Faults:

Light fuses occasionally stop functioning, easy to replace.

Steering started making a strange squeaking noise.

Starter motor became noisy.

Reverse gear hard to use sometimes (since 80 000 km).

General Comments:

I would recommend this car as a economic vehicle. It's dirt cheap, and if you take good care of it, it can last for a lifetime.

It's a very simple car, almost no electronics, no luxury, no performance (it's a slow car).

I don't like its handling, you should go slow on this thing. Under-steers very easily. Not very stable.

But I like it. It's very reliable, I've had it for 120 000 km (got it with 80 000) and the only things I had to replace were the normal parts that wear out (oil, brakes, some light fuses, tires, etc).

I can make 5.5/100 km very easily. It won't go beyond 140Km/h anyway.

I would say for it's class it's one of the best models.

Faults:

NOTHING.

General Comments:

A simple car to get from A to B & if you wanted, get to C with no problems whatsoever.

Fuel consumption is very good (Birmingham to Weston took £5 with a boot full of clothes & linen)

Very, very reliable. I'll be sad when I need a bigger second car as my little red fiesta has served me well.

General Comments:

I hate this car. The gears are my biggest pet peeve. They are constantly sticking and I have had then checked a number of times, but apparently that's just the way the are. Never again will I get a Fiesta. I'm getting rid of mine.

Faults:

For the first six months, very little (this is because I replaced all the little things E. g indicators, side repeaters, stereo).

In the first month of ownership, the car managed up to 100MPH to Milton Keynes and back with luggage and 2 passengers, now I wouldn't dream of taking him near a motorway.

The steering Rack went.

The boot has seized shut.

Yesterday the drivers door hinge seized and the bottom half of the door fell off, hanging from the top hinge.

It drinks oil like petrol, and leaks it too.

The steering is terrible, there's something definitely wrong, but several mechanics don't know what. It pulls as if the a tyre were too low.

General Comments:

This has to be the perfect first car. (Even though it's my third!)

When I got my car it was a bog standard 1.1. I, as many new, young drivers like to do, replaced the indicators for clear ones, blue side repeaters, Pepper-pot alloys, sprayed the bumpers to match the car. The interior is great for personalizing; I removed and sprayed blue, everything that would unscrew, which is practically everything. The panels behind the seat belt got a covering of carbon-fiber, blue floor mats, silver sprayed air filters, seat covers. It even has a set of 6'9's in the parcel shelf. It was cheap and easy to personalize.

The car is relatively cheap to run, if you know a mechanic who can fix the minor problems, like those above!!

People complain about the speed, but this car is nippier than both my previous cars (D reg Escort estate 1.4 and d reg fiesta mk2 1.1) and it's only got 4 gears.

It's never over heated, never let me down in the middle of no where, in fact it's the most reliable of all the 3 cars I've had.

The parts are cheap from a local ford scrap yard and it's cheap to insure.

However, it has no intermittent wipers, no rear wiper, no clock, no rev metre, oh and no 5th gear! I also paid to have an alarm fitted as this car is easy prey for a thief.

As a first car it's perfect, the visibility is great for reversing, and if you're a capable driver, which yes, some of us women are, it's a doddle to park. If you bump it parts are easy to get hold of and cheap. In fact we knew someone with the same model in his yard, when anything went wrong we used those parts.