1990 Ford Fiesta Bonus review from UK and Ireland

The clutch started slipping after collecting the car- the garage had said that this had been replaced just before sale.

The clutch went because the crankshaft rear oil seal was badly leaking and had covered the new clutch in oil.

On top of this the engine was using a litre of oil every 100 miles and the back pressure due to worn bores had caused the oil seal to fail.

The garage said that the oil consumption was caused by the leaking seal and replaced the clutch again and the seal.

We replaced this worn engine with a second hand one through a mail order parts supplier. This was meant to be from a one owner 40,000 mile car - it only used a litre of oil only every 400 miles this time, but the big-end bearings were knocking and this was eventually replaced with a reconditioned engine (which we should have done in the first place!)

As well as the above, the following all gave problems or failed during our year's ownership. Some of these are due to age and not really the fault of the car, but added together they summarise a year of motoring misery.

Tailgate lock jammed - barrel was replaced.

Corroded fuse box connections caused several electrical problems.

Seized from brake calliper.

Both rear shock absorbers failed.

Both from suspension arms replaced due to ball-joint wear.

All three engine mounts perished and were replaced.

Clutch cable self-adjuster failed.

Indicator light switch only worked sometimes.

Temperature gauge replaced.

Battery failed and was replaced.

Starter motor failed and was replaced.

Rear wiper only worked sometimes.

Rear brake cylinders, shoes and handbrake cable replaced.

Added to this was the serious amount of corrosion that began during our ownership. The car appeared rust free upon purchase, but rust began in earnest in the front valence, rear valence and worst of all around the fuel filler cap - no matter how many times I rubbed this down and treated the rust it was always bubbling up again within days.

The inner and outer sills were welded for the Mot test.

We bought a Fiesta after favourable reports from friends. We had also had owned Fords in the past which had proved to be cheap and reliable to run. While the parts for our Fiesta were cheap enough, the problem was that we needed so many of them!

The car was never thrashed while we owned it, came with a full service history and was washed and cared for on a weekly basis, but I don't think that there was a single period of time when there was nothing wrong with it.

I should have noticed the worn engine when we bought it, but everything else went wrong after and it even came with a new MoT.

There is a lesson to be learnt here.

We fell into the trap of thinking that as we have just spent a lot on fixing one thing on the car, when the next thing went wrong we should pay out again to have the second thing fixed - you then end up in a vicious circle whereby when the third thing goes wrong you think that you have just spent out two lots of money and must fix the third thing. This went on for the entire ownership.

We should have just cut our losses (which we did in the end) and run like hell and the irony is that the car will probably have given its new owner superb service as there was nothing left to go wrong!

We ended up selling the car for what it had cost us to purchase the reconditioned engine alone.

And finally whoever is responsible for training the people on the parts desk in Ford dealers, should look up 'customer service' in the dictionary!

We now have a pair of very reliable Nissans, both of which we are delighted with.