Faults:

About 45000, my serpentine belt broke while driving on the thruway.

100,450 miles, the stabilizer bar broke.

Pipe leading into the heating core broke (multiple holes).

Finding and replacing fuel filter.

Car shakes when idles/shuts down.

General Comments:

Finding and replacing the fuel filter was very hard. Hoping if you do this, you find a friend with long arms. Just take out the air intake system.

Fixing the pipe leading into the heating core pipe was only $50, but the time to take it out and the extreme patience to put it back in were priceless.

Car doesn't shake anymore, replaced the fuel filter and replaced the stabilizer bar, wondering which one of the two helps more, but car almost never shakes anymore. Hope this helps with other people's problems.

Faults:

I have had 0 problems other than normal maintenance; tires, oil changes, wipers, etc.

General Comments:

My wife saw the car on the road and said what is that? I seen it was an Escort and went directly to a dealership. Ask at four dealers and they told me NO such car. This is the most fun I have ever had. Glad I persevered and found my yellow s/r. I like my 2009 MKS, but love my S/R.

Faults:

The air conditioner died early on right after the warranty was up (of course), but the Ford dealership fixed it at no charge.

I did have one of the belts break, but got that fixed.

Now, mine has the vibration that everyone has talked about, but my mechanic found that it was because 3 motor mounts were cracked. While waiting to save the money for the repair, I would put the car in neutral while at a light and the vibrating decreased dramatically.

General Comments:

Overall, I have been very happy with the car. I wish the tires were a size that was a bit less expensive. I had a Celica before and those tires could be bought cheaper.

I love the look of the car: it's a 2000 model, and I hate the grill on the new ones... anyway, the car was inexpensive and I have been very satisfied.

Faults:

Materials are a little fragile. They don't resist to be under sun for extended periods of time.

Engine is always hot and you can feel the heat in hot weather.

Radio is difficult to operate; It's not easy to change stations.

General Comments:

The interior is spacious for a two door coupe. Back seat is comfortable, too. If you take good care of this car it can be really good, durable and will not leave you stranded on the road.

Make sure you are doing all the maintenance and you will not have any problems. It's a fast and reasonably economical car that can be very nice if you take good care of it.

Faults:

Air conditioner stopped working, so had to replace the computer in the first year.

Then the PVC had to be replaced twice because it was making a load squealing that was real annoying, and it kept wanting to die at a stop.

We had to replace the bands in the transmission at around 80000.

The water pump developed a small leak. Didn't get it fixed quick enough, and and blew a head. Had to replace the engine.

Now the transmission went out this weekend; has metal in the transmission pan, and also like everyone else it shakes enough to scramble eggs.

But all in all, it has weathered all we have thrown at it, and fixing it hasn't been as bad as most.

Also had to replace the tie rods. After this, should have an almost new car again.

General Comments:

The car is very economical and gets great gas mileage.

However it has serious concerns with the transmissions, and Ford should recall that component.