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We wouldn’t normally get too excited about a Ford Festiva, but when there’s a whole hoard of anything, we take notice. The seller states that they have eight of these little guys and a huge stash of parts that goes with them. They are moving and they can’t take everything with them so this could be your chance to score a couple of cheap commuters and enough sparess to keep them running for decades! They are located in White Plains, Maryland and are listed here on craigslist. Thanks goes to Pat L for the tip!
Does anyone else remember the Top Gear episode where they play Car Football? You can watch it here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIeu7_-iwdw
So, anyone up for starting America’s first Car Soccer Championship Series?
Top gear is always amusing. That video makes me want to buy these and start a football team.
Just don’t confuse the Festiva with the european Fiesta. The Festiva was built by KIA before their quality improved.
Good point. I had already made that mistake.
Started off as the Mazda 121. Fine machines…
I sold these in the late 80s. At the price they were ok cars and you could average 40 mpg at 80 mph on the highway. With the alloy wheels they weren’t even horrible looking.
Wasn’t it a badge engineered version of the Mazda 121? Could be wrong but if so I apologise
So, no one really wants to comment on these right…I counted six… Don’t blame ya.
These cars remind me of the banjo joke.
A seat for every …
Ice racers could use these, cheap cars with plenty of spares.
First thing that came to my mind!
Or LeMons/Chump racing?
Our Southern friends probably wouldn’t even consider ice racing, no fault of theirs, they just live in the wrong part of North America! Give me 4 seasons!
Strangely compelling.
Clearly, none of you have ever owned a Festiva.
Seems kind of pricey to me.
These are horrible cars, but if they’re runners and a person had some property they could cut a track with the tractor, and have a hell of a good time racing their friends, before having a demolition derby and pretty much getting all their money back for scrap.
I guess you never owned one. They can go to 4-500k miles with normal maintenance. They’re a Mazda underneath the Ford badges.
It’s actually a Kia, but they were good commuters. I drove one 1,000 miles per week for years. More room inside than you would think.
A friend had one of these and one weekend we put in a Japanese pull out engine.
I doubt the engine was a Kia engine.
Originally designed and built by Mazda as the 121, then US Festivas from ’88-on were built by Kia under license still using the Mazda powertrains, so at worst the Kia versions may only have been somewhat less well screwed together.
These Ford Festivas were based on the Mazda 121 and were built by Kia using a Mazda 1.3 liter four-banger. These were decent little economy commuter cars that got great gas mileage.
Oh the motors are great. The cars are crap.
Suddenly, I’m craving Skittles…
Ha!
I love these cars they running forever easy for me to work on aND I am. Female with alittle experience. 41 miles to the gallon. That’s right let me say it again 41 miles to the gallon. Great for trips.
“Collect the whole set!”.
These are really great cars, I’ve had a few. These are some of the best handling cars ever made once you add a set of $700 buck coilovers, 13 or 14″ wheels/tires, and do a more aggressive alignment. I got rid of my Miata because these handle far better and are a lot more fun to drive, and they’re surprisingly quicker around a road course or an autocross track than a stock or mildly modified miata. I watched a friend of mine in his 180hp Festiva outrun a GT350R at INDE Motorsport Ranch back in February by 2-3 seconds per lap.
Lightness helps, a lot!
You know, everyone is making fun of these. But suspension upgrades are cheap. Look what I found. You may have some of these springs at home and don’t know it. Stainless steel too!!!
:-)
I think they would be killer after you turn them in to shoguns….and then have lots of fun..
$1000 too much.
lmfao!!! 😂😂😂
right on!!!
Somehow an inappropriate art project comes to mind, I’ll have to give it some thought.
Finally, Festivas for the rest of us. ( crickets chirping) It’s easy to collect cars that nobody wants.
Dan in tx please tell us the joke.
Josh, love the idea. And the thought provoking ideas it brings to mind.
If I lived in the area I would consider getting some buddies together and doing a demo derby for charity . They are headed to the cruncher anyway.
Last thought, people need cheap transport, perhaps get 3on the road and donate to your local homeless shelter. I vounteer at my local homeless shelter, these people, many of them are vets, or just someone who needs a car to help them escape poverty.
Then take the last couple and raffle off to local politicians to do a demolition derby for charity.
This might actually be their best use.
Anyway barnfinds please update us on their ultimate demise.
It is a bad idea to donate an item that creates a huge financial burden to the person accepting the donation.
