Faults:

Nothing so far, but it does have a full service history from new, so little surprise there.

General Comments:

This car is the best I have ever driven or owned.

I've owned a fiesta, golf, cinquecento,306 and two corsas and none of these compare.

The car is very very quick for a 1600 engine and does take some getting used to, but once your comfortable it's a dream to drive.

Faults:

Radiator and alternator went almost simultaneously, at 60000 miles, though as they were original parts I felt they had given reasonable service life.

Brake discs (front) keep warping.

Oil cooler pipes needed replacing.

A pair of steel coolant pipes had also corroded badly and had to be replace.

New water pump.

General Comments:

Despite its age the car has been very reliable and only let me down on the road once (radiator fractured). Some of the parts are very costly, particularly Toyota originals, and pattern parts can be hard to find. Performance is eager, especially when revved, and economy excellent (35-40 mpg). Handling very good as you would expect, though correct wheel alignment is crucial if the car is to handle properly. My advice would be to get the best car possible, even if it means spending a bit more as costs can quickly mount up.

Faults:

While driving down the road one day, a loud screech arose from the engine. The first thing that crossed my mind was that it came from the alternator. The second thing to cross my mind was that the bearing froze up and that the screech was the belt slipping against the pulley. After some investigation, I found that the bottom alternator bolt had vibrated loose, a simple $1.25 nut-and-bolt replacement.

While driving on another day, all of the sudden I hear this whining sound. It sounded like a flat tire rubbing the inner wheel well. It turns out that only one of the two upper engine mount bolts had a nut on it. All this pressure on a single bolt caused it to snap and my engine dropped about 5-7 inches down. It's fall was broken by my transmission mount and drive axles. The whine I heard was the A/C compressor pulley rubbing the bottom plastic engine cover.

Both of these problems occurred do to improper care taken during a previous engine swap.

General Comments:

This car is seriously quick and handles like it's on rails. I took that line from the survey example, but in my case it applies. The car's mid-engine layout and suspension design by Lotus give the car a "glued" feeling. Flat road? Reverse bank? No problem!

And as far as being seriously quick, its 1.6 liter with dual cams and 16 valves produces a healthy 120 horsepower that pushes me to 60 in about 8.5 seconds. Not bad for a 16 year old 4 banger. I'm sure the engine swap has something to do with it, especially since the stock block was swapped with a newer model. But with the new engine, my specs are still stock. A real Honda eater...