Faults:

Steering rack had to be replaced, but that was due to my driving no fault on car.

Brake pads.

General Comments:

This is a great car it has had few things wrong and I would highly recommend.

There good is performance when you need it and is a comfortable car.

Cabin is spacious with good room in the back.

Does seem to like the fuel though is a thirsty car.

Faults:

The horn stopped working at about 200,000 miles.

The valve seats fell out of the number 1 and 3 cylinders at about 243,000 miles.

The cable control for the air vents in the dash broke at about 200,000 miles. You had to reach under the dash to control the vents.

The parking brake started sticking at about 243,000 miles.

General Comments:

As you can see, this car lasted for a very long time before anything serious went wrong with it. I acquired the car free of charge at 243,000 miles because of the problem with the valve seats. After that and the other couple of problems were fixed, it ran wonderfully. Because it was so small, it handled well; which was good because with a 1.9 litre engine you don't have much as far as power is concerned. How does 88 horsepower grab you? That little car was great and had no problem taking a full load of people all over town. It was really easy on the fuel tank too. I sold the car a few months after I fixed it, and even though I made a profit, I regret letting that little guy go. I was certainly a car of character.

Faults:

Exhaust was replaced when we bought the car, this fault was known when we bought it.

Water has leaked into the drivers door causing the central locking on this door not to work, repair would cost £130 so decided to leave it.

Drivers electric window packed up, the fault was simply caused by a bit of dirt in the switch contact.

Rear window heater some times does not work.

The discs, pads and bearings had to be replaced has the previous owner took the car to a garage that caused damage fitting breaks wrongly. This cost £280 to put right.

Cambelt and pulley was replaced which cost £160, this didn't need to be done, but was done in case the old one snapped.

Rear shock absorbers needed replacing at about 78,000 miles.

Lambda sensor needed replacing at 67,000 miles.

Exhaust needed replacing for last MOT.

Cat converter also needed replacing.

A bit of rust on the wheel arches, but this is cosmetic and not structural.

Rocker cover was replaced at one point. The cable on the drivers door handle also snapped.

Rear boot lock doesn't work so you have to use the cable release to open the tailgate.

There was a blockage in the cooling system which caused the sensor the electronic fan not to work. The system was bled and it has worked fine ever since.

In total about £1000 has been spent on servicing and repairs. Much of this is reflected in the fact the car is used mostly in the city, it rarely gets past 40mph.

General Comments:

The car has a nice interior which borrows Mondeo elements. Its much improved on the 1990 model.

The car has lots of standard equipment, electric windows, central locking, power steering, sunroof, height adjustable steering wheel, immobilisers, alarm etc.

The engine is willing on higher speeds, but can be a bit slow of the mark, the engine can some times be a tad jurkey perhaps due to the usual Zetec sticking valve problem. The car is great on motorways more than enough power for over taking. It can do 80-90mph without any hint of struggling.

However the car sounds like new, it mostly runs like new, the clutch shows no signs of wear and has never been replaced in the cars history.

Handling is not great, but the Zetec models have rear roll bars fitted which helps matter.

Overall for £1600 in 2002 we got a lot of car for the money and it was modern. A lot of things have gone wrong, but its mostly little things, the mechanics are still as good as new. Many of the problems are caused by city driving.

This car has always started first time and touch wood is extremely reliable.