Faults:

It is possible to park the car in any other gear other than reverse and then start it without a key.

Had a bad exhaust leak.

Heater core was bad causing severe loss of coolant.

Brakes got rusty surprisingly quick.

Windscreen wipers don't work.

Rear hatchback door struts gave out causing a broken finger.

Eats a lot of oil.

Tape player does'nt work.

General Comments:

Well, to start with, I think that most of these problems are from normal wear and tear plus the last owners negligence.

This car is my second car after my Ford Festiva died and I think it is a reasonably good car.

It has a very peppy throttle and it runs like a champ.

It will easily hit 110 mph.

The steering is just plain awesome, it will turn on a dime and has that 'rally car' feel. It was a big step up from a Ford Festiva.

The cabin is surpisingly comfortable especially on a long commute to work. The bucket seats just make it feel like you are in a lazy-boy with a 5-speed.

However, it does require a good bit of maintainence and seems to have a new problem every week (but nothing major).

Thankfully the engine is built like a Scandinavian rock and has stood up to a long life while still providing great service. All of the other things

(such as the windscreen wipers not working) are just a minor inconvenience as long as I don't get caught in a rain shower!

One of the best things about this car is that with the 2.3 litre NON-turbo is that is gets fairly good gas mileage.

Another bad thing about a foreign car is that the parts are not cheap at all! So I find myself "cutting corners" a lot with it.

Oh, and the dealers? Forget about it! They usually refuse service to my car (as old as it is) and then carry about trying to get me (a 22 year old gas station employee, going to college) to buy the brand new, fully loaded 9-2X!

Well I don't care how old it is... I STILL LOVE IT!

Faults:

Hand break, not working to well, other than that nothing.

General Comments:

This car is very comfortable, leather seats are nice and still in good condition for a 14 year old car. Also happy with the interior as all the gadgets work except air con but not sure why it may need refilling. This car is good for motorway cruising its smooth and not bad fuel economy and it feels very safe and stable probably quite a heavy car. Since I had the car I have used it most days and on long journeys London to Frankfurt. When driving you just don't realize how far you have driven. I have serviced the car my self when I first bought it and have only needed to top up the coolant so far.