I bought my car from an independant dealer for about £3500 which is not bad for the condition it was in, had fair mileage for its age just over 41,000 miles.
My car is 9 years old when i bought it, it was near enough mint condition only had to get a replaced battery as the car didnt start but was courtesy of the dealer.
It is an Automatic Gearbox, chose this as I prefer driving Auto and it was not bad considering that the car had 100BHP, I advise it is worth taking the extra 10BHP purely for driving pleasure rather than the standard 90BHP.
Now to discuss in a little bit more detail:
Safety: My Car came standard with 4 airbags two at the front and two just beside the front seats, I would personally vouch for the safety as quite safe as i had an accident 1 year after the purchase of my car, where it was slippery, I went into the back of another car as I was heading for a roundabout, my bonnet curled inwards and my front bumper and lights were smashed in, but the airbags didnt go off so as much as i thought it was a serious accident it was only a
minor.
Maintenance: The car Maintenance costs and repair costs was quite high even for a 1.6litre petrol once my Fuel Pump had a leak as petrol was seaping out of the car the repair cost was about £100 plus £80 labour, as its a lot of money for me as i am a student, cosmetic damage was about £550 including labour.
Fuel Consumption: Petrol Costs are much higher no thanks to the credit crunch that we all struggling from, but its not so bad if you dont thrash the car about and you are a sensible driver you can get about 3 days of petrol on £20 but even still petrol goes quite quickly. If I had the choice i would have opted for the diesel because its far more economical on the long run and its got an adequete boost of performance.
Comfort: The car for its age and comparing it with newer cars in the market is quite comfy, the seats are soft when you sit on them, and got right position, can adjust for height and recline back and forward also slide as standard.
Steering wheel can be adjusted for height but not reach a possible down point for some drivers. All round view is quite good unless the car is fully laden, but i advise the 306 is only meant to be a 4 seater even with 4 people its a squeaze especially for the rear passengers because the roof is quite low, you can have five people but at a very tight squeaze. My car whilst driving is comfortable for an auto just be cruising, but i do take it around corners a little fast which makes the rear of the car slide out a little bit, body roll is not a problem, but wind noise whilst at speeds may be an issue for some. My car has stiff suspension driving sensible is ok but it still takes in a lot of pot holes and bad road conditions, which is uncomfortable whilst driving.
Handling: Car handles fine, quick around corners with a little bit of rear body sliding out, not much body roll, PAS helps very much especially when parking, small car and also the 5doors helped out with passengers however its got a really poor turnin circle when doing turning on the road or in other words a 3 point turn its more like a 4-5 point turn.
Features: My car came standard with CD player, Air Conditoning, Power Assisted Steering (PAS) 4 airbags standard immobilisor and auto key entry.
Looks: The Car in my opinion looked really suave, had the right looks a little bit sexy but also had the looks of a boy racer. standard side skirts and front bumber with fog light looked really cool especially in moonlight blue.
Some Bad points of my car was that I had been having a few problems with the fuel pump as metioned before, and on top of that the gearbox started to jerk quite a lot, this started happening about when the car reached 52,000 miles.
When you turn the car fan on or the Air Con then there is a small squeeking or rattling noise, the windscreen rattles as if it feels like its going to fall or drop off, the rear windscreen wipers stopped working needed to take it to the garage for repairs but they said that the car was fine, minor electrical niggles such as CD player malfunctioned a few times, whilst driving the car cut of accelaration a few times, had some problem with the brakes as it felt like the cable was cut, needed a new Alternator after 2 weeks from purchase.
There are far too many problem that has been checked but cannot be resolved and is too expensive to repair everything, all in all my car had very good perfomance, comfortable at times, fun if you dont drive sensibly and has very good looks but because the car failed to do what I needed it to travel from A-B with no problems I dont recommend the 306 unless you go for the 307 which came into production after the 306 stopped.
Hope that helps.
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Advantages: Sporty looks, better drive than other Escorts, very comfortable seats Disadvantages: Performance not especially sporty, handling and steering not great
kah123 05.03.2006 (06.03.2006)
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Aug 7th, 2009
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