Short dipsticks are quite common these days.

Haven't seen any rusty Hyundai/Kias for a while. After the "new gen" models from about 2008 on came out seem to be a lot better.

Seen loads of all ages with dodgy clutches. I10, i20, i30 and i40. Often a bite point right on the floor with the smaller cars but also juddering ones and prematurely worn ones. Also seen a few failed gearboxes.

Usually decent cars otherwise and in most cases surprisingly positive to drive.

Having now had the car for 16 months I thought I’d do a quick update.

Clutch judder! Like “Fiesta owner”,mine also suffered with clutch judder which started a couple of months after I got it and gradually got worse. Sometimes it was violent and always intermittent, so I booked it in to the main dealer ( in Bletchley Milton Keynes) for it to be looked at, explaining about it being intermittent, but also that it would occur if they gave it a longish drive.

Unfortunately after having it for a day they said it couldn’t be reproduced, so I insisted they kept it and tried again, but was called again at the end of the second day to be told they still couldn’t find anything wrong with it. On collecting I got about a mile up the road and while stuck in traffic it started juddering!

I was thoroughly peed off with this by now and decided I would wait until it was so bad the fault couldn’t be denied. Another couple of months passed and I booked it in again with clear written instructions of how the ( now violent) judder could be reproduced. Thankfully this time the technician agreed and it was booked in and had the flywheel and clutch replaced as apparently there is a tech service bulletin about this well known problem!

So the car now drives fine and I still quite like it. As mentioned previously the seats are excellent and the car is a surprisingly good motorway cruiser, in fact much better than it is around town as I dislike the over firm suspension.

I have seriously considered selling as my whole ownership experience (of an otherwise good car) has been soured by the bad clutch and a particularly bad garage experience, but I’m not sure what I’d replace it with.

So that’s how it is at this time, and I will update if I’ve still got it, or if I get another problem it’ll be sold.

I think s lot of cars suffer from juddering on first start of the day, possibly from condensation sitting on the clutch/ flywheel overnight. This juddering however was nothing like only first start up and was so violent at times that it made me worry about the exhaust breaking or an engine mount failing.