The rubber seals that run along the sills are superb water traps, they pop off and on easily and hide loads if rust. I removed mine altogether as apart from rusting the car they do nothing else.
The rubber boot between the steering rack and body where the column goes through has a design flaw which gathers road grit very effectively and then grinds the rack seal causing it to fail, you can check this by prising back the floor seal in the drivers footwell. It is a long job to replace the rack which I had to do twice as the faulty replacement exploded at the MOT Center. I used setting sealant around the boot which should have been done at the factory. The mounts for the electric steering pump are rubbish and shear plus are quite difficult to reach.
Handbrake cable is mental, 4-5 separate cables pita total faff to maintain.
If one wheel bearing is failing they all fail within a few thousand miles, suppose that's consistent quality but...
Engine subframe is prone to rusting through as it was not painted very well, as is the bottom of the front wings. The rest of the car is not too bad and inside the sills and box sections have been very well factory under sealed. Rear wiper arm always seems to corrode at the spline, splits and then falls off.
I'd also say the fat windscreen pillars are really dangerous as they produce huge blind spots at corners and roundabouts, hide bikes, cars and unlucky pedestrians...
Ours is at 120k and is a 2001 1.6 petrol manual, more than fast enough and good on fuel, has a lot of body roll. Was the wife's car for a few years and then got her a cmax 2.0 Tdi which is vastly better. I bought it for just £150 as the owner could not afford the garage quote to replace the rack, going to be selling it for a grand in a few weeks time
Quite spacious car especially for the overall length and big windows, seats in boot are only comfy for small people and sort journeys as they are quite hard and tricky to get to.
Not a bad car but better types out there
Oh and the ghastly rubber seals that live just at the bottom of the windscreen pillar and the top of the front wings, pull them out and bin them, they soak up water like a sponge and go green with mould, again don't actually do anything constructive but try to rot the car
[Edited on 29/7/13 by Mr Whippy]