Faults:

Rust.

2 broken timing belts.

Fuel pump.

Water inside cabin.

Etc.

General Comments:

I bought this car with 70000 km on the clock in 2012. It had belonged to an elderly couple and they had treated the car 2x with cavity wax and underbody wax. Despite the extra protection, the car had rust, especially the rear wheel arches, which is a notorious problem on these cars. In Feb 2016 (140000, 70000 km driven in 3,5 years) I scrapped the car because the inspection would require an investment which would surpass the value of the car by many times.

I had many troubles with this car, but once it drove I really liked it: it was comfortable, the 60HP were ALL there, fuel efficient... at 110 km/h I could go 5,7 L/100km - something even modern cars struggle with.

The car experienced 2 broken timing belts, although everything was assembled correctly. The 1.4 is an interference engine - thus the valves and/or tappets bend or break. But the repair parts are very cheap... the only problem is the labour for fixing it.

I also had problems with my fuel pump - but it turned out to be a bad ground connection. So basically again a corrosion problem.

There have always been many small issues which required attention, and thus such a car is not suitable for a non-mechanic - it will be too expensive to drive it to the repair shop with the frequency I had problems.

Many parts have become obsolete such as the gasket for the heater blower and fuel gauge. That is quite problematic.

I had cabin water problems both in the front and in the trunk area, and despite spending many hours localizing and fixing the problems - it was never really solved.

At the end I had some issues with the engine check lamp, and diagnosed the problem to be the lambda sensor or something related to fuel injection. But I decided not to spend more time on it.

The best feature of the car, because it was an estate-caravan, was the enormous trunk with an even loading surface: It could almost fit moving boxes from an entire apartment :-). Next best features are the extremely inexpensive parts for the car - if they are available :-).

I scrapped the car in Feb 2016 with 140000 km on the clock. This is quite frustrating I think. I know the car is 26 years old, but only 140000 km? It would have required a tremendous amount of work to double that mileage.

Faults:

Terrible problem with factory extractor welds failing on the exhaust header; required repeated weldups.

Faulty ignition barrel, did not disengage starter motor sometimes.

General Comments:

Wow. Simply wow. What can I say? I knew the guy who owned this car before, and for some reason he sold it. A year later I saw it sitting at the back of a workshop of a chap I knew; I offered him money on the spot, and took it there and then.

The car features a C20XE engine with a Coscast head, Schrick cams lumpier than grannys porridge, a nice sequential EFI system, vented discs up front, solid on the back, factory adjustable damping Bilsteins, Recaro seats with leather trim, a mild but appealing factory body kit. It had a rechipped ECU courtesy of a past owner back in South Africa, its ancestral home.

The car had such a rough lumpy idle; it would sit there pulsing and shaking like a mad thing. Pop it in gear and lay on the gas, and it just gunned off the line. I am dead serious when I say few cars could beat it in the straight line, and absolutely nothing came close when it was about corners! This car had an exemption from the laws of physics.

Unfortunately it used vast amounts of petrol. It was solely responsible for the recent increases in petrol costs, sorry everyone.

I sold it back to the original owner after he got in touch with me - I was sad to see it go, but it was costing me a fortune, and I know how much he loved the car, so off it went! Still miss it heaps though!