.

The in-car computer kept insisting the brake pads were faulty when they were fine.

Pineapple yellow paintwork was virtually impossible to 'touch-up'

General Comments:

Apart from the small problems I had the car was very reliable.

Comfort is not great on longer journeys courtesy of the sports seats.

Great little sprinter - very pacy in low gears.

The dash is a little grey, but can be easily pepped up by the owner.

Faults:

My heat shield fell off.

Electrics are a problem; engine can cut out for no reason at all.

Timing seems to be a problem; spends most of its time going below 800rpm.

Drivers seat is showing signs of wear.

Driving hard in 4th gear seems to make it go into limp mode (orange management light comes on).

General Comments:

This car is very quick, of the start, no so much below 3000rpm, but once above it the powers is brilliant.

Handles great on the open country roads.

The styling is sporting looking, but plain, which is better so it not so noticeable as a 'Hot Hatch'.

The paint work is very hard, and takes hard knocks well.

Faults:

Where do I start?! Even though it was serviced at a dealer in line with the service schedule, in the 18 months or so I had the car, it cost me more in repairs (not including servicing!) than my previous 3 cars put together.

First of all, about 3 months after I bought it second hand (with full dealer service history) the alternator required replacing. 9000 miles later, the water pump was replaced at a main dealer. A week after that, the cylinder head gasket blew, leaving me stranded with an overheating engine. The main dealer was not the slightest bit interested in the fact that the car had just had work done by them on the cooling system.

About 6 months later, one of the timing belt pulleys snapped, leaving me with a very broken engine. I must admit, it's a bit worrying when the AA turn up to fix your car, they hear the engine and the first thing they say is "Where do you want to be towed?". Needless to say, this repair did not go to the main dealer.

Apart from these major faults, there were lots of "niggly" problems - hazard warning switch that wouldn't switch off, rear wiper that parked itself at a random position on the rear windscreen every time it was switched off, electric aerial that refused to stow itself away properly unless you cleaned it weekly, bulbs blowing in rear lamps and number plate almost every month. Oh, yes, one day the rear view mirror just fell off the windscreen! At traffic lights, sometimes the engine would just rev itself, or jump from ticking over at about 900 rpm to 2000rpm, seemingly at random. Electric windows would sometimes not work on "one push up/down"

Just as I was about to sell it, and thought the worst was over, the battery packed in. If there was ever a "Monday Morning" car, this was it!

General Comments:

Styling almost dull, but the alloy wheels, front fog lights and subtle roof spoiler made the difference between "boring blandmobile" and "wolf in sheeps clothing". Was very quick and handled great. Very good on motorways or on country lanes. Gearbox a bit notchy sometimes. Very quick accelerating from the lights, although very easy to spin the wheels in the wet!

Good 6 speaker stereo, and I particularly liked the large stereo/clock display which was separate from the radio itself. Dashboard layout great, with the exception of the "where the hell is it?" fog-light switches. But I just couldn't get properly comfortable when in stop-start traffic - the clutch was just too high up & the pedals were too high off the floor.

Headlights gave out so little light they were almost for "ornamental purposes only"