Faults:

Usual wear and tear stuff.

General Comments:

Powerful light car with a rorty 140bhp engine and low-ratio 5 speed manual gearbox, but unfortunately dogged by poor handling and so-so brakes.

Very mediocre ride comfort. Awful seats.

Average build quality. But it was reliable (this car is actually Mazda-derived).

Noisy, lacks refinement. Transmission gearing is too low for highway cruising.

Fuel economy is OK given the nature of the car.

Design-wise, the 2 door hatchback shape looks sporty.

Faults:

For me, the drivers side window is difficult to wind, in the process of winding the widow I have snapped off the winding handle. This was easy to fix and replace myself.

The engine makes a strange sound for about a minute after starting up cold. This will be looked at shortly.

General Comments:

What a great first car! I've been thoroughly happy with. It looks great, performs extremely well for a little 4 cylinder and has a fairly decent fuel economy.

I've been really happy with it so far :D.

Faults:

The car failed its WOF on these two things:

Big Crack in lower left hand corner of windscreen (from trying to cram a kayak into it) - cost $300 to replace.

Crack in the Exhaust - had it welded for $20.

Has an odd clicking noise that happens whilst turning right at low speeds, sounds like the steering rack.

When the heater is on 1, or 2 no air comes out, but when it is on 3, or 4 it works, it has... Off, (1-2) off still, (3) fast, (4) faster.

Accidentally reversed into a concrete post.. bent the pressed metal edge below the boot lid, and distorted the bumper.

Rust is beginning to show in the door pillars, and surface corrosion on the chassis members.

The camshaft and tappets are noisy when the car is cold, despite adding tune-up after servicing it.

General Comments:

This car is a GL model, so it has Velour seats and the Mazda sourced 1600cc unit.

I recently required the security code for the radio and being a NZ new car, I simply called the dealer where it was sold new (12 years ago), told them the license plate number and they were able to find the radio code.

Faults:

Window winder mechanism needed to be replaced.

Occasionally stalls when I am gearing down and coming to a standstill.

I didn't get one earlier!

General Comments:

This is a black TX3 non turbo 2 door car that looks goes and sounds terrific with little or no problems. A lot of people think it's the turbo 4wd version and say "oh". But this car is absolutely fantastic to drive sounds raspy and is as reliable as a swiss watch. It's a bit like having an Alfa (with its dohc 16v engine) without the hassles.

It owes me all up, with a top CD system, alarm, central locking and insurance, about $9k on the road and it will put a new Kia or Hyundai to shame. To be fair it's not really a Ford, it's actually a fully imported Mazda, which speaks a lot for their engineering.

On top all this it's very frugal and hugely practical. Despite being a 3 door hatch, it fits 4 adults comfortably and with the split fold rear seats down doubles up as a small panel van. I often mow my grandparents lawn and it carrys a lawn mower and brush cutter no problems. I also use it when I need to cart around small bits of furniture, something I can't do with my VS Commodore...