I used to own one. It's a kind of fun car, but it has some clutch issues. I would grill the guy on whether he replaced it or not, and if so which unit it was replaced with. Last August saw a redesigned flywheel, pressure plate, and clutch disc that supposedly solves this problem once and for all. And of course, parts are largely only available thorugh your friendly Ford dealer, and being that it's an SVT...they are priced accordingly.
Other than that...the strong points are that like any hatchback, it can swallow a lot of crap with the seats down, handles great, and if you're easy on it, you can get decent mileage on the highway (consistently got 33+mpg highway, one tank even over 36). In-town mileage is middling, but with the 6-speed it's easy to keep your revs down and do some gramma driving to mitigate this.
Other than that...the strong points are that like any hatchback, it can swallow a lot of crap with the seats down, handles great, and if you're easy on it, you can get decent mileage on the highway (consistently got 33+mpg highway, one tank even over 36). In-town mileage is middling, but with the 6-speed it's easy to keep your revs down and do some gramma driving to mitigate this.