Faults:

Minor Oil leak since purchase.

Fan belt snapped at 85,000 miles.

Exhaust fell off at 97,000 miles.

Slight rust appearing around wheel arches.

General Comments:

An excellent workhorse for three years, this car was an excellent purchase.

Reliable, this car always starts quickly. And can be trusted on long journeys.

The car prefers mild dry weather, and doesn't perform well in the cold until the engine has had a chance to warm up.

Once warm, the engine reacts fast and can be surprisingly nippy, although (as one would expect), heavier loads dramatically affect performance.

However, if you are light-footed, the car is very economic and will achieve better than 50 miles to the gallon. Parts and insurance are also cheap.

For a small car, it can carry quite a lot of luggage and has numerous places to store useful items.

The interior is basic, though the LX model comes with a four speaker stereo, sunroof and a fifth gear (all of which are well recommended!)

Controls and instruments are simple, no-frills, no-nonsense and all still work.

Note: This car does 'not' like severe rain conditions (floods!) which cause the engine to lurch and misfire. But then - what car does?

Faults:

A few minor things, crack on the windscreen which spread. New back box, few new number plates to get it through the MOT, but now everything is ship shape and it's another well looked after XR2I back on the road.

General Comments:

Quick indeed, comfortable lay out. spot lights really brighten up the road.

Faults:

The only problems I have had with this car is slight corrosion around the rear wiper blade.

Also the interior clock is broken and the display on the stereo, although these parts are standard as bought and are 15 years old, so its not surprising they have seen better days.

Otherwise the interior is very clean and no working parts such as electric windows, indicators, fans & heating etc are broken.

General Comments:

This car has fantastic acceleration and is great fun to drive.

I picked mine up quite cheap at just over £500, it is completely standard which is pretty unique as most performance fiestas are modified.

I have not yet decided if I want to modify this car because nothing really needs doing, I think it looks & drives great as it is.

Even though the car is 15 years old it drives like new, the car is in good working order even though it was sat redundant on a drive for 6 weeks before I bought it.

The car has a 1.6 litre 8 valve injection engine and really has some pull to it for such a small car.

Id love to try out the 16 valve 1.8 engine model, but that would be too expensive for me on insurance.

Even though the insurance was quite expensive its definately worth the investment, especially as its not a very expensive car to buy.

I bought the car without tax. Road tax was quite expensive for this car at around £95 for 6 months!

Overall this car is a great runner regardless and I would definately recommend it to someone who is looking for a cheap performance hatchback.

Faults:

OK there is a catalogue of problems that I will document on this car, which have ultimately put me off ever buying a Ford again.

I bought this 1.1 blue MK 3 Fiesta LX from ebay for a very cheap price. There were no problems for the first 5,000 miles even though it was very rattly which is to be expected. Needed to replace the head gasket, at a cost of 300. The car also had new sparks put in and general service. Was consistently leaking oil and I couldn't tell where it was coming from. There was no further problems for a while, despite it becoming more and more rattly. The car had VERY poor performance and really had to be pushed to match other 1.1's or 1.2's. Sometimes the engine turned over so lumpily the whole car juddered. Pleased to say it usually started first time, but this is no consolation. Then around 2 months after I had replaced the HG, the clutch started slipping. This was teh final straw as I had spent so much on it already. I drove it till the clutch went completely then scrapped it. I am now looking for either a French or Japanese car as old Fords are not worth looking at!

General Comments:

Appauling, never will buy a car from Ford again no matter what. Going around corners was a nightmare, you felt like the car could loose grip at any point and go careereing off into the abyss.

Also, on top of the major problems, it felt like every working part on the car was liable to fall out or break at any given time. I have not seen cars of this age from other manufacturers which make the rattly tappet noise this one does. I believe the problem is in Escorts and Fiestas this age, using the CVH engine.