Faults:

Gearbox front bearing at 124000.

Timing belt (precautionary at 124000)

Front tyres (Bridgestone Expedia) at 128000.

Oil pressure sender at 130,000.

Rear suspension bushes at 138,000.

More front tyres (Firestone Firehawk) at 147000.

General Comments:

This is a car one buys for its engine. It's utterly glorious and has only failed to start once (and I think that was me flooding it).

It rides like a skateboard which is fun on country roads but gets up my nose a bit on long runs.

My wife thinks the clutch is too heavy (she's right).

I paid £800 for it and have spent £511.96 to date including everything except fuel.

I do all my own servicing and have a scrap car for spares. Genuine dealer parts are extortionate and unfortunately, there are few pattern parts available.

Faults:

Very little work to suspension bushes at about 30,000 and again later but I cannot recall any major problems.

General Comments:

Terrific car, and the running costs above relate to the horrendous servicing costs that were rarely less than £500 even for a minor service.

Against this I travelled weekly to Glasgow for 9 months and it ALWAYS returned 31 - 34 MPG! No one would believe that I cruised the thing at 80 - 90 most of the way.

Very chuckable for a large car and if anyone out there has a low mileage example in good condition I'd have it in a shot.