Faults:
Very little except normal wear and tear from the Starship Enterprise mileage!
Warped brake discs (common problem on these), clutch at 100,000+, rear wheel bearing giving a strange squeaking noise, otherwise normal service items.
Valve guide seals just starting to shown signs of wear, as oil consumption starting to increase, and the odd puff of smoke from cold - not a difficult or expensive job if one finds a good independent specialist.
General Comments:
A fantastic car for the money (paid circa 3K five years ago). 1.8CVH engine reliable, economical but lacking in smoothness. Fortunately quite torquey as it doesn't like to be revved. If the mileage was hidden it would be difficult to tell from driving how many miles car had covered - still returns 35MPG on a long run and seats 4 adults in comfort.
Parts are usually cheap, and car is simple enough to service with a penknife (!) so no need to pay main dealer labour rates.
I hope there's another 100K left in this one yet.
19th May 2001, 15:28
Because of the suspension problem, I replaced the normal bushes with polly (power-flex) ones on my XR 4x4. This is because I managed to total wreck ALL the bushes on the rear end on my old sierra. In 4 and a half years of caning, sorry driving, these have given no trouble and people even comment it seams to be more comfortable.