Faults:

Not a lot; the car ran poorly all of a sudden, found the fuel filter was clogged, could happen to any car I suppose.

Strange clicking noise coming from car one night - couldn't initially find what it was, but it was very strange. Traced to - poor design of windscreen wipers when it comes to dealing with snow - thankfully relatively rare in the UK - the snow gets under the wipers and gets 'packed' against the scuttle; the wipers keep trying and trying to 'park', even with the engine off and the car locked! I don't know how the motor didn't burn out or a relay didn't blow. Haven't had this problem with other cars and snow.

Erm... clicking from CV boots, but that's a maintenance thing that I need to fix.

The glovebox is ridiculous - so small it's almost of no use.

Seems to be heavy on front tyres? Approx 11k miles from a set (different ones) - which seems a lot to me and it doesn't get used hard at all.

General Comments:

Got this car for a great price - it was a part ex at work and was cheap as it needed tidying up inside and out; especially inside as it was not in a good state!

A few deep cleans later and it was worth the effort.

I was looking for a relatively small car with good space inside - and this car does that. It's not a big car - but the interior space is very good, front and rear. In fact I don't think there is a car of this size that's bigger inside the passenger compartment.

The boot however, is the slight downfall. I previously had a Xsara Picasso which was a similar sized car - with less room in the cabin - but it had a much bigger boot.

However, it's been big enough for our needs.

The 1.6HDi engine doesn't get the best write-up, but I think it's a decent engine, at least in this guise. It's only the 90bhp version and the car weighs over 1300kg so performance isn't great - but it's adequate and it's a pretty flexible engine. I also think it's quite refined inside. I've driven much newer and more expensive 'premium' cars such as BMWs, Audis etc which are less refined when it comes to the engine inside the cabin.

It returns 50+ MPG most of the time, with 60+ doable on longer journeys. It's never returned less than 40 MPG on a tank even in winter, which I think is decent.

In comparison to the older 2.0 HDi 90ps engine - I'd say this returns approx 5 MPG more in equivalent circumstances/car types etc.

It's far from a sporty car to drive, which is fair enough as it's not remotely a sporty car. It leans and is slow to respond. The gear change is also ponderous and clunky.

There are a lack of clever storage areas in the car. Other similar cars have more.

The rear seats are a 70/30 bench which slides and reclines. When folded, they lower so that the floor is flat. Again the Xsara Picasso was much, much bigger for ultimate capacity - but you did have to lift the 3 seats out and find somewhere to put them which wasn't always easy.

Overall - it's been a good car and it's going to be difficult to find something to replace it that offers the same qualities.

The car has a bit of a quirky style and an old person's car image... but if that doesn't bother you and you can look past it, it's a decent car in my experience.

Faults:

I have owned it from new and covered 26000 miles so far. No faults at all. Haven't replaced anything. Topped up the oil slightly after the first 3000 miles; since then it has barely used any at all between 12000 mile services.

General Comments:

I wanted a car big enough for family holidays, able to carry 3 or 4 passengers and their suitcases in the boot, but short enough to get into small parking spaces. Also, wanted good fuel economy and low emissions - annual road tax on this is still £20 (UK). It is great to drive, diesel provides a lot of low down torque which gives much better acceleration than expected. Fun handling on the twisty bits, you can really shift a lot faster than you might expect - stable and predictable at speed. Over nearly 3 years of ownership, it has grown on me massively. I will keep it, I wouldn't hesitate to buy again. Comfortable and quiet on 500 mile trips or round town. It will happily cruise at 80+mph and returns over 50 MPG under virtually ANY conditions. I get about 62-65 MPG on runs and 50-55 MPG in slow traffic. Seats are good and the rear seats adjustable for rake and they slide forward a little, which gives extra space in the boot if required. One handed folding of the rear seats and a level floor makes loading a breeze.

Passengers love it, great visibility and dashboard display is excellent. Drawbacks? A bit slow to warm up due to the mass of the diesel engine; glovebox is tiny, just big enough for errrr... a pair of gloves! (but door pockets are large, so not a problem). No spare wheel as standard, I guess to keep the weight down for emissions, but I bought a full-size spare on eBay cheap - it fits fine in the spare wheel well in the boot. All in all, a great car. And I have owned everything from Alfa to Zagato.