Bought this in a hurry after my Golf MkII was written off by a drunk driver. A mistake.
Had a catalogue of failures from major ones like a core plug on the engine corroding through at 2.5 years old through to losing wheel hub caps whenever it went over a bump.
Dealer service expensive and the 1.4CVH (Constant Vibration & Harshness) engine needed a new cambelt every 22500 miles.
Rubbing strips peeled off door, rust spots appeared under bonnet etc.
The CVH engine was supposed to be "lean burn" but it could not do more than 42mpg on a good day and mostly hovered around 40 even driving gently on the motorway.
Engine was very harsh, especially under acceleration and not very quiet.
Interior plastics wore badly and rapidly developed lots of scratches.
Handling was OK, but the car needed constant adjustment of the steering wheel to keep on track. Also unstable in side winds and easily pushed off line. Not a very relaxing car to drive.
On the plus side, it was reasonably fast in a straight line, but that's the only good point I can think of.
Car had no personality and I was glad to get rid of it after 18 months as soon as I could afford something better.
I cannot believe you are complaining about 40-42 mpg in day to day use. That's not far off diesel territory!! I think you'd struggle to find a similarly sized petrol car today that could get near it.
Don't get me wrong, the 1.4 CVH (liked your acronym by the way) is a gutless dog of an engine, and the Escort is hardly the stuff of fantasy, but buying a car you clearly don't like and the complaining endlessly about it on a website seems a bit pointless. You should have bought another Golf if that's what floats your boat. Personally, I find the lower spec Golfs about as interesting as collecting train numbers, but each to their own.
Why do you talk about the car having no personality? It's a Ford FFS. Each car has it's own.
Cambelt changes are required on this engine every 36k, not 22.5k. It sounds like you ought to try another garage when it comes to servicing.
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