1994 Ford Aspire review from North America

Clamps that hold the heat shielding rusted out one-by-one over the first few years, but I simply replaced them with cheap hose clamps which are still holding today.

Automatic running lights stopped working around 200,000 km. Seems to be a shorted out wire that I have yet to track down.

Rear wiper motor burned out around 250,000 km when it stalled against my bike rack. I replaced it with a used motor for $15.

Emergency brake cable seized up a couple of times, but easy and cheap to replace.

I've replaced the brakes and rear shocks a couple of times, but they were relatively inexpensive since I did the work myself. The shocks probably would not have needed replacing if I wasn't frequenting rough dirt roads every summer.

Around 275,000 km, the speedometer was making a strange buzzing noise and the needle was jumping, but lubricating the mechanism in the dashboard solved the problem.

Lock cylinders have seized up a couple of times, but WD-40 easily fixed that.

Right now I'm leaking a bit of oil, but it looks like replacing some gaskets will solve the problem.

The only breakdown: around 250,000 km the fuel pump broke, which cost about $1000 parts and labor to repair.

I picked up my 1994 Aspire as an expired lease with 25,000 km in March, 1997. For 8 years I've been using it as a commuter car and recreation vehicle. It now has over 310,000 km and just keeps on going.

It doesn't have very much power, but it's mileage is terrific (35-40 miles/gallon) and I have never encountered a more reliable vehicle. It's been abused on rough roads and with infrequent tune-ups, yet I've had to do surprisingly little work on it.

It is comfortable with a deceptively large amount of interior space, especially with the back seat folded forward. I love taking it camping since it easily packs all my gear, plus my bike and canoe. An added bonus is that it's small size allows it to duck into places some trucks can't even reach.

Because not many of them are around, it can be hard to find used parts and Ford stock parts are expensive. Fortunately, little has gone wrong with it that requires more than a screwdriver, simple wrench set, WD-40, a Haynes manual and very (extremely) rudimentary mechanical ability to fix.