1998 Ford Escort CL Estate review from UK and Ireland

Power steering pump 45,000 miles.

Cold start wax-stat went making starting in the cold very difficult.

Drivers seat sagged badly - making it very uncomfortable for my lower back.

Various trim on back seats came away and required gluing/refitting.

The large pipe from the air filter to the turbo perished causing a whisting noise on acceleration. 50,000.

A solenoid on the injector pump went leaving the engine running very erratically and lots of smoke! 50,000 miles.

Clutch pedal automatic adjuster disintegrated on a round-about leaving me with no clutch! Had to be towed to a garage. 55,000 miles.

2 days later the windscreen wiper linkage broke as it was heavily warn leaving me with no wipers! 55,000 miles.

Front suspension bushes became quite soggy and needed bottom wishbones/bushes replacing.

Front brakes ceased and made knocking noises on braking 60,000 miles.

CV joint 60,000 miles.

Quite a lot of rust starting underneath.

Fuel economy was great, I could get over 50 mpg with it fully laden on long runs and 40 mpg on local runs.

The brakes were never good, and the front calipers kept ceasing and knocking, they should probably have been replaced.

The mechanical problems were all unexpected/disappointing for a car with pretty low mileage and only 3 years old.

The driver's seat was very uncomfortable and I had to get a foam backed seat cover to try to make it more comfortable.

It was a very practical car and the boot space was better than the Audi 80 Estate I owned previously.

The interior was very plastic, but at least it didn't have lots of materials that pretended to be anything else (i.e fake carbon fiber or fake wood).

The corrosion was also disappointing particularly round the rear suspension.