Faults:

When 'spinning' the Charade along the roads of Guernsey the four bar role cage has come into use. This low performance 'racer' has hit 50mph top speed. Anything over this speed does not allow speech to take place in the car due to the fan overheating and radiator rattling. Rust set in very quickly, meaning that the 'bulletproof' chasis is a load of crap.

General Comments:

As soon as you twist the key and the engine starts to purr, the driver realises the power they are going to experience. The 0.9 engine sits pretty next to the 50cc scotters, that it just beats in performance.

Faults:

Absolutely everything, but the most notable thing was the spectacular way in which it all went wrong at once.

500km's after buying the car, the auto trans blew up.

Another 500km's, the oil pump packed up, the front brakes were also shot and so were fixed at the same time.

In less than 500km's the engine then completely hand-grenaded, blowing the head, and water pump.

I could have accepted this being an old car now, but meanwhile, it was painfully slow, excruciatingly uncomfortable, and truly truly ugly. Add in a healthy dose of rust, dangerous handling, pathetic quality of interior and build and numerous water leaks when it rained, causing fungus!!! It was a total pile of poo.

General Comments:

If this car were a fridge it would wear a four star energy rating. Fuel bills are the smallest outlay possible on this car.

If you buy one, people will laugh at you and you will become an outcast, seriously unhinged and in need of therapy.

Faults:

5th gear broke at 120.000 km.

Head gasket broke at 100.000 km.

General Comments:

This car is one of the most underrated ever for sure, and I remember myself always thinking like that BEFORE I had mine.

Just a few words on reliability: usually the only reason the head gasket can blow is heat; in my case the cooling fan broke and it went hot a few times, that's something you should not underestimate.

The only real weakness seems to be the 5th gear, the tappet wheel is worn off and the gear jumps out. This is something to replace with new parts, I bought a used gearbox, where the 5th gear broke also after 10.000kms.

I personally would want to have a "stronger" clutch, because when you try to accelerate without spinning wheels, 1) the clutch doesn't connect nicely and 2) it's ruined soon when you keep doing it.

I am not mechanic myself, so I had to try out many different one until I found one as enthusiastic as me.