Zetec 1.6 105 5dr

Good car spoiled by reliability issues

Practical, well built and equipped car that drives superbly, however a couple of reliability issues have tainted our experience with it.
Had a misfire from soon after I bought it, resulting in flat spots on full throttle, occasional backfires and a rough idle with occasional stalling. Several replacements of plugs, leads and a coil pack cured the acceleration issues but not the idle and stalling.
Then the major issue - the electric power steering failed (internet searches revealed this to be a recurring issue with a number of Ford models of this vintage). Luckily it happened on starting the car, as a failure when driving would be very dangerous.
Apparently this happens due to sensor issues on the steering rack, the sensors cannot be replaced, so the entire steering rack had to be replaced at a cost of around £1400.
For a 7 year old car with 60K miles I expect to pay for reasonable wear and tear maintenance, but for a major and safety critical component to fail and at this price just isn't acceptable. As a result I've lost confidence in the car's reliability.

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