I have to come to the defense of the Festiva! My first new car was a Fiesta, an ’80 model. Well, in the mid and late 90s I was looking for cheap transportation. I always liked lightweight minimalist cars. By then Fiestas were scarce. Festivas weren’t much to look at, but the magazines gave them OK reviews. I asked a Ford mechanic what they were like and he said “I don’t know, none of them ever come back”. There was a local courier service that had a fleet of them and I heard they put 400k miles on some of them! Well, I took a chance and bought one that was 4 or 5 years old with 60k plus miles. It was one of the best cars I ever had! Eventually I owned 3 of them and they all made 300k miles with no major issues! Oil, gas, brakes, tires, and not much more!..I’d get brake pads for $15, new tires for $20, and 40 mpg. I remember one had A/C which didn’t work. It came with R-12 which you couldn’t get anymore. I went and bought a 134 kit for $20, vented out what R-12 was left (oh, the horrors!) and put that 134 in. I’d been reading you needed a new compressor, evaporator, drier, etc, the stuff wasn’t compatible. I figured Freon was Freon, what did I have to lose?The kit had new oil and the new Freon, in it went. I tried it and was disappointed to find I got warm air only..oh well. But the next day I tried it and it was OK! Cold A/C! It wasn’t like Lincoln A/C but it worked and what do you expect for 1300 cc? They were fun to drive, not sports cars but I think they were 1700 or 1800 lbs and had fuel injection that Fiestas lacked. And 5 speeds! They had that lightweight feel, decent steering and okay handlingThey were simple and easy to work on, and you didn’t have to work on them much. Weren’t much for sex appeal but I passed many a Porsche and Corvette driven by chumps! They were a Mazda design built by Kia and sold by Ford. One interesting thing was the bellhousing pattern was the same as a 323 and a Miata. So you could put in a 323 motor and get a decent boost, or a 323 Turbo motor and about double the HP! I think a Miata twincam would fit, too. I thought about it but that was it. One thing about those cars was the sheet metal must have been a gauge or two thinner than most..even when you would find a nice well kept Festiva, the body sides were wavy from door dents. And surprisingly, I found the cops liked to give me a hassle in them, I got a lot of speeding tickets. More than in my Taurus SHO or my Shelby CSX….go figure. When I moved to Cali I went across the country over 2500 miles on $200 in gas and no problems. I imagine an automatic would be no fun. And it’s successor, the Aspire, although similar mechanically, was just butt ugly and unappealing. And no fun. I don’t know about all early Kia’s, but my Festivas were good little cars. By the way, a coworker bought one of the first Hyundai’s to be sold here, an Excel, I think. A price of $3995 rings a bell. Anyway, it was a POS! Problem after problem. Now Kia and Hyundai are desirable brands.
Funny you say that about the Excel, I had a Mitsubishi Precis, same as the Excel, and it was a good car, until a deer jumped out in front of me, and the front folded like aluminum foil. I shudder to think if that would have been a Mack truck.
Now the Kia, bad results there. My ex-gf bought a Sorrento, brand new, it spun a rod bearing at 16,000 miles, Kia fixed it,($6,800 bucks) but had lots of problems, and without question, the most uncomfortable seats I’ve ever sat in.
If it had been a Mack truck, it wouldn’t have mattered what you were driving… The early Excels had a habit of blowing head gaskets around 60K.
Kia and Hyundai are throw away cars, and never heard the word “desirable” used in the same sentence with those two.
Kia and Hyundai were throw away cars. That is no longer the case.
In 1991, you could by one for $7000 ( Canadian ) a base Model whitout the radio. My mother had one for 9 years.
I sold them in 1988 in the US. Dealer profit was $264 or something like that. A customer came in and what to haggle on price. I told him I could take off $14 and he wanted something like $300 or $400 off. I then asked him ‘Will you allow me to make $300 profit on the car?’ He said that would be fine. So I marked the car up $36. He got the idea. I did knock off the $14 for him though!
When these came out they were the only Ford branded cars which Consumer Reports recommended due to Fords(at the time) poor build quality. They sure were basic & in Canada they were only available with Armstrong steering. Wife wanted power so we didn’t buy.
You have to remember that at the time this car was being sold by Ford, the car companies thought people wanted a tiny engine commuter car.
Most people did not.
The Chevy Sprint was another car that even though it was a good car, it didn’t sell much.
I remember being at the Riverside Auto Auction and buying one of these. We knew they sold fast as they were extremely cheap on the used market.
We got a call that my friends sister was in the hospital having her baby so we drove that little Festiva as fast as it would go back to Vegas. I was really surprised with the speed it could maintain with no problem.
Nothing stands out as a negative on this car like some others, like the Cavaliers that always had bad rack and pinions.
Perfect for the annual 4th of July car launch in Glacier View Alaska……..if you’ve never seen it look it up on youtube…some of the best free entertainment after a hard day at the office.
Don’t fool yourself. Korea still builds throw away cars. Everyday that I commute to work in Toronto I will see plenty of 15-20 year old Corollas and Civics. How many Hyundai and Kias of that vintage do I see? Zero.
You start off by saying still, which is present tense then you finish by saying you don’t see old Hyundai’s on the road.
The company believes in their cars enough to offer a long warranty.
