Faults:

Only been driving for 1K miles and found:

- Slight clutch judder

- Interior heat not that hot - Luke warm.

- Re-circulation flap going mental

- Fuel gauge didn't work

- Misting up in car

- Brakes squeak (horrid drum brakes)

- Slight play in the steering

General Comments:

I really wanted to hate this car - got it cause I needed long distance car that can cruise at 80 mph without getting a bottom ache, and will return quite good mpg.

It's hard to fault the car - the above niggles are annoying, but forget about them and the car cruises at 80mph on the motorways with ease, nice and smooth and not demanding to drive and not hard work like other cars.

Handles wonderfully. It is quite soft suspension with a bit of body lean, yet it's almost quite chuckable. When things lose grip, it does very predictable understeer, which is easy to correct, so thumbs up in the handling department.

No rust as you'd expect from galvanised bodywork.

Brakes are a bit annoying, I hate rear drums, on every car I've had with drum brakes, they've all squeaked.

Interior is rather spacious feeling. All controls work, electric windows a bit slow, but come on, this is a 15 year old car, as long as it opens! Wish it had the seats from the older 405 (1992 and earlier) as they were flatter and much more 'sofa' like. newer ones are a bit bucket like and not quite so comfy...can't understand why you'd put bucket seats in a diesel?!?!

Also, there's a spoiler on the car... quite a big one too - my car is the saloon and it is the standard one, but why fit it on a car that won't do much more than 100mph total... so very weird.

Think I'm getting quite good mpg at the moment, not as good as I hoped, but well, it's better than most cars at high speeds...

Must add (slightly off topic) on my old 405 I drove to Newquay in it (300 miles each way) and we drove at night and did the whole journey in one hit, didn't stop once. Got out the other end and my bum wasn't numb! Amazing!

This is my second 405, and I'd get another one... and another one (if a good example turned up!)

Faults:

I have a knocking noise on the front suspension when pulling off, and when coming to a stop. Any ideas? No one can find the problem.

General Comments:

I bought the car as a temporary measure. Originally we needed a large car for our camping gear, and were looking for a Mondeo Estate TDCI.

Now though we are going to keep the 405 as it's such a good car.

The mpg is fantastic! I get 850+ miles from a single tank of fuel.

Faults:

Air-conditioning: the system was refurbished by replacing the dryer, compressor, expansion valve and cooling coil. Total replacement of all the parts. The circuit for the blower tends to have weak connectors and has changed to simple wire connectors. The wiring seems to change to dark brown, oxidised through time.

Forward suspension lower arm bushes are the main maintenance to be carried out. Due to bad roads and hundreds of speed bumps, the front lower arm bushes tends to wear out fast, especially the left one (always hit potholes with it).

Bulletproof engine, reliable and economical for a 2000cc car. stepper motor needs regular cleaning. So far only normal oil change and spark plugs. Timing belt and bearings are changed every 70k kms and water pumps at 140k km. Still returns 28mpg urban and 38mpg highway.

Plastics seems to be soft and degrading. Apply silicone polish to reduce wear.here, it is very hot and humid, which affects all the rubber and plastic parts very quickly.

General Comments:

The car is seriously quick, provided you have the momentum and speed. Has the ability to hang to a faster approach on a bend due to excellent suspension and steering geometry, which most japanese cars tends to back off. Handling is very entertaining on twisty mountain roads, steer by throttle, brake late, fast in, fast out. If the entrance speed is too hot, just ease the throttle, the car will get back in line.

Very comfortable long distance tourer, able to maintain maximum speed for 3 hours without overheating. Able to outperform most "sporting" car and very comfortable too. Excellent suspension, a balance between comfort and handling.