Sorry, Continental folks, this isn't your strong point.  Italian cars, British cars, German cars, Swedish cars ... clutch hydraulics always seem to be a problem.  

Symptoms: Clutch pedal stays on the floor; "spongy" clutch pedal feel, particularly at top of travel; chronic, excessive grinding when trying to engage first gear (pre-94 owners: get into the habit of bumping second gear before trying to engage first or reverse gears; otherwise, you will get a lot of grinding on a healthy car).

Preventive maintenance:  Change the hydraulic fluid every two years, like the manual tells you to do.  Use the specified fluid.  DOT 4; you don't even have to worry about who makes it, just use DOT 4.  Read the label.  Apparently, the spring tends to break in the master cylinder ... no preventive maintenance for that.

NOTE: If you do it yourself, you'll have to have a pressure bleed setup before you can bleed the clutch.  See the "Bleeding the clutch" link on the Repairs page.