Other companies don’t have that same belief in their cars.
Sorry but you’ve got it backwards. Companies with poor reputations for quality have to compensate with longer warranties. That’s been the case since Chrysler in the early 80’s
Kia and Hyundai were among the first to offer 10 year/100K guarantees because of the poor quality of their first offerings in the US. By the time they started doing that, the quality was much better. As for old Toyotas and Hondas, they sold millions more cars to begin with.
Because Hyundais and Kias only started getting good in the last few years, whereas 15-20 years ago they were still disposable crap, and they didn’t sell nearly as many of them vs. those Corollas and Civics anyway.
Mazdas have the best warranty esp.if you drive alot yearly like I do! Idid 160k km. in 2 yrs.Mazda veh. built after Aug.12/15 are entitled to their 3 yrs. unlimited km.new vehicle warranty same goes for roadside assistance for same duration in Canada they get 5yrs.unlimited km.powertrain,7yrs.rust thru perforation; you have to buy extended warranty @time of purchase to dip into down the rd.should anything bad happen!Mitsubishi overall has the best new car warranty & now this is their 3rd time offering their 10-10-10 warranty which basically extends the new car warranty/roadside assistance to match their powertrain’s 10 yrs. Toyota, Honda, Nissan & the rest doesn’t believe they nd. such a long warranty b/c they feel their veh. naturally last that long or they don’t think you will drive them for that long & besides they want to sell you a veh. more often. This does ring more true for some of the makes from all 3 continents! My ’15 Honda fit currently has 185k kms on it,my ’12 Mazda3 sport SkyActive man. had160-180 on the clock.
There are still plenty of ’04 – ’05 Sonatas here in the south. They were popular, I think, because they looked like a baby Jaguar. I drove an ’05 as a rental back when they were new. It was the top end model with leather, sunroof, all the power goodies and it had a V6. It was very impressive. It sure changed my opinion of the Hyundai brand.
Is this the same guy that had a huge collection of K cars awhile back?
Apparently the owner finally came to his senses. Decided to get rid of em!
It would be interesting to see the car carrier loaded with all of these going to their new home. I imagine it would cause a few double-takes. I know I would snap a photo if I saw it, knowing someone paid way more for shipping than for the entire lot.
To all the nay-sayers. They were a good car built by a company learning the ropes, sold by a company unsure of how to properly market it to people who were beginning the minivan /SUV craze. I have had quite a few of them, but not for long. Standard practice was to install a Miata 1.6, an f type trans. Easy, just have to saw the plenum off the runners and flip it. A small amount of grinding and weld it back on. Or modify an escort tube type intake on the Miata flange. Cut and reweld the factory header to fit. Bolt on performance parts if you want. The wiring is remarkably easy too. You go from 70 to 116+ HP. Fuel economy is better with this set up too. Kyb struts, you can get poly bushings from OZ. 13 inch wheels, better seats, brake pads and you now have a go cart. Done properly, they were an easy sell. Wish I kept one. Anyway, I hope people realize the potential and build something fun. With that many you could re-start the mini craze from the 60’s….
I’ll add to the positive comments on the Festiva. My GF (now wife) drove a maroon 88 when I met her. I think that was the last year for carbureted examples and that car ran great. The big drawbacks were 1) the 4-speed trans and 2) lack of a RH sideview mirror. IIRC the only way you could a 5-speed and the RH mirror was to buy the top level LX trim version. They sure were cheap to operate and needed only fuel and basic maintenance. Wouldn’t want to get in a serious crash with one though. We sold the Festiva mainly because the wife was commuting on the PA Turnpike and the engine just screamed without a 5th gear.
I had a Chevrolet Sprint was really a Suzuki with a 3 cylinder engine drove it from Lafayette,La. to Aurora,Co. and it averaged over 50 miles per gallon with an automatic and AC wish I still had it.
great city cars period.
Only one runs and drives. That one alone is $500. The package deal is now at $700.
Get them all running (if possible) and have your own backyard single marque racing series.
I also sold Subaru Justy’s back then – CVT transmission! Driving wise, the Festiva was a much better car to drive. Of course, that is like saying ‘small rats are better than big rats’ but the Festiva was better.
There was at least some styling to the Festiva and the LX came with the aluminum wheels, AC, Stereo AND cassette player, and upgraded seats.
My question is – this guy will now only pay us $700 to take them? I wasn’t willing to take them at $800 – he needs to go up, not down.
:-)
Now down to $400 & as the Craigslist And says that’s less than $25 a vehicle surely someone who has a bit of ground & a small barn or larger garage could make a decent profit by parting them out?
I guess that math is not his strong suit. $66.67 each. Although at this point he may take the $25 each for $150.
No tittles though. Hmmm… Tittle: definition “a tiny amount or part of something.” Fitting I guess.
Did anyone look at the one speedometer picture in the add showing 624,000 miles.