Faults:

Well, nothing has been wrong in the proper sense of the word, but I have to accept that when you drive on irregular pavement, the suspension crackles a lot, and the noise is a little irritant.

If you live at a considerable altitude over sea level - I'd say over 2000 meters or so, the engine feels a little underpowered if there are three or four adults in the car.

General Comments:

The car is absolutely a gem; it handles like butter, but with a precise feeling in your hands; the steering is firm, yet gentle, and transmits every single stone on the pavement. The brakes are also nice, since they stop the car considerably well in most situations.

The front seats fit perfect for an average adult, and they don't let you slide when taking a close curve or something.

The economy is also great if you consider the total weight of the vehicle, the modest power train, and the heavy traffic conditions of my city.

Above everything else, I want to point the superb performance of the 1.4 16 v Zetec-S engine, which transmits the power to the wheels in a smooth, placid way, in a perfect combination with the manual transmission.

Nice car, just take care of it, and never force it or forget its normal garage needs.

Faults:

The rear cylinder brake unit started leaking at about 20000m.

The front window started sticking at about 35000m, sorted easily with a bit of lubricant.

The rear view mirror fell off sorted for £1.

Brand new exhaust at 38000m.

Rear suspension rubber bushes split at 45000m.

General Comments:

This car has been a very good little car, with very little going wrong on it. None of the items changed cost that much. The car is starting to rust a little, I think that this down to the fact that it spent the first part of it's life in Jersey, rather than a manufacturing problem. Would have another Ford or Fiesta no problem.

Faults:

Anti roll bar bushes shortly after purchase and they're on the way again now.

Heater control valve.

Other than that it's been perfect.

General Comments:

Lovely tight little car that handles better than most hot hatches, and has a gutsy, revvy engine that's a joy to use. I cannot believe it's the same capacity as the gutless, breathless 1.4 Polo we had before. This is one of those engines that just encourages hard use. You can feel it come "on cam" as the revs pass 3,000 RPM and it will happily bury the rev counter needle round towards 7,000 RPM if you let it.

The car was bought really as a runabout / second car, but it's really fun to thrash around the back lanes. The steering is perfectly weighted, the gearbox slick and short of throw, the engine pulls harder and harder as the revs build, there's very little body roll. It's no wonder the class leading Puma used these underpinnings - they're brilliant. Only a tendency to munch front bushes spoils it a little, although if that's the price of decent handling, I'll live with it. They're cheap and easy to do.

The interior is well screwed together (at least as well as the Polo, if not better), but looks dated. Equipment is okay - electric front windows, tilt / removable sunroof, power steering, CD player and front fogs. To be honest, apart from air conditioning, it's all you really need. Seat comfort is good, but 6 foot + drivers will find themselves wishing the seat would go back a couple more notches.

Economy excellent with around 40 mpg driven sensibly, and about 34 when hammered around. The engine is still sweet and smooth, and for a small budget car, it's wearing its 100,000 miles superbly. Ford dealers expensive and hopeless - don't use them. There were some problems around the heater control valve fitment which, had I been gullible, would have cost me over 200 quid for absolutely nothing.

Overall though, I'd have this over an equivalent aged Polo, Corsa or Punto any day of the week. Fun, reliable, plentiful, cheap to buy, cheap to run, cheap to fix, brilliant handling, and with enough performance to comfortably see off its similarly engined rivals. What more could you ask for in a small cheap runabout?