Zetec 1.8 5dr Hatchback

Nice to drive, but poorly made and fragile

Owned this car for nearly two years, and whilst it was good fun to drive it had several flaws and was very cheaply and poorly made.

Pros:
- Good handling (though not great, as all reviewers seem to suggest)
- Low geared so punchy to drive
- Spacious in the front with a good sized and usable boot
- Comfortable ride
- Low cost for replacement tyres
- Cheap to buy for the amount of car I got

Cons:
- Manual rear windows, in a family hatchback, in this day and age? Really? There's cost saving, but this felt like serious penny-pinching from Ford
- Atrocious fuel economy at average of 26mpg
- Dealer lied throughout the purchase process, culminating with the bombshell that the car wasn't actually Ford Direct as sold on the day we went to pick it up
- Low gearing and five gears means a loud motorway cruise and poor fuel economy
- Very basic and plasticity dash, with flimsy switches and failing switchgear (light dipping dial would move itself to 4 and you'd have to grope around to fix it on a dark country road)
- Felt built to a price, and wore like it had done ten times the mileage it had
- Expensive servicing
- Suffered a cutting out fault at 20k miles that would almost stall the car intermittently. This was the last straw and led to getting rid of it

Would not recommend the car, but more than that would steer clear of Ford as a whole after a terrible experience with the dealer. Lies, pressure and bait and switch tactics for a substandard product. Awful.

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