Oil leak at rocker cover gasket - dealer promised to fix, but when I later took it to a mechanic for a service they said it was still leaking so I had to pay to have it replaced again.
All filters had to be replaced because they were full of oil (because of leak).
Water gets into the boot if you open the boot too quickly when it has been raining.
Rust on boot lid above number plate.
Traction control kicks in when I need to pull out quickly onto a fast road, causing the wheels to spin (this is embarrassing and makes me look like I can't drive).
Doesn't like starting in the cold, tends to cough and splutter and spews massive amounts of blue smoke out of the exhaust for about 5 min after starting.
Battery light comes on if I have the heater, radio and headlights on in peak hour traffic.
Interior fogs up in rainy weather even if I have the heater/demisters on - end up having to use the aircon which of course uses more fuel.
Drivers seat not very comfortable - get a sore lower back and numb left leg if I'm in the car too long.
The car was 8 years old when I bought it and it was quite cheap so I don't expect it to be perfect - I don't think any of the above problems are really that serious, although it did cost me £260 to get the rocker cover gasket and all the filters replaced, and the engine degreased.
Quite a comfortable and easy car to drive, sore back notwithstanding.
Have owned a Ford previously and I find the interior columns significantly obstruct my vision - eg when making a sharp turn to the right, I can't see where I'm going because the right hand column completely covers up what I'm trying to look at.
Doesn't seem to have a lot of power - just about everyone beats me off the mark at traffic lights, but I didn't buy it for that reason. I wanted something comfortable, easy to drive and anonymous for exploring the UK and this seems to do the trick.
Haven't had any contact with Ford dealers and don't intend to - the thing isn't under warranty so I will just take it to the local mechanic. With one exception - I wasn't given a spare key when I bought it so will have to go to a dealer to get one coded for me - I understand this is very expensive so am waiting for my next pay cheque first!
UPDATE - 2 months down the line and it has developed an overheating problem. It overheats when going uphill but will drop back to normal temp when idling. Can't afford to fix it at the moment so have until recently been able to keep it under control by putting the heater on max and coasting down hills wherever possible to keep the running temp down.
Only problem with this is that now the power drain issue (previously battery light was flicking on sometimes when idling with a lot of elec stuff running) has become so severe that when I clutch in at the top of a hill to try to coast down and bring the temp needle back down from the top of the gauge, the engine runs out of power and dies. Have spent a lot of time recently at the side of the road with the hazards on either waiting for it to cool down or trying to start it back up again.
Have spoken to two mechanic friends about this. Neither have actually been able to look at it but one has suggested a stuck thermostat + dodgy alternator, and the other has suggested a slipping drive belt (as this apparently runs both the water pump and the alternator). Have to take it to a Ford dealer on Monday to get a 100 quid spare key coded for it so will see what they say.
Becoming less impressed with the car in general, however will see what happens if/when this issue is fixed. The trip computer also refused to display the range this morning even though I had just under 1/4 of a tank of fuel left, which is more than enough for it to be able to calculate the range.
Hmm.
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