Just finished putting the bike together this afternoon. My son and I went for a short 7 mile ride to test it out. So here are my thoughts:
Assembly was pretty much like any other bike I've put together. The back end was mostly assembled. I had to install the seat post, handlebars, front wheel and front brakes. I took my time and it took about 3.5 hours total. That included adding all my accessories.
The fenders were a bit finicky to get them set up so they wouldn't rub. For the rear I finally had to drop the wheel slighty in the dropout to get enough clearance, which I'll have to remember when repairing flats.
The front brakes took a bit of tweaking before they stopped squealing, but I got them to quiet down. The rears were quiet without any fiddling.
Both deraileurs were spot-on adjustment wise, which was a pleasant surprise. My wheels were true and all spokes were tight.
The pedals were junk, but the web site said it didn't come with pedals at all so I had already bought a decent pair. The pedals look like they could be used to allow people to test ride the bike in the store, but I wouldn't want to put any real miles on them.
By the way, the mystery screws are indeed for the fenders, where the support rods attach to the fender itself. There are little holes in the plastic brackets, but it looks like you have to drill the hole in the fender itself. Mine seem to stay in place just fine without them, so I'm not going to worry about it for the time being.
The Tektro brake levers seem to have a little slop in them, but nothing I can't bear to live with. Performance-wise, they work fine.
I truly hate the seat. That fat wide gel thing is terribly uncomfortable. The gel slides around when you ride which makes you feel like the seat is loose on the post. I'm going to be replacing that very quickly. Most bikes get their stock seat replaced so that's no big deal.
The Performance web site said that the bike came with Shimano deraileurs, but when the bike arrived it had SRAMs. I've never had a bike with SRAMs before. I'll be interested to see how I like them after I put some miles on them. The shifters are different from my other bikes (all four of my bikes have four different methods of shifting, LOL) so that will take some adjustment on my part before it becomes second nature.
As far as the ride quality, I was quite impressed. It was very smooth and quiet. The ride wasn't harsh at all which is surprising considering it has an aluminum frame and rigid aluminum fork. Bumps didn't seem much rougher than my front-suspended mountain bike.
So I bought the bike for $199 and had to pay $30 shipping. Add upgraded pedals, lights, a computer, bell, mirror, water bottle rack and a decent seat and I'll have a total of about $325 into it for a fully loaded commuter. I can't complain at all. I think this was a heck of a deal.