Faults:

I had a major engine surging problem that was daunting to track down. I had the throttle body cleaned at the dealer. That made the surging manageable. As it turns out it was probably fresh air leaking into the intake because after she heated up the apparent gap in the intake sealed itself and the idle calmed down.

My Talon burned oil and smoked badly if left to idle, (valve stem seals)

I had the clutch done after I bought the car, my tranny guy said he had never seen so little clutch left on a running car. That really surprised me because it still felt good and tight when driving normally. (careful, I waited to replace the clutch and toasted my pressure plate)

General Comments:

Other than the problems associated with a fairly high mileage car it seemed to be fairly tight.

The car is a quick little machine although I longed for the turbo and especially the AWD.

It handled amazing save for a little under steer at the limit, likely because of the FWD only drive train.

Love the seats nd interior although only really made for two.

Faults:

Timing.

General Comments:

This car had problems with the timing, plugs and wires. I never could get the timing right. Other than that, this car was super fast and super fun to drive. I really didn't know what I had until it was gone.

Faults:

When I first acquired the car it ran great except it had a little bit of lifter noise. No big deal, lifters are $8.65/lifter... I still haven't replaced them, however.

The first thing to go out was the water pump. Then the clutch. Then the brake rotors became very warped. I replaced the front rotors, and everything was great. The rear rotors are starting to shake a little, I'll probably look at replacing those shortly. Next, the BISS screw fell out. That's the throttle adjustment. After the free mods (which I HIGHLY recommend doing if you have some spare time... be warned it causes other issues though) the plastic BISS screw just popped off.

Most recently (and my car is currently in the shop) one of the two radiator fans stopped spinning. The car overheated and antifreeze was scattered all over the compUSA parking lot. On the way to my driveway my father noticed blue smoke coming out of the tail pipe when I shifted. Burning oil is fun and educational! So we took it into the shop. I have a feeling the blue smoke may be a result of the free mods in some twisted way, but we'll see as soon as I get it back.

The only other thing that's "wrong" is a squeak. One of the rear wheels makes a strange squeaking when in motion, as soon as you apply breaks it stops. So far every shop I've been to has told me nothing is wrong, and to just live with the sound.

General Comments:

If you have the time/money to keep it running it's the coolest car ever. It runs between 195-210hp stock. It's curb weight is 2,650lbs, and it's AWD. It's light, quick, and launches like a beast. If you're into pissing off "street" racing teenagers, this is the car to do it in. I've pulled up next to an SVT Cobra that was ready to race me. In all reality that thing would tear the TSi apart, but the I got off the line with the AWD was enough to scare him into giving up right away.

The AWD handles insanely well also. I live in CO and it snows... a lot. AWD helps out so much. Just try to keep away from "rally" racing on the streets... cops don't like that too much.

The only complains I have are that the car tops out at 130-something. Wait... I shouldn't know that!

The interior is awkward at first, but after a while it's the only thing you'll want to be in. The backseat sucks, but I love that. Nobody wants me to drive them around anymore!

The bottom line is that if you want a car that's pretty fast stock, and handles like crazy (drag racing is for lazy people ~.O), the first generation AWD turbos are the cars to do it in. At firs they look like the cheapest choice (you can pick one up in mint body condition, pretty good mechanical condition for about $3000), but double the money you spent on the car to get a realistic value of how much you're going to spend in total. You will have repairs to do, and those go-fast mods are just too atractive to pass up. that 250hp mark is a pretty easy hit.