Originally Posted by
Davemurphy007
The 1.6 is a gutless engine so you're not going to get rocket-ship performance at motorway speeds. Keep the oil regularly changed and don't thrash it - the piston rings tend to disintegrate on these at 100k-plus miles if they are not looked after and the engines can't be (aren't designed to be) rebuilt.
If it's a 5-door model then check the bottoms of the rear doors and the rear arches, they seem to be more prone to rust on the 5-door models. The rear trailing arm bushes will need doing soon as well.
I'd forgotten about the piston ring issue, thought mine had a problem with this as the oil consumption was quite high. Apparently they also suffer from gummed up oil control rings? A good clear out seemed to sort this and its been fine for years now.
I never expected the car to go on so well for so long, if fact I am intrigued as to how many miles it will do?