Faults:

Electric mirrors were not working when I picked the car up from the garage. After fighting with the garage to fix them and having no joy – I eventually did this myself by stripping the motors down and cleaning them.

NSF brake calliper sticking. After a set of pads/poor fuel economy and cleaning the calliper several times, I discovered the piston “o” ring was out of position. Once this was cleaned and replaced, no further problems.

Rear parcel shelf does not fit exactly. Used insulation tape wrapped around the spindles to keep them in place, and rubber tap washers to hold the two cords in the correct position.

FOS ABS sensor packed in – bought a second had one.

Leather wheel slowly falling apart.

If raining, water pours into boot if opened too quickly.

ROS light cluster leaking water.

AC smells bad – goes away after a period of time.

Uses oil – must keep an eye on this one.

Rear silencer rots at the tailpipe.

Rear arches starting to suffer from rust.

Drivers door sometimes difficult to open. Once the locks were oiled problem seemed to go away.

Rear view mirror dropped off. Now stuck back on, but still fragile.

General Comments:

Cheap to run.

Great to drive.

Very reliable – only minor niggles as listed.

Roughly 270 miles out a tank of fuel, no matter how it is driven!

Great gearbox. Very nippy and doesn’t mind a good rev.

Heated screen is fantastic.

Faults:

Strange rubbing under the wing mirrors, which started to rub the the paint off where the mirrors meet the doors. Seems like a common problem. Fixed with some help towards the cost by Ford under the warranty.

General Comments:

Excellent drivers car. Have had this now for 5 years and there is nothing I would swap it for.

Superb handling, excellent economy and service, and parts are very reasonable!!! If you have kids, check out the seats very extensively to see which ones really fit.

Faults:

On delivery (27 miles on the clock), the brakes lights were jammed on. Took two visits to the Ford workshop before it was fixed, in the first week of ownership.

Electric door mirror on passenger side non-functional on 3 separate occasions. Dealer took 3 years to fix this fault properly (under warranty luckily).

After 3000 miles, the finish on the steering wheel started to come off (dealer said this was normal wear and tear).

After 4 years and only 15,000 genuine miles, the seals between the front panels and the bulkhead failed. This allowed rainwater to ingress into the foot wells. Wrote a letter of complaint to Ford Customer Service in Glasgow, but was effectively told that this was normal wear and tear for a car of this age and mileage! Cost 300 quid to get fixed.

Currently cannot use the heated rear screen as this blows the fuse to the instrument cluster.

Rear parcel shelf has never fitted properly.

Odd rattles inside coming from the drivers door. Cannot locate fault.

Electric windows occasionally do not function. Intermittent fault.

Paint work is very fragile, it chips very easily, especially on the bonnet.

General Comments:

What a great shame!

As a drivers car, this vehicle is simply superb, handles like a dream and has great performance through the gears. It should be a winner.

Unfortunately, poor build quality, indifferent dealer service and general denial of these problems by Ford UK themselves (after I wrote to complain about the shoddy build quality), all combine to ensure that I shall never buy another product from this company.

I am buying an Audi S4 this summer (anyone know any reason why I should reconsider this choice - I would be grateful for comments!)