I have had this vehicle from new - and it is a company car, so has always been serviced on time, by the local main dealer. Also it has been driven with some care - not that that seems to of helped. In the 4 years I have owned it, I have covered 76k miles.

Good Points
+Reasonably good Equipment levels - though oddly ISOfix was a n/c option.

+Excellent Handling/ride balance for a small family estate car.

+Good Stereo - Sony Head unit is much better than the rather wooly CD6000

+Comfortable Seats in front

Bad Points
-Limited room in the rear seats. I'm over 6ft, and with the seat positioned so I can drive the car, there is about a 2" gap between the seat back and the rear seat. Also, it is impossible for me drive the car with the rear seats folded as you have to move the front seats forward.

-Lots of road noise especially on the motorway. The car came with Continental tyres, but I have also tried Dunlops, Pirelli and Michelin - all are more or less the same.

-Lots of engine noise (some of them do that sir)

-Very poor fuel economy for a small diesel car, more of this below, but I live in a rural area (no traffic) and rarely see above 40mpg day to day. My wifes C-Max, with the same engine and similar mileage always does 45+. On a long run it occasionally manages 54 - if I drive at 65mph or less. (some of them are like that sir)

Ownership Experience.... (dealer comments in brackets)

Car was delivered with the ISO fix mounts in a bag on the back seat - not fitted to the car. Needed 2 dealership visits to get them fitted (We have never done this before)

Car was 4 days old and handbrake failed whilst parked on a gently sloping drive - rolled into a wall. Witnesses confirmed it was properly applied. (3 visits to 2 dealers to repair)

Repeated issues with auto lights, wipers and rear view mirror. Never been fixed properly.

The car eats dipped headlight bulbs - they last about 2 months on average.

Failure of drivers seat back. Now, I'm not the lightest person in the world, but I can see my own feet :) interestingly the dealer knew the part numbers required without looking them up (We have replaced quite a lot of these sir)

Repeated failure of passenger rear door central locking - sometimes it locks sometimes it doesn't. (no fault found)

Repeated failure of instrument cluster - indicates a speed of 150mph, full tank of fuel, high temperature etc. all with the ignition off. Sometime simply "adds" a random amount to all the gauges. (no fault found - but we have seen that before)

Repeated episodes of very poor fuel consumption - less that 25mpg. (replaced fuel filter, air filter, reprogrammed ECU).
The last episode was accompanied by what felt like the clutch slipping on the motorway. in 1 month the car was in the dealers 4 times for this fault, each time I was told it was fixed. Eventually the clutch failed.
!!It took 2 WEEKS to get repaired even though the car was already booked for 2 days after it broke down.
Clutch pedal now higher than brake pedal, and still feels like it's slipping -went back to the dealers (no it seems fine, the pedal sometimes goes high because the spring "washer" that controls it flips over as it wears out - happens a lot....)

Paint peeling from both sills, just in front of the rear wheels. no evidence of stone chips to the adjacent section of the rear doors. (According to Ford and dealer this isn't warranty work as stone chip damage - not our problem) £300 per side to repair. However 5 other cars at my employer have exactly the same issue, I think it's either defective paint or poor design.

Paint bubbles on tailgate - reported to dealer before the paint cracked (Not our problem as over 12 months old). So the paint work warranty is only effective for 12 months apparently.

So overall a basically good car let down by endemic failings in the dealer network and Ford customer service. I'd stress this isn't limited to a single dealership. My wifes car happens to go to another local one, and they are equally poor, once trying to bring the car to her with smoke pouring from the rear wheels as the (electronic) handbrake had jammed on whilst they had it.

Phone calls to Ford Customer service are met with a complete lack of action -" Water in the rear lights on a 3 week old car - ooh, they are trim so not covered - good bye". As a result the dealers don't need to care.

Buy a Toyota - dull as ditch water, but in my experience when you have an issue the dealers try to help - which is all I ask really.

Just noticed that I can't select I would absolutely recommend that my friends never, ever, ever consider buying one of these below :)

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