I've got a 1.4 lounge. Mine was one of the very early customer order cars in the UK. I'm told it was from the second batch to arrive in the UK after the press fleet and dealer demonstrators.
I've done almost 90k miles in it over almost 5 years. I am not shy in thrashing her hard. Some items that have been replaced:
- Bearings I've done five times on the front, once on the rear. They're consumable if you're using one of these on track days.
- Hub flanges I've done half a dozen times. A lot of swapping wheels and track abuse will be the thing that gets you in trouble here if you're not using a torque wrench. Most shops use airguns and the result is overtorqued bolts that mash the threads.
- Service items are about normal. I work to a 10k cambelt and general plugs/oil/filter schedule are done about the same with oil changes before each track day
- Shocks were dead to the world after about 80k but what really finished them off was 30 flat out laps of the Nurburgring. And I had a set of cheap and nasty lowering springs on her from day 3 so it was never factory levels of spec or use.
- Exhaust manifold I've done once. This I'd have expected to last longer but I had the undertray off the car last winter and the salt and muck caused the lambda sensor boss to pop out and rust went through in several other spots
- Filters, I use a cone filter and induction kit and have changed the filter about 4 times.
- Brakes pads I've lost count of the types and times I've changed. So much so that swapping front pads is now down to about 15 mins works
- Standard discs front are rubbish and die quickly with spirited driving. EBC turbo groove last much longer
- Rear braking last much much longer and typically the slider in the caliper is what starts to grind from road muck long before you're worried about pads/discs
- Steering wheel leather is terrible. Easily the worst thing by far on the car. I pulled mine and had it covered in Alcantara, there's a thread on here somewhere about it.
- General wear and tear on the interior is not a problem. 306maxi took mine for a thrash the other day and commented how 'new' it felt on the inside after all that time and abuse
- Leather gets a bit creasy and wrinkly after a while, many have had good results with the leather cleaners/conditioners. I just live with it.
- Clutch I've done once. In all honesty it would have lasted another 50k miles but the release bearing was knackered. It literally disintegrated in my hand when removed
- Engine mounts are about to be changed on mine, she's getting a bit floppy there
- Exhausts are terrible. I mean absolutely terrible. Borderline unacceptable in a new car. I replaced mine with a custom bent stainless one. Much better but a tad heavier.
- Hydraulic seals on clutch master or slave (can't remember which) went on mine on day 3 of ownership. It's the only real factory fault I've had. Apparently a bad batch and it was replaced in a day all ready for me.
- The glass roof roller blind is crap, really crap and no amount of fiddling or dealer intervention will fix it. You learn to live with it.
- The undertray attachment screws are a steaming pile of ****e. Remove them, drill them out, use rivnuts and stainless steel screw and your servicing life is a much nicer place to be.
- Top mounts on the front suspension tend to go reasonably quickly. I've done mine about 4 times now. Mind you that's with a lot of track abuse and country lanes thrashing.
- Drop links, what a joke. I've given up counting the number of times I've done them. I recently replaced them with a set of rose jointed ones on a turnbuckle I put together myself (there's a thread on here somewhere if you're interested). That cost me about 3 times the cost of a set of droplinks but they'll last much, much longer.
- Tyres, at £35 a pop I consider these consumable and don't complain too much when I shred a set of fronts on a track day
- The boot cable/microswitch. After a while you get bored of spraying it with switch cleaner and just use the keyfob to open the boot.
- The dash vents slider is quite fragile. I slide one of mine quickly once and it popped out of the ball joint thing that moves the vains. Most annoying and a fiddle to get popped back in.
- Floor rubber on drivers side. Worse than a joke. Expect total separation from the carpet at around 30k miles
- Blue&Me is sometimes confused if you stick a questionable USB key into it. Pull the battery cable, wait 15 mins and you're all good again. Electrics have given me no grief really but then I have an S1 Elise so the bar is admittedly low in my head
- The front wipers are a joke. Go straight from the dealer and buy a bosch one. Throw the factory one away.
- Front supension arms. Done these once at an eye watering £265 each I was unimpressed. They've since dropped to £50 a side. Note to self, cars are not designed to fly nor are they keen on abrupt landings. Take special note of this at the Nurburgring.
- Rubber on the pedals tends to go at about 50k. Easy fix.
If you're worried about a specific aspect of the car post here and I'll let you know if I've run into